Feeder Fry

B

Bayesoft

Innovator
Feb 22, 2005
26
0
0
Northern Michigan
www.bayesoft.com
Trying to plan out my 30g Amazon Tank and wanted to create a livebearer fry feeding system. Some sort of inline refugium that the livebearer adults could live in separately, supplying fry that would be delivered to the larger tank to supplement their diet.

I've got some ideas I'm kicking around. Has anyone done this or heard of it being done?
 
To clarify....

The fry would be delivered automatically through the water return system. To the larger tank where the fry will be eaten by larger fish.

Thinking about using mollies, swordtails, guppies and maybe danios since they are all prolific livebearers.
 
Bayesoft said:
To clarify....

The fry would be delivered automatically through the water return system. To the larger tank where the fry will be eaten by larger fish.

Thinking about using mollies, swordtails, guppies and maybe danios since they are all prolific livebearers.
Click to expand...
are danios livebearers ?? I was once told here (right in this forum) that they aren't !!
 
Bayesoft said:
Trying to plan out my 30g Amazon Tank and wanted to create a livebearer fry feeding system. Some sort of inline refugium that the livebearer adults could live in separately, supplying fry that would be delivered to the larger tank to supplement their diet.

I've got some ideas I'm kicking around. Has anyone done this or heard of it being done?
Click to expand...

Why not make it a heavy planted amazon tank and actually keep some livebearers in it along with the other fish. But what kind of fish are you planning on keeping in here?
 
Guppies have a pregnancy time of 3-4 weeks...so basicly every 28 days your fish will be fed...

Depends how much guppies you have i guess.
 
Danios lay eggs so avoid them. They also eat their eggs.

I would suggest white cloud mountain minnows or guppies. I think white clouds lay eggs, but they don't eat their own eggs. You should be able to get lots of fry from them ifthere anren't any other fish that will eat the eggs.

You might also consider brine shrimp. If you bought some frozen or hatched your own, there would be much more food than could be provided by a 30 gallon breeding tank.
 
My mistake on the Danios.... Just going to keep prolific livebearers in the feeding system. This is just a supplemental diet and will not be relied on exclusively. Going to try and get away with a 15g refugium/feeder breeder tank.

A co-worker said that the livebearers may eat all the fry before they get a chance to reach the feeder system. He suggested an underground filter suspended off the floor of the tank. Sorta like what you'd see in a hang-on-rim breeder tank.

I just had another design idea as I was writing this. The Feeder Breeder Tank could be part of a/the sump system. An acrylic compartment with the floor drilled.
 
Fleshed the idea out a little in my head tonight.

In the refugium I'll suspend/hold up a 10g feeder breeder acrylic tank with holes drilled in the bottom. The bottom will be covered with that cheap fake grass that fry are supposed to be able to hide in.

The refugium will have a bulkhead fitting below the acrylic tank to the sump pump. The sump will carry the fry into the main tank with the return water.

I realize this method will add a bioload after the filters have worked so hard to clean the water. It is a rather small bioload though and the tradeoff would be worth it IMO.

I doubt that the two or three different species of livebearers will have the same gestation rates or synchronized pregnancies. There should be a steady supply of feeder fry coming from the feeder breeder tank. I'll attach a 1/4" airline tube to the return line and feed it into the 10g for circulation.
 
Ummmm... You'll want to grow those fry out a little for'em to really make a impact foodwise, unless you have literally thousands of newly hatched to a few days old fry being bred almost continously.
What type of fish are you planning to feed?
 
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