Furcata Rainbow Fry! What Do I Do?

[CaysE]

I wasn't trying to breed them or anything, but apparently they did... I just spotted two fry in my tank! Help! What do I feed them? I have a very dense portion of the tank full of java moss and other plants (where they are now) so I don't think they will be eaten by other fish.

 

[Colin_T]

try some powder fry food or liquid fry. You can also try newly hatched brineshrimp but they don't normally eat that until they are a week old. An emergency food can be the yolk of a boiled egg. Squeeze the yolk through a handkerchief and into a glass of water. Add a small amount of the water and egg yolk mix to the water with the fry.

 

[CaysE]

Thanks Colin! I just got back from the store with some Hikari powder fry food. I can't tell if they're eating it or not, but one of them poked at it once.

This is pretty exciting.

 

[CaysE]

 

[kribensis12]

Very Nice pic's! Once they get a little bit older, get some BBS ( Baby Brine Shrimp). They do better of Frozen, as its got more nutrition. Got any pic's of the parents?

 

[Liam]

I fed them Hakari powder food and they did fine on that, they tend to stay around the same area of the tank so if you can feed them tiny amounts up to eight times a day. I have adults that grew up in a community tank that had loads of plants, they seem to find micro food among the plants, they are good hiders and very fast. Very good pics of the tiny guys.

 

[CaysE]

Wow, 8 times a day! I'll try to keep up on that, but so far it looks like they're not eating.

 

[CaysE]

Very Nice pic's! Once they get a little bit older, get some BBS ( Baby Brine Shrimp). They do better of Frozen, as its got more nutrition. Got any pic's of the parents?

Here is the male... I have three females so I don't know which is the mother. They look identical to each other, so I doubt I'll ever know.

 

[CaysE]

I have a total of 4 now in the QT net!

 

[Mikaila31]

Here is a link on them, breeding and raising fry is towards the bottom

I love rainbows! They have to be my favorite fish, especially the blue-eyes. I have some P. gertrudae and two varieties of P. signifer. They are quiet easy and fun to raise, they should be fine on the powered food. But if you really get into breeding them(or not) I suggest feeding them vinegar eels at first (then going to frozen BBS). Which are live food and will stay in to water column for a while, which means you don't have to feed them that often. They are also really easy to culture w/ cultures last almost a year before you have of make a new one. I killed all my grindal and micro worms, but my vinegar eels are still going strong(I haven't touched them in a month ) Those large net breeders work pretty well with these guys. Also since rainbows tend to breed constantly you will most likely keep finding more of them. During the summer it is easier and faster to raise them outside in tubs full of plants, then move them back inside when they have grown larger.

Cheers,
Mikaila31
(pm me if you want some vinegar eels! I have tons of them, but no fry to feed)

 

[CaysE]

Wow thanks for the info, Mikaila! What do you mean by putting them in tubs outside? I would think the temperature changes and other things would foul up the water.

Here are 5 of them in the net!

 

[Colin_T]

putting fry outside in tubs is simply that. In warmer weather you can set up plastic or fibreglass tubs with plants and water and then put the baby fish in them. The fry grow quite quickly outside in the large volume of water.
If you live in an area where the daytime temperature doesn't get above 24C (not sure what that is in F) then don't bother about it.
If you have lots of plants in the tubs then it is a good idea to have an airstone bubbling away gently in the tub to prevent oxygen deficiencies at night.