Fry Raising Questions-Peacock and Yellow Lab

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Cowgrl4life

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Dec 25, 2011
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I have both a female peacock and a female yellow lab holding eggs right now, and I need some questions answered before the fry arrive! First question, I just set up this weekend, some tanks for separating the mothers and raising the fry, But since I've just set them up and one of my females needs to be moved soon I need to know what I can to do make the tank switch successful this early in cycling. If I gravel vac the bottom of the main tank a bit, and then pour some of that water into the tank to supply it with bacteria? I've also been supplementing with Stability, and two little goldfish have been living in it for about three days. I wouldn't rush moving her quite so much but she's already been holding for over a week, and tonight I am going to be doing a major water change on the main tank and moving some decorations around and I'm really concerned about over-stressing her.
Secondly, what is the optimum temperature for the fry tanks? Right now they're running about 75-76 degrees, although I was thinking 80 would be optimum since that is what my main tank sits at?
Thirdly, as far as feeding the fry, I feed the adults 1mm NLS pellets, I was going to be a mixture of those pellets finely crushed, and frozen BBS, is this an adequate diet?
These will be my first cichlid fry and my goal is to start raising them, I'm very excited ( I just found the yellow lab holding tonight!) and want to make sure I do everything right!
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Cowgrl4life

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Also, I just tested the water in the tank I want to move her to, and there are low levels of both ammonia and nitrites. I cant give exact perameters as I've lost the chart that comes with the kit. But from experience I know its not high. So probably not ideal to move her, but if I added the water I mentioned from the main tank would it be ok?
 

Jannika

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It sounds like they're off to a running start and have caught you a bit unprepared. Trust me they will continue, so I would let nature take its course this time and get those other tanks cycled. I'm not a breeder, though. Trying to get my yellow labs to STOP breeding has been my biggest concern. My peacocks are all male, or I'm sure they'd be breeding as well. lol What kind of peacocks are they, btw?
 

SubRosa

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It sounds like they're off to a running start and have caught you a bit unprepared. Trust me they will continue, so I would let nature take its course this time and get those other tanks cycled. I'm not a breeder, though. Trying to get my yellow labs to STOP breeding has been my biggest concern. My peacocks are all male, or I'm sure they'd be breeding as well. lol What kind of peacocks are they, btw?
Best advice you'll get. As far as temp 78 - 80, the diet will be adequate if not spectacular. If you're not going to hatch your own BS then frozen Cyclopeeze is a better choice. It's more nutritious, contains buttloads of astaxanthin which accentuates yellow and red colors, and when it comes down to it it's MUCH more cost effective. All of the frozen BBS I've seen is mostly water. The Cyclopeeze are very densely packed with almost no water. More variety, including some algae covered rocks for the Yellow Labs will improve growth. Just leave the rocks out in buckets of waste tank water in the sun until the rocks get covered. Plus you'll most likely generate mosquito larvae in the bucket which are an outstanding food. The real trick to raising fry is to overfeed heavily several times a day and perform enough water changes so water quality remains pristine. I generally try to feed at least 3 x a day, cleaning up uneaten food a few minutes after each feeding by siphoning a bit of water. Also a 50% daily change. If it seems excessive consider that many Discus breeders change over 100% daily when raising fry! All other things being equal, more water changes= faster growth.
 

Cowgrl4life

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They are OB's , If I do well with these fry though, I want to possibly try my hand at a couple other strains. I really like the Blue Orchids and the Sulfur Heads. We will see though, those are far in the future. And yes, they caught me VERY unprepared. . . I whipped this tank setup within about three days once I saw she was holding, and that's not having any of the right supplies. I ran a lot of errands those days lol. I'm hoping I can get these tanks cycled soon enough, but if they aren't I'll leave her in the main tank until they are ready. I was told she may eat her first batch anyway so not to be too upset if I lost them (although I'm still holding hope lol).
Where can I get the Cyclopeeze from? I'm hoping I could order it online?
So they will eat the algae off of the rocks? This is great to know! Especially if it will help with their growth.
 
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