Good fry tank setup?

[enchanted]

What would make a good setup in a 10 Gallon?

I.E, filtration or water changes, gravel or no, live plants, fake plants, no plants, etc...

 

[yhbae]

I supposed it depends on the species but for livebearers, I'd recomend a sponge filter and some java moss - you will notice that the fries are always munching on java moss and the sponge (probably something on them). Small water change every few days works wonders. Substrates are optional, but I use pool filter sand on my tank.

For other species, that's another story. As an example, I have a tank full of mbuna (P Acei) fries. It has nothing in the tank, driven by power filter at 25x flow rate, and large (50%) water change every two days. No substrates. Obviously, this setup requires alot more effort to maintain than to maintain the tank mentioned above, but these babies grow far faster than platy fries (they are now over 1 inch at 30days).

 

[Da_Oz]

Most fry

Heater temp at 80 to 82

Sponge fillter, power filter tend to eat fry.

Live plants, Live plants keep the tank more stable. More the better, fry eat them, hide in them.

Good light I leve mine on 24 hours aday. This way I can feed 4 times aday.

I like stubstrates, sand or gravle either. Makes the tank look better, somewhere for the plants to root. And a good place for the bac to grow.

 

[yhbae]

Sponge fillter, power filter tend to eat fry.

One comment on that note - I use the black net (soft plastic) that you buy from the hardware store. This is meant to be used to cover your windows to keep bugs away. Very cheap and works great! You get pretty much the full flow rate. Just use a rubber band and wrap the intake of any power filters and it will keep just about all fries away from getting sucked in except really small ones (such as just born live bearer fries).

Personally, I like power filter over sponge filter as it create alot of water movement and also does a better job in mechanical filtering. If really small fries are present, I put a piece of sponge on the intake instead of the net...

 

[enchanted]

Okay, then here would be a good question.

My main tank, which has all my guppys, I pulled the danios out and added more guppys.

I will update my signature shortly.

I currently have 2 pen-plax baby hideouts floating on top and it looks like:

I also have guppy grass and more java moss on the way.

What are the fry survival chances?

The reason I ask is I don't have a sponge filter at the moment nor do I have any spare live plants. I am going to start putting together everything, and I guess pick up a 10 Gallon just for guppy fry. But I know I have a few females that are going to give birth in the next few days most likely.

Thanks,
Larry

 

[yhbae]

In my personal experience, even with some java moss in the main tank, not many fries have survived. I'm not sure if platies are better at hunting down their fries but that is what I experienced....

I get much better results by having few adults in a separate tank, heavily populated with java moss. (see my 15g tank link) I'm sure some fries will still get eaten but I don't have to touch the adults hence must less stress for them.

If you really want to maximize the survival rate of fries, I would move the holding female into the 10g tank, put as much things into the tank as possible (even a thick layer of marbles, as I noticed small platy fries sometime stay between gravels). Monitor as often as you can, and as soon as the female drops all fries, move her back into the main tank and continue raise fries in the 10g. You will need the sponge in the intake of the power filter if you choose to do this.

 

[willywonka099]

I have read that swords are the most cannabalistic and as I have recently learned from Da_Oz after a few batches bb mollies will not usually eat any fry

 

[enchanted]

You can check my sig. I think the only things that will bother the fry are my 7 Adult guppies.

All the rest that is in that tank is Otos, corys, and a pleco.

Since I don't need the quarantine as a quaruntine for the moment I'm working out buying a sponge filter from my LFS and putting the fry in it with some fake plants and a lite layer of gravel.

 

[Da_Oz]

Ok DD is that tank the one your going to use. It looks very big (55g?), small fish fry do better in small tanks. Larger tanks can stunt the growth of fry cause of lack of food they find.

Seeing how you got all those rocks another good thing to is take a rock and place it on the bottom with just about 1/8 to1/4 of a inch off the bottom, this makes a great place for fish to hide.

yhbae I did that to but still would loose some fish due to them getting sucked in the screen and killed. But either way still better than just a power filter alone.