Proper Care For New Fry?

[phantomlink]

I've got some 4ish week old guppy fry and 3 day old platy fry sharing a 10 gallon tank right now. One of the platy I bought stressed out during the ride home and had a premature birth so I had to put them in my guppy fry tank since the mom was already eating the babies stuck in the bag.

Anyways, I had a question on proper fry care. I read that you need daily ( or close to it ) water changes since the fry release some growth inhibiting hormone and the wc lets them grow faster. My only issue was that since I found the 9 fry, none have died until I did a 50% waterchange yesterday. I dechlorinated the water but about 5 minutes after adding the new water I found one of the guppy dead on the bottom. My month old guppy fry are only 1cm or so in size which seems small for their age. I know some of them are females because I can see the gravid spot forming, some are smaller but I think they might be males because the mother was in a tank with endlers which were only 1/4 the size of the mom.

Food? I've been feeding them guppy food which is very fine and they eat it well, but I want to be able to let the platy catch up in proper growth. I've seen videos of people making home made food out of flakes and water, or something regarding egg yolk?

Good temperature? I read that warmer water can lead to better growth, but I just wanted to be sure.

I've got two clumps of Hornwort and a sponge filter in the tank and parameters seem fine. I do have an extra 10 gallon I used for QT but if you think I should separate the platy and guppy fry I could use it, I just dont really have a filter for it

 

[Chad]

I actually always use a fry food that Hikari makes. It's micro pellets but it looks more like powder. It's called Frist Bites. I had great success with this. I must admit that I have never done greater water changes for my fry and never experienced any growth stunting as a result.

 

[phantomlink]

I haven't seen that stuff at the fish store when I looked, and I thought my guppy fry were small for their age

 

[Chad]

Personally I think nutrition is a huge reason any fish doesn't grow to potential, not just fry. It doesn't have to be the Hikari (though I do recommend it) but a food designed for the nutritional needs of fry does help. I started using it when I noticed my fry weren't thriving like I thought they should. It did make a difference. As far as temperature and water changes I honestly can't say since I didn't change those things. I raised my fry in the same tank as the adults and used floating plants and other hiding spots to keep them safe. I tried using a fry tank but had better success leaving them in the main tank. I realize that's not the professional's way of doing it but it certainly worked for me. I raised many generations of guppy, molly, and platy that way.

 

[fluttermoth]

I think the water change issue becomes more (or less!) vital according to the size of the tank.

In a 'normal sized tank (say, 60-100l or so), then they're not so critical, but many, many people think that because fry are small, they can keep them in small tanks (1-3 gallons is very common), and in that case it really does become very important to do large water changes.

 

[phantomlink]

the tanks are 10 gallon ( 38 liter ) I tested it and theres no ammonia or nitrite in the water so either the sponge filter is good after the past month, or they're too small to really do anything about ammonia. I only recently added the hornwort a few days ago when I got the platy fry since the guppy were chasing them and needed somewhere to hide

 

[Chad]

That is probably true about size as it was a 30 gallon tank.

 

[snazy]

The water change is hardly a problem unless you didn't temperature matched it or dechlorinated enough. The problem with sponge filters that I found out from personal experience is they don't provide enough oxygen and of course flow to spread the little oxygen around.

 

[phantomlink]

The top of my water is quite ripply, I dont think it would be an oxygen issue. The water in the tank was pretty warm, I've put one of my thermometers in the tank to see what it really is at, I think my heater is calibrated wrong I turned it down a little

 

[snazy]

Well warm temperature and an air driven sponge filter is a disaster to happen. How ripply exactly is the top? Sorry for insisting but people have different understanding of how much ripples on the surface is enough. They won't die from the water being warm unless you are talking 30+ Fry, especially guppy fry are kept in higher temperatures as they grow quicker.

 

[phantomlink]

I'll take a quick video of my setup since it'll show better detail then a picture. That one fry I lost after the larger WC is the first casualty I've had in weeks, I can only assume things have been going well at least

 

[phantomlink]

Here ya go


Yes I know the bottom is dirty, i'm cleaning it out in a minute its mostly from the hornwort after I shook out what bristles I could, some still fell off after putting them in the tank

 

[snazy]

It could have been a weak fry, it happens some of them to die but I'd be worried if anymore turn up bellies. I've grown livebearer fry with 99.99% survival rate so just keep an eye, it could have been a one off but there could be something else. Test the water regularly because the uneaten food can cause sudden ammonia/nitrIte spikes you may be missing.

 

[snazy]

Personally, to me that doesn't look like much surface movement honestly at all. Oxygen is very hard to dissolve in water. I would never leave my fish with just few bubbles llike these and my cory fry tank was having oxygen issues with more than that. I've got a sponge filter with a powerhead, a Fluval U2 and an air pump running all in a 14G tank and oxygen/filter wise that's just about makes me feel comfortable. I started running the tank with the sponge filter only and after the fry grew a little bit they and the shrimp were already gasping.

 

[Chad]

Perhaps a second sponge in the other corner would do the trick? But yes, perhaps it was just a weak fry. That happens with every batch.