Questions re nurturing/feeding Bolivian Ram fry

I have a few 3 week old bolivian ram fry – they’ve been free swimming for 8 days now, I removed some of them from the parents in the main community tank. This is the very first spawn!!

Originally, I took about 25 fry out and put them in a 3 gallon fry tank, with the finest layer of light sand, a sponge filter, and a piece of driftwood with lots of java moss tied to it. I’ve been doing at least one 30-40% water change (with de-chlorinated water) per day, using a dropper to collect any debris, and feeding twice per day – I started with Liquifry, and more recently BBS (jeez what a chore THAT is). If I’m able, I increase the frequency of feeding and water changes, but mostly I’m limited to messing around with the tanks twice per day max.

Even so, my 25 fry have diminished to 12. Is this fairly normal, i.e to be expected? Am I doing everything I should? Should I give more variety of food….earlier I tried a powder of crushed algae wafer and cichlid pellet, but they don’t seem to touch it!

Also, I have a query about BBS – when feeding newly hatched BBS, therealways seems to be a little bit of salt water that goes into the fry tank with them……will this do any harm? And, obviously a 10ml dropper injects thousands of BBS into the tank……how long do they live in freshwater if not eaten, and will the uneaten ones cause ammonia to rise?

And, can I keep the hatched BBS going for another 12 hrs or so to feed at the next feeding time? What would I need, just a reasonable sized vessel of salt water?

Thanks for the advice and tips……this is a first attempt, so I’m looking to improve the longevity of the next batch. The fry I left in with the parents are all gone, so they’re preparing for round 2!

Thanks....I opted for BBS as everything I read indicated that a microworm culture can develop mould!

I do have a 4 litre container of what is supposed to be vinegar eels, but a) they don't appear to offer much nutritional value, and b) how on earth do you "harvest" a creature which is all but invisible to the naked eye??!!

And talking of harvesting....I'm confused about the BBS. When I empty the container of hatched shrimp water - less the egg shells floating at the top - I get a sieve full of lifeless orange gloop, and some drained water with moving, visible brine shrimp in it.

All the vids on You Tube suggest that it's the orange gloop which you feed to the fish....not the clean ones in the drained water.

Is that right? Sorry to be stupid....

Thanks all, for those replies!! Yep its my rams first spawn, and my first attempt to raise fry.....I confess I thought it was a miracle I'd got this far.

I'm now down to about 8 remaining fry, but after having a good tidy up in the main community tank and thinning out the plants, it looks like the parents are preparing to spawn again anyway. So although it will be a shame if I don't end up with any survivors from the first spawn, its not the end of the world. My fry tank only has a sponge filter running on an air pump, so no impellers!

I think I've worked out where I'm going wrong with the BBS - I'm not letting the hatcher run long enough, so much of my orange gloop is actually unhatched eggs. I have them in the JBL standalone Artemio system, so the water is not heated, but I do have an LED lamp trained on the hatcher. Initially I had a good hatch rate after only 24 hrs, but I left the last batch for 36 hrs and still didn't get much from it. I drained them through my fine mesh net, dunked it in spare tank water, droppered some up and studied the dropper.......about 65% of it was eggs! I'm going to have to be better organised and let it run for longer, but I'm not sure what to offer the fry for food while we're waiting.

I don't have a snail in the fry tank, but I have some nerites elsewhere.....perhaps I could add one to help keep the sand clean. Will they eat any unhatched eggs that get in as well?

I think I'm just going to have to get some practice! I've ordered an additional hatchery to run alongside the first, so I have a better supply. Today I put some of the hatched BBS back into the salt water and popped them in the fridge, I guess they'll be okay for up to 24 hrs?

Thanks so much again, I'm such a noob at this but I take it all quite seriously, so I appreciate the time you take to reply to my daft questions.

Hi Eugene,

Well, I did leave more than 50% of the fry in with the parents to help them develop their parenting skills......and there are now zero fry in the tank!!

I'm having trouble sourcing any other "baby" food from the LFS other than liquifry at the moment, will have a look online. Have a nasty feeling that cichlid fry are known for not eating anything that doesn't move......I certainly can't see much eating activity unless I put BBS in with them!