Raising Emperor Tetra Fry

[Jimbo1984]

Hi all,

I was doing a water change yesterday and syphoned out 10+ tiny Emperor Tetra fry.

They spawn ALL the time and the majority of my stock were born in my tank. I discover them hiding out in the plants in there occasionally.

Anyway, I decided i'd like to try and raise this lot myself instead of spending ages trying to net them back into my tank. Where they'd probably get eaten anyway!

So i've set up my 18x12x12" tank and poured them into there. I did start using a small Tetratec power filter (IN300) but the flow is too strong and I fear they'll all get sucked into the inlets so I turned it off.

At the moment i've just got a heater and an air stone in action. I've also topped the tank up with fresh water treated with Seachem Prime so hopefully that'll take care of any Ammonia for now. I'm guessing they're not pumping it out at less than 10mm in size?

As for feeding i've got a bottle of Liquifry No1 which i've just used. Use twice a day? Do I need to get anything else?

My main concern is the filtration in there. What do you suggest?

Thanks!

 

[rdp50734]

a small sponge filter will be more than enough you can pick them up on ebay at at your lfs. I have heard of people squeezing their sponges from the main filter into the fry tank as it contains food particles that the fry will eat! Good luck with them!

 

[Jimbo1984]

Thanks for your reply!

Yes I might well squeeze a sponge, plus to add nitrifying bacteria.

The bucket they were in at first was full of gunk from syphoning before the water change on the main tank. This had to go in their tank with them as it was impossible to remove both them and the gunk separately.

There's probably things to eat in all that!

 

[rdp50734]

More than likely! Hopefully they will all grow quick for you.

 

[orangefish]

I also have a tank similar to yours with 21 guppy fry in. I tried a filter but it was too strong so I will wait until they get older before I turn it on. I am not bothering with an air stone either. Instead, I am doing aroud a 40% water change every 3 days, and I don't like to use chemicals such as dechlorinators (haven't had any problems so far). I don't have a heater in their either due to the temperature outside being so high. There's a plant in there for them to nibble, and some small gravel that they can hide in (although if you are putting gravel in be careful that they don't get stuck underneath it). I am feeding them on both Interpret Liquifry No.2 and crushed up flakes as I have 1 day old and 4 week old fry in the tank.
I haven't had any deaths yet from my fry, and I've found that doing the water changes as regularly as 3 days compensated for having no filter. Good luck with raising your fry!

 

[Jimbo1984]

Hi,

So you don't even add dechlorinator to the new water?!?! Surely that's not good for the fry?

I have no substrate in the fry tank, just a few ornaments to swim through/hide under. It makes it easier to see them plus it's easier to clean.

Anyway, i've bought 1 of these which i'll hook up to my air pump instead of the airstone.

Tank's a steady 25 degrees celsius and there's still lots of fry activity so I think i'm doing alright so far.

I did add another 2 fry from the main tank which are at least 4x the size and have developed colours etc. They were living under the filter box but I dug them out the other day when I syphoned out the others. They'd been sucked through the inlets of my filter though the next morning so I moved them to the smaller tank to grow. I'm slightly worried about these 2 eating the smaller fry. What do you think I should do with them?

Thanks!