My Fry Have Stopped Growing...

[fishRfriends]

On March 5, so about 3ish months ago, I become the grandma of 8 little swordail fry. Within the first month they gre like weeds, and then they just stopped. They havent grow a single bit in at least two months. Ive been feeding them this special food thats supposed to help them to grow faster, but nothing has happened. The smallest of the fry right now are the same size as my three week old guppy fry! They are in a 5.5 gallon tank. Could that be the cause of it? They are very tiny, from about .5 inch-.75 inches, so I thought this tank would be fine for the eight of them until they got bigger. Any ideas? Is this just normal and Im being paranoid lol? Thanks in advance.

 

[SamUK]

i cant back this up with evidence but i thought my last batch of platty fry were growing really slow.

i had about 30 in a 20 gallon hex all about .5" long.


i decided to try moving a couple to my bigger tank and to compare them in a few weeks and they were a bit bigger.


i think they need room to stretch there fins out.

 

[donna123]

hi,
i would say the tank they are in at the moment is fine,have you tried them on some live food yet or maybe a little frozen food like shrimp brine?. were they born in to the 5.5 gal tank because if they were kept in a breeding trap or net for a long time ive heard it can stunt the growth apart from that im not sure
good luck with them,all the best donna .

 

[fishRfriends]

Thanks for your replies. They were born in a 29gal and then scooped into the 5.5, so no trap for them. I will try the live food. Is it ok to get the brine shrimp that is sold by like the tabelspoon at fish stores? I remember hearing that its not ok because they can have disease or somehting. I dunno, Its just what my parents always told me. Im going up the my lps tomorrow so Ill look into different foods. Lets see if that can jump start them lol. If not, I guess Im investing in a new tank! lol

Oh wait, at this size (.5/.75 inches) would you say they could go in the 29 gal (after I treat whatever they have, which is still a mystery lol) with only guppies and tetras, or would they become fish food? Thanks.

 

[Kairi]

i noticed this lately too. the fry that lived in the 75 gallon were quite a bit bigger than the ones living in the 5 gallon.... although one i swear is a mini-molly (she won't grow!) ... once i figured they cant' be eaten i let them go though so they can grow quicker. they seem so much happier in the big tank too.

 

[Sp00ky]

how often are you doing water changes? from the info i have gained over my time or rearing fry... i have learned that regular water changes remove the growth inhibiting things in the water. some breeders even do 80% daily water changes !! u will however find that they do stop for a while.. then suddenly shoot up in sixe LOL

 

[fishRfriends]

Ohhh ok. I do about 25% weekly on all my tanks, so I just did the same thing on the babies tank. I will start upping the water changes then. Thanks for the help. Oh and anyone know about the brine shrimp thing? Ill be going to the store tomorrow after school so if i could get an answer so i know if to get it or not that would be great.
Thanks again!

 

[Annastasia]

With any Live food, you carry a risk of disease. I've never had problems with it, personally. Brine Shrimp is probably safer then some of the other ones anyway.

 

[smurfyy_2k3]

i wont feed bloodworm to my fry any more put 1 cube in with my last batch and killed 6 of em for my current batch i have something called cyclops