Fry

[coyemuse]

How fast do sword tail fry grow? I have one that has been in the tank (Its the same one I've had for at least 2 weeks) but Ive seen very little size change....

 

[OldMan47]

It is not very noticeable but that fry should be about an inch long in 6 weeks if you feed it regularly in small amounts and change water frequently. This assumes it has plenty of space to exercise and grow. A 5 gallon tank is plenty big enough or that.

 

[coyemuse]

The fry is in a breeder box in the main tank cause I dont have a heat source for my little tank

 

[OldMan47]

Water cleanliness will be much more challenging in a breeder net because food tends to accumulate on the bottom of the net. If you remove it daily using a piece of air hose as a siphon, it will help out quite a bit. Tank water changes are still essential for the fry to grow well too.

 

[coyemuse]

Water cleanliness will be much more challenging in a breeder net because food tends to accumulate on the bottom of the net. If you remove it daily using a piece of air hose as a siphon, it will help out quite a bit. Tank water changes are still essential for the fry to grow well too.

s/he is a little over 1/4 inch... its the only one I have left... last week I counted 14, but i found a few bodies... and I think the mama or other mamas in the tank ate them ( was trying to let them just hide... i need more plants/spots-to-hide i guess

 

[OldMan47]

If you want to save lots of fry, you will need decent cover. I use a clump of java moss for that.

This stuff is Java moss

 

[coyemuse]

Ill look for it. Petco here just opened, so they're not fully stocked. The other fish store, I refuse to shop in because their tanks are always filthy and smelly, you can hardly see anything in them. Since I'm landlocked, there's not much selection

 

[OldMan47]

I have never seen anything in a Petco except potted plants in plastic tubes. You will seldom find java moss in that situation. If you have another local pet shop, they might carry it. The LFS around here do carry java moss but most of them have specially lit plant tanks where they keep their plants until they sell them.

 

[This Old Spouse]

Too bad it's January or I'd send you some of mine. How long does it usually take to get items from the lower 48?

 

[coyemuse]

I have never seen anything in a Petco except potted plants in plastic tubes. You will seldom find java moss in that situation. If you have another local pet shop, they might carry it. The LFS around here do carry java moss but most of them have specially lit plant tanks where they keep their plants until they sell them.

This one has 3 tanks with aquatic plants in them...

Too bad it's January or I'd send you some of mine. How long does it usually take to get items from the lower 48?

It depends on where its coming from. And how much snow we get. but usually 4-7 business days

 

[sherylp]

Something interesting I noticed with my swordtail fry. We had them in a breeder box and at around 3 weeks of age my husband decided to let one out into the main tank to see if they would be big enough to survive. I didn't see the fry again so I kept the others in the breeder box a bit longer.

At about 4 weeks of age I spotted the fry that had been let out into the main tank and he was about double the size of the other fry that were still in the breeder box.

We let all the fry out after that and they are around 7 weeks old now and probably about an inch long. The one that was let out into the tank a week earlier is still quite a bit bigger than the others. It was amazing how much more it grew just being out in the main tank.

I have since had another batch of fry that are almost 4 weeks old and they are much bigger than the first lot at 4 weeks because I never put these in a breeder box.

I actually have a lot of stones and rocks at the bottom of my tank, as well as a few plants, which gives the babies heaps of places to hide.

 

[This Old Spouse]

 

[OldMan47]

I find your observation is on the money SherylP. I favor separate drop tanks for the simple reason that the fry seem to do better when they have a whole tank to utilize as they see fit. Breeder nets and traps are for emergency situations in my home, not for routine drops. When I get to plan ahead, I either use a colony breeding arrangement with lots of cover or I set up a drop tank.