Fry in heavily planted tanks

Starry

Starry

Occasionally sighted.
May 15, 2002
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Brampton, Ont
This is a stupid question. How the heck do you keep fry alive in a heavily planted tank if you can't feed them? I'm talking about livebearers, nothing fancy. I was never looking for a platy overpopulation, just enough survivers to sustain the population and have something moving in the tank. I had a few grow up within the past year, but lately I noticed that while I see fry up to maybe a week or two old, none of them ever make it to adulthood. I know it's not the adults eating them cause there's just too many plants, and they're always hiding near the bottom anyway. So I figured out that when I removed my sponge filter, I removed their food source. Poor things. And I thought they could live off algae and stuff till they get enough brains to come up for food.
So, how do people do it? For now, I actually put a sponge in the tank, which will grow enough baby food in a few weeks I guess. I just get sad when I see fry for a week or two and give them names only to have them disappear. But what's the conventional way?
 
You can feed livebearer fry on finely crushed flake, bbs, cyclop-eeze is great for fry too. Also, parents/adults will eat the fry for a while. I have always relied on heavy planting to protect fry as well as provide infusoria for them.

If there is food in the tank they can eat, the fry will manage to find it. Also, feed the adults well to make them less interested in eating fry.
 
Yeah, but the fry don't come up to eat! I've always fed them crushed flakes and bloodworms, but in this tank they're always hiding at the bottom... It takes them about a month until they grow enough that they're not scared to come out I guess, then they come up to eat. But if there isn't enough stuff to pick off the plants in their first few days....
 
I have no idea why your tank should differ so much from mine. I have two platy pairs in a heavily planted 25 tall. I am constantly having to pull out juveniles and put them into a growout tank to keep the main tank from being overpopulated. Presumably the clown loaches and their parents get a few of the newborns, but they seem to be safe after about a week. At that point, they are up at the surface, pigging out with their parents and sibs.

As far as food, platies are grazers, and mine have a lot of algae in their diet. They graze off the plants, the sides, wherever. Is your tank so clean that there isn't much for the little guys to eat?

Another possible difference is that I have a lot of plants reaching the surface. This probably makes them feel a lot more comfortable about coming up at dinnertime. Depending on the pruning schedule, there is usually a hefty growth of rotala, apon ulvaceous, or giant hygro up to, or emerging from the surface.

Edit. I just checked your specs, and the tank looks as overgrown as mine. I am mystified. Maybe my tendency to overfeed makes a difference.
 
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mogurnda - That is weird. My plants are always overgrown too, I prune every weekend, and by the end of the week light barely reaches the bottom. Luckily I've cut down on algae lately, but come on, how much algae could a fry need anyway? It's not like they strip my plants and glass shiny clean, there's always a little bit. The sponge filter seems to really make a difference though. Before, they were always always nipping at it. And it does take them at least a few weeks to start coming up to eat. Maybe mine are just dumber :)
 
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