What To Feed

[rEvolution27]

I have 4 four day old swordtail fry and my lfs had neither liquifry nor bbs so i'm kinda stuck.
When i feed them crushed flake food, i don't see them eat it. Only a few times have i seen them peck at sunken food. I bought them discus fry pellets which re too big for them. Any ideas.

 

[Annastasia]

It takes fry a while to feel comfortable to eat in front of you. To them, you must seem like a huge hand with a humongus body attached.

Does your LFS have any Fry food? Such as the kinds by Hikari and TetraMin? Otherwise, finely crushed flakes are fine. I'd alternate in some small live/frozen foods, if you can find them, or just crush up some freeze-dried food.

 

[rEvolution27]

You deserve to be a mod anastasia, you truly are the queen of live bearers.
I had a peice of lettuce soaking for a couple days and i chopped a little piece and put it in and all four of them were trying to eat it. They even got in to a fight. Now i feel comfortable that they are getting some food, although i'm not sure i see a difference in the size of the lettuce. lol. I also noticed them eating flakes off the bottom. This was also the first time they didn't zig zag around like crazy when i came.

I have them in a 1 litter container with a smaller top which makes changing water very hard without throwing away fish though. I guess i could siphon, but they'll get sucked.

 

[Annastasia]

Awww, come on now. )

Veggies are always good for them! They may be picking off small organisms that got on the lettuce, instead of actually eating it though. Live plants are also very good for fry, for the same orgnanisms. I've raised a batch on just that, because I had to go away for a month. They were in a heavily planted tank, and grew up to good-sized juvies on it. I wouldn't recommend actually doing this, but it just proves that they DO eat them and grow on them. I'd definitely try crushing up some freeze-dried food too, or maybe (if you can handle it) chopping up some frozen bloodworm. Mine adore that.

It's possible to make a siphon out of airline tubing, which might be beneficial to you. It's much harder to suck fry up with that, then a big siphon! Turkey basters work too. Or you can put a pantyhose, or a sponge on/inside your normal siphon to make it so fry cannot get sucked up. I'd definitely do pretty frequent water changes on a tank that size, as deteriorating food can make the water go down hill fast. Is the tank filtered? Or heated?

 

[millym]

hi
are you crushing the flake up till its like powder?? the fry have teeny mouths.
we also feed ours blanched lettuce & cucumber & catfish & algae tablets which they nibble on when they soften.

 

[widgetuk]

I use the airline with a piece of fibre glass rod tie wrapped to it it is easier to control plus i feed with very fine ground flake plus baby brine shrimp

 

[rEvolution27]

Well when i came home, the lettuce was half eaten so i'm happy for them. Now i don't know what to do with them when they grow up! I didn't really plan for my 20 gallon to have 7 swordtails.. plus there's the problem of inbreeding. I figured i could just keep all of em in my 15 gal and ignore any inbreeding that goes on in there. Or i could give away the rest and keep only one. I'm not sure.