How do you keep the fry? I had multiple pairs of comps breed in separate tanks and all the babies died after two weeks. Advice?
Hey Mike,
I have had similar experiences and I have had some successes. I currently have three batches of new fry and I am not losing any (knock on wood). I have one more female guarding eggs and I plan to put her fry in with the other three recent batches.
I believe the first month of life to be the most fragile for altolamp fry. If you are willing to be very diligent in the first month, I believe 80%+ survival rates are very attainable. Here is what I do and it seems to be working for me:
1) Food: Hikari First Bites. This stuff is just too perfect for altolamp fry. I power feed 2 to 3x per day. This may be just as important as how you do your water changes.
2) Water Changes: I do 25% water changes from a tempered, low nitrate, source every other day. My source is my 55 gallon fry tank - I do 30% water changes every other day (with filter cleaning and vacuuming). After my water change in the 55, I then do my vac & water change in the 10 gallon nursery tank draining my fill water for the 10 directly from the 55 that just had its change. After changing water in the 10, you'll need to put some new water in the 55 to make up for the water you drained into the 10. So, your fill water for the new fry is tempered and is not as hard on the new fry as tap water.
The older fry in the 55 are happy campers with the extra water changes and some theorize that this increases their growth rates.
3) Environmental Enrichment: it is standard practice to raise fry in bare aquariums. I think altolamp fry in the wild must seek out cover immediately or else they will be eaten. They were created/designed to seek out cover. In a bare aquarium, it is my theory that they are stressed without any structure. Stress causes illness and death and this happens quickly in new altolamp fry. So, I have started putting a couple larger boulders in the fry tank to give them some environmental enrichment. I carefully put them (the boulders) in a bucket of tank water during water changes so I can clean better.
Environmental Enrichment - sound crazy? :dance2:
Remember, you heard this theory from me first
The combination of all the above and blessings from the Giver of life have allowed me to have some success. The survival rate, so far, on the newest batches of fry has amazed me. Out of close to 400 new fry in the past three weeks, I have only lost one fry and that is because I crushed him during some maintenance.
Hope that helps.
Russ