Now.. I just keep feeding them. Wait and see how many will grow up. A real high percentage of fry don't make it through the first month for one reason or another. So that's expected. All I can do is hope it's nature's choosing and not something that I've done wrong as that happens.
Once they're big enough that I can SEE them again inside that net/box, I'll be a lot happier about this. Keeping the water clear in those small glasses was a lot of extra work for me. But the upside to that was having such a simple, magnified view of them that I could see what was happening. I could tell which ones needed to be culled right away because they came out severely bent or twisted.. I could spot the slightest bit of fungus before that got out of control.. I could see when they had full bellies and tell when they needed to be fed again. In the tank now, the water flows through the netting gently. It stays clean well enough, but I can't see them now. I can't tell how much food gets rinsed away or falls through the bottom. So I tend to feed more of it, just as often still. The big fish must remember how good that baby food tasted. Every time I'm there to feed the fry, the grown ups come up to the box and suck up whatever they can get through the screen at the bottom.
This is more complicated now too. I'm not only dealing with one spawn anymore, but two. I continued to collect other hatched fry from the tank that had reached the free swimming stage whenever I could find one. Those are all with the rest of the fry in the breeder net. When Cassandra spawned again, I left all those eggs alone. I had my hands full with what I was doing already.
Well now... some of those eggs have already hatched. There's a whole new crop of baby fry for me to get out of there. I've collected 10 of them today... They're just a day or two old.. still have yolk sacs and they can't swim yet but they dart around. The ones who make to the top edges rest against the glass. That's when I can either net them or suck them into the dropper. I've been putting them in with the others. What this means is the whole tank is full of these creatures at all stages. There are still unhatched eggs in all the plants. Fallen eggs and newly hatched fry are on the substrate.. getting eaten or buried, or both... who knows. It'll be 2 weeks before I can vacuum that sand again. My tank has been trashed - almost all my plants got uprooted and are floating at the top. I dare not disturb anything in there now. So many babies who are too small to swim are clinging to the plants and glass. To keep up with small water changes, I'll use a pitcher to scoop the water out and a bucket where I can check it before that goes down the drain.
Meanwhile.. I'm hatching brine shrimp and setting up some new tanks.
Once they're big enough that I can SEE them again inside that net/box, I'll be a lot happier about this. Keeping the water clear in those small glasses was a lot of extra work for me. But the upside to that was having such a simple, magnified view of them that I could see what was happening. I could tell which ones needed to be culled right away because they came out severely bent or twisted.. I could spot the slightest bit of fungus before that got out of control.. I could see when they had full bellies and tell when they needed to be fed again. In the tank now, the water flows through the netting gently. It stays clean well enough, but I can't see them now. I can't tell how much food gets rinsed away or falls through the bottom. So I tend to feed more of it, just as often still. The big fish must remember how good that baby food tasted. Every time I'm there to feed the fry, the grown ups come up to the box and suck up whatever they can get through the screen at the bottom.
This is more complicated now too. I'm not only dealing with one spawn anymore, but two. I continued to collect other hatched fry from the tank that had reached the free swimming stage whenever I could find one. Those are all with the rest of the fry in the breeder net. When Cassandra spawned again, I left all those eggs alone. I had my hands full with what I was doing already.
Well now... some of those eggs have already hatched. There's a whole new crop of baby fry for me to get out of there. I've collected 10 of them today... They're just a day or two old.. still have yolk sacs and they can't swim yet but they dart around. The ones who make to the top edges rest against the glass. That's when I can either net them or suck them into the dropper. I've been putting them in with the others. What this means is the whole tank is full of these creatures at all stages. There are still unhatched eggs in all the plants. Fallen eggs and newly hatched fry are on the substrate.. getting eaten or buried, or both... who knows. It'll be 2 weeks before I can vacuum that sand again. My tank has been trashed - almost all my plants got uprooted and are floating at the top. I dare not disturb anything in there now. So many babies who are too small to swim are clinging to the plants and glass. To keep up with small water changes, I'll use a pitcher to scoop the water out and a bucket where I can check it before that goes down the drain.
Meanwhile.. I'm hatching brine shrimp and setting up some new tanks.
