How can I tell if my fry are getting enough to eat?!

S

stateoforange

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Dec 28, 2009
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To all those who are able to help me,

I've got some (10 or so) mountain minnow fry in a small floating enclosure in my main tank and I've had absolutely no success with previous batches of fry my adult fish seem to constantly produce.

I finally worked out that the previous fry batches weren't eating the store bought liquid fry food and thats why they weren't surviving, and then I was told that egg yolk was a good substitute so I've tried that with my current batch of fry.

They do seem to be eating some it, although half the time they spit the wee pieces of yolk back out.

So (finally lol) my question is how do I tell if they are eating enough? (I also had some infusoria that I put in there, but obviously couldnt see them eating it.)

please help :)
 
look at their tummys,.. if full then their eating,.. spit out food means it may not like it or more likely its a wee bit to big,.. will fit in mouth but hard to swallow,..

even for some smaller fry i still grind between my fingers yolk or even first bites powder it still is soooo tiny but still i try to make it smaller,..
best bet is also to have a aged sponge filter that has had snail around it for insufora,.. i use my briggs for this,. and have them in with fry if i need to,.. all my fry are born in tanks with them and sponges so they can eat from that and mature plants in the tank with insufora on them also,..
 
Is the entrapment in the enclosure absolutely, positively necessary? I never worry much about feeding fry--all livebearer sorts so far, molly and platy and endler and such--but I also either leave them in the tank where they were born or in some cases move them to a growout tank that is also loaded with plants.

I grind up a bit of flake food as small as I can get it and they get a bit of that every day if the latter case, and in the former they get whatever the adults don't scarf up first. I take the approach that they manage to subsist entirely on their own in their natural environment and try to duplicate that as much as reasonably possible.

If they can't for whatever reason roam the main tank, perhaps you could try including a good clump of plant material in the enclosure and let them nibble as they see fit. Guppy grass, riccia, a stem plant you have a surplus of, whatever comes to hand. Might be worth a shot. :)

best of luck to you and the little ones.
 
My assorted Mbuna 244 tank has all kids of little fry that pop out of the artificial reef I created and the aggressive adults can never seem to eat them as they dart in and out of the sharp dead corals. After the adults have eaten their normal diet of pellets I turn the bi-directional nozzle on my Hot Mag 250 up high so it shooting a strait stream of water down into the tank in the direction of the reef and then I let loose a few big pinches of cichlid flake under water and it gets shoot down into the reef and the babies eat it.

Im sure some of the fry don't make it and get eaten or starve, but I notice the ones that do survive are brave and aggressive eaters, also very fast and confident about the reef and dive into the sharpest pipe organ corals. But releasing the flake underwater and not on top seems to make it soft enough to eat bu even the smallest fry.
 
Cheers for the advice, is it possible that they are too full that they would be spitting bits of yolk back out?

jm1212-I did give crushed flake a go before the yolk attempt and they didnt even go near it, I think 1 of them tried to, but didnt actually eat any of it.

XanAvaloni-I've almost half filled their little enclosure with java moss, do you think there will be some infusoria with it? Also, I have tried with 1 or 2 previous batches to leave them in the main tank, but like all the others they didnt survive, I've been told that the main tank might have been 'too clean' and not had enough food for the fry.

dixienut-When you say 'aged sponge filter', do you mean from the main filtration system? because I could probably cut some out of one of the filter pads being used in the main tank and put it in with them

Any more advice would be greatly appreciated :)
 
Get yourself a Microworm culture.
 
stateoforange;2 dixienut-When you say 'aged sponge filter' said:
i mean one that has been running in a tank that has been set up for over 6 months,.. perhaps it may work but a sponge filter wont have junk on it from the main filter,.. if it isn't covered in real "crap",..lol it might work,.. does the tank it came from have snails? as snails harbor insufora inside them so its excreated from them, or how ever it goes,..

java most that has been in a tank and not messed with that holds snails may work but you need lots of it ,. can you find these items and move the to a real tank of their own? or perhaps just put tons of plants in the main tank and let them be naturally tons of floating anacharis, duckweed, guppy grass, and java moss,.. and your babies should grow fine,.. oh and many snails,.. but not too may to eat the eggs,.. perhaps a snail tank with sponge filter and just keep switiching it over and back again,.. that way no snails to eat eggs,..

make he tank like they need it not how you liketo look at it


thats the key,......
Click to expand...
 
The sponge filter I can try for sure, but I dont have another tank to set up for the fry unfortunately. The java moss does have a few small snails roaming it, as does the main tank where I get the water for the water changes in the floating fry enclosure.

As for microworms, I understand that they require a relatively warm temperature? Since I am a student in a flat in the middle winter the temperature isnt very high (dont worry, I may be a student, but my fish get taken care of extremely well, weekly 40% water changes, variety of foods, etc, and a heater to keep the temperature above 17 degrees celsius/64 fahrenheit), so microworm culturing may not be an option....what do you guys think? The temperature doesnt really get above 15 degrees celsius (59 fahrenheit) so is that too cold for a microworm culture?

But back to the fry......should their stomachs be bulbous if they have had enough to eat? or darker in colour because of the food? Mine arent emaciated, but definitely do not have dark or obviously bulbous stomachs.

(keep this incredible advice coming !!! :) )
 
i have micro worms and no they don't need warmth i have mine near a window that get cold night air and my furnace came on last night so its not warm here and they do great,..
all i use are yeast and oatmeal baby cereal,.. and they do great but i have to renew the culture after a while when i see that they have stopped crawling up the sides,.. not sure what that means but i redo it and they are fine after,.. i know nothing else about them,.. i have just had the cultures for a few months,.. i can send you some if you need,..
i can mix a batch and send it out,.. not sure if the temps there will harm them or not,.. others have said that they like it cooler,.. if that helps,..
 
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