Having Trouble Cleaning The Fry Tank...

[constantine03]

What do you all use to clean your fry tank? My little guys are just almost a week old, so still very small. Everytime I try to clean the tank, I suck at least 10 of them out (using airline tubing). Then I have to stand over the jar and squint really hard to find them, suck them back out, and get them back into the tank...and the tank never gets cleaned, really. How do you all clean your fry tanks? Any special method that I'm missing, or is this just how it's done?

 

[12azor]

You could put the tube into a net and transfer the water through the net and the tube? I doubt they'd get through that.

Just a suggestion.

 

[Netty]

That's exactly how we do it. Very time consuming but I don't know of any other way to do it. We've got the airline attached to a straight piece of plastic rod which does make it easier to manoever around the tank.

 

[MermaidMel]

Pipettes?

 

[newfishy]

my sister gets a clean bit of nylon stocking, and holds it over the end of the airline tubeing while she siphions up stuff off the bottem, picks up most of the dirt but not the babys, plus if shes holding it in there with her hand has pretty good control over the end of the tube.

 

[Ripley]

I use a plastic hose and if I suck up any fry during the process I just use a cup to rescue them from the bucket. I have tried using a net over the hose, but I found some of the dirt does not make it through the mesh. But it could be just the net thats the problem.

 

[azulfire24]

my sister gets a clean bit of nylon stocking, and holds it over the end of the airline tubeing while she siphions up stuff off the bottem, picks up most of the dirt but not the babys, plus if shes holding it in there with her hand has pretty good control over the end of the tube.

yep when they were really tiny i tied the bit of nylon stocking over ther end it dosent suck up the dirt so much but it will suck out water..i will take a piece of filter floss and wash the bnottom first... wiping up as much as i can with out putting so much dirt in the water then i use the stocking,, now that my babies are bigger i go without the nylon but still suck up an occasional fry, i the tank the bucket to the sink and dip in a cup at a time,, that got fry in it ... noppe on to the next, then if it does have one i pour most of the water out <over the bucket > and pour a tiny bit of water with the fry in it in to another clean cup. i havent lost a fry down the drain yet.

 

[newfishy]

well to add my paranoid two bits, any time I suck water out of the platy and guppy tank I strain it out threw a net first, as in pour whole buckets threw a net, I have caught many a fry that I missed with my eyes.


sneaky little buggers.