Water changes with fry in tank

MaiaDee · Sep 3, 2012

We moved the tanks on Friday to our new house. I have two cory catfish in my 56 gallon and the move was not far, so I removed about 95% of their water and drove them up here and refilled the tank. Saturday morning, we had eggs!

They have not eaten all of them yet, so I'm hoping I'll actually get some fry to survive. My question is, how do you do water changes with little tiny fry in the tank? Also, I've covered my filter intakes with cheesecloth so the little buggers don't get sucked up. Is that sufficient, or should I use something else?

Thanks in advance for any advise!

ppetropulo · Sep 3, 2012

You could just remove the water, instead of vacuuming the gravel. Before you poor it out though, check for any little wigglers, and net whatever you find. Technically, you could still do the same with the gravel, it would just be harder because there would be more gunk.

MaiaDee · Sep 3, 2012

Thanks, ppetropulo. Problem with that is that my water drains out the front window. I guess I could drain into a bucket, but changing out 20% of a 56 gallon 5 gallons at a time does not sound ideal. The tank has a sand bottom, so I don't have to dig around for the gunk, it stays on top. Does that make a difference?

BettaFishMommy · Sep 3, 2012

put pantyhose over the end of your tubing you use for water changes. this will keep fry from going for a tube ride. it won't take out mulm quite the same way as if you didn't have pantyhose on the tube, but it will be effective for water changes.

fry could also be put in a floating breeder net box. this would keep them safe during water changes, safe from other fish eating them, and will make target feeding much easier for you.

MaiaDee · Sep 3, 2012

I do have a breeder box. I was concerned the fry will be small enough to escape through the water flow slits. I was thinking of wrapping cheesecloth around it. Will that work?

BettaFishMommy · Sep 3, 2012

the plastic 'hard' breeder boxes are not good. they don't allow for enough water circulation. get one of the net type ones. it is pretty much the same as a fish net, with a plastic box frame to keep the net rigid and in a box shape. they clip on the side of the tank to keep them from floating around like those silly hard plastic ones.

i also have one of the breeder boxes like you describe, and i find it absolutely useless unless i need to keep a fish separated for a very short time (hours, not days).

tanker · Sep 3, 2012

Like they BM said, a pantyhose works great. I would not worry about the mulm too much for now.

PS--I use a sponge filter cover over my intakes, think the cheesecloth will clog too fast.

MaiaDee · Sep 3, 2012

I decided to remove the parents. It seemed safer and easier than removing the eggs. Thanks for the info on the plastic breeders. These are my first eggs and they were accidental, so obviously I know nothing about this.

I use a sponge filter cover on the intake of my discus tank, but this tank's filter intake is like a rectangle shape cage. I don't know how to cover that one with a sponge. Any ideas? Maybe a breeder net to block access to the intake?

Glabe · Sep 3, 2012

for the squarish intakes like marinelands, i use a normal sponge with a slit cut down the center to make it like a sleeve. Or you can tear open a filter cartridge and slide that over the intake

MaiaDee · Sep 3, 2012

Excellent ideas,Glabe. That I can do

Thanks!


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Water changes with fry in tank

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