Found a fry! What to do?

A

amy

a.k.a. achu
Dec 1, 1999
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Austin, TX
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:eek: I found a fry while changing the water in my 15 gal community. It's from a platy and less than 1/4 inch long. It's hanging out near the gravel under a bunch of fake plants in the tank.

How do I increase its chances for survival? If I can catch it and put it in a QT tank, do I need to buy special food for it? If I can't catch it, what else beyond putting a sponge over the intake of the HOB can I do?

My 3 year old daughter is rather excited that we have a baby fish.

Thanks for all your inputs!
 
Caught the fry

I've got the little guy in a plastic cup that's floating in the main tank.

Do those clear nursery things that float in the tank really help? Seems like it would be easier to keep a steady temperature as part of the big tank instead of setting up a QT....
 
Um...generally new fry are fairly easy to catch. You would have the best chance of it surviving if you moved it out to either a QT tank or got one of those little breeder nets that hang on your main tank. Seeing as you only have one that would probably be the easiest to do. You can get them fairly cheap from places like Walmart even. As for food, you don't have to have anything special for them, just take some flake food and crush it up into a powder and feed that. If you can't catch it, you can put the sponge over the intake and just make sure there's lots of cover and places for it to hide and hope for the best!
 
My guppies have fry a ton, buy a 2 way breeder from the pet store (petsmart is where I got mine) and put him in there. The 2 way breeder will float and keep him safe.

amy said:
I've got the little guy in a plastic cup that's floating in the main tank.

Do those clear nursery things that float in the tank really help? Seems like it would be easier to keep a steady temperature as part of the big tank instead of setting up a QT....
Click to expand...
Yes, those things do work. I have one. Its called a 2 way breeder.
 
You can buy livebreeder fry food and it's designed for growth and nutrition of growing fishes such as guppies, mollies, platies, etc. But crushed up tropical flake works just fine. It's up to you how involved you'd want to get with the fry in your community tank.

Just make sure you keep the breeder net clean! My friend's mother let the water in hers get stagnant and let some fish food build up at the bottom of the net she had her guppy fry in and it actually raised the pH inside the net higher than the pH outside of the tank. There is some water circulation between the tank and the inside of the net, but it's still very imporant to keep it CLEAN.
 
I feed my fry a mix of this special liquid food that they can suck up and crushed up tropical flakes
 
I take regular flakes and crush it up to POWDER and they eat it!
Hope it helps:)
 
daayda3 said:
I take regular flakes and crush it up to POWDER and they eat it!
Hope it helps:)
Click to expand...
Thats what I do, as well. You have to make sure the peices are teeny enough to fit in their tiny mouths, if they are the width of this smiley :) imagine how small their mouths are.
 
yeah, i get a little bag (the kind xtra buttons come it) and fill it up with food and crush it till it it powder... not "little" flakes... POWDER lol:)
 
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