One of the possibilities that I am surprised MSJinkzD missed is apple snails. They carry around and excrete infusoria that are the ideal starting food for microscopic fry. It will give them something to eat until they are big enough for things like microworms or Walter worms.
Pygmaeus Fry
- Thread starter pinkertd
- Start date
x2. Apple snails are also great for cleaning off leftover food that the fry don't eat. Wardley's smallfry liquid food should work if the babies will eat food that is not alive.
Well, a sad update today on the two older fry I've been tracking in the tank....I spotted them on Sunday, saw one of them surface and dart back down and rest on a plant leaf, but found one little body last night while I was netting out some of the moss pieces from a trimming I had done. No signs of the other one so I doubt that one is still alive either. I am trying to estimate how old these two fry were. Best guess is 3 or 4 weeks. I've got a bunch of new hatches in the gravel from the spawnings that were taking place on 12/30. So if those fry hatched on 1/2 and 1/3, they are 4-5 days old and barely visible when they pop up from the gravel. The new fry are about 1/16" and about the width of an eyelash, and the two that I just lost were about 3/16", maybe 1/32" wide, but still mostly tail, While still very tiny (still smaller than a newborn molly) they were huge when compared to a newly hatched fry. So, the frustration continues. The tank is full of stuff to eat to get them growing for a couple of weeks. I had been adding some microworms and First Bites for the last several days. One of the foods I feed the adults is Kens veggie pellets so there are minute particles of these pellets in the gravel. My MTS are thriving and multiplying like cockroaches.:wall::wall::wall:
Awe....that is sad the babies died. I know it has to be frustrating. I am sure though, as time goes on, you will be successful. Good luck with the new spawns.
Hey Deb, maybe the 20L is experiencing small spikes in ammonia, or maybe the nitrates are too high, which may be too much for the babies to handle? I think it could be possible for the adults to be just fine in slightly less than perfect conditions while the babies are perishing. Is the temp. pretty constant, not changing more than a degree in either direction? How often were you doing water changes from the time the two bigger fry were born? If water quality is a slight issue, could you maybe only siphon water from the column and not gravel vac during wc's? I don't mean to overload you with q's, I'm just trying to get a better grasp of your setup 
. If you're not able to do many water changes because of the fragile state of the fry, maybe you should take out a lot of the snails in there and not add a mystery snail. As msjinkzd has said about apple snails, they are the plecos of the invert world in regards to the amount of waste they produce.
Please keep updating this thread as developments are made, I'm learning so much from it! I hope to breed my pygmaeus in the near future as well.
. If you're not able to do many water changes because of the fragile state of the fry, maybe you should take out a lot of the snails in there and not add a mystery snail. As msjinkzd has said about apple snails, they are the plecos of the invert world in regards to the amount of waste they produce. Please keep updating this thread as developments are made, I'm learning so much from it! I hope to breed my pygmaeus in the near future as well.
Sara - no ammonia spikes. And the newly hatched fry are fine, just the little bit older ones are the ones that die all the time. I checked nitrates before I did a partial water change last night and they were only 20. That's not bad considering i get around 10 out of the tap and i'm not keeping the tank clean on purpose, and it had been 8 days since my last partial water chance, specifically to not have a water change affect the fry. Temp is always steady at 78-79F. I check temps every day. So I can check off that water changes are killing them, I didn't do one this time. I am checking things off one by one. I don't know what to try next. I am emailing the rare cory expert again tonight and trying to contact someone else that I have read about a while back that overcome his huge obstacles in trying to get the fry to live while breeding either hasbrosis or hastatus....I can't remember which. Don't be afraid to ask a lot of questions, maybe you guys can think of something I'm not thinking of.
You have to stare at the gravel for at least 15 minutes then you'll catch a glimpse of a teeny fry or two move around a bit in the gravel. And you have to do it pretending to be a statue that they won't notice! LOL!
sorry to hear that deb! i really hope you figure it out and keep this thread updated, it could be an invaluable resource for those of us interested in giving this a try!
