German Blue Ram fry death

[nimbus46]

I have made a somewhat a unsuccessful attempt at raising german blue ram fry. I have a death ratio of 96% to 100%. I have almost tried everything. Here it goes:

When fry eggs have been fertilized I left them in tank till they started to wiggle, the parents moved them, and I never found them again, so

I moved them to a different tank (pint size) after they had been fertilized and they hatched but after their yolk sack was used (3-4days) and they were free swimming I started feeding them Walter Worms.
I changed the water 3 times a day with parents tank water. It is average that I lose 2-5 fry a day. They are eating, pooping, and swimming ok but I wake up in the morning and I have death at the bottom.
I also wanted to mention I have aeration constantly in the pint tank and the water is kept at a constant 84 degrees.

I just need them to get to a good size to I can start feeding Brine Shrimp.

I have had a few fry live from each one, but the ratio is not good.

All water parameters are normal and within range.

Anybody got suggestions?????

Thanks in advance

 

[Toirtis]

'Pint' is awfully small....I would be using something about 2 gallon-3 gallon with a sponge filter....it is possible that the very small size of the tank is afftecting your mortality rates.

 

[nimbus46]

Hey Toirtis

Thanks for the reply. I made a mistake in calling it a pint it is more of a quart. The reason I use such a small tank is because if I used anything bigger, they would never be able to see the Walter worms. I tried the 2.5 gal and my mortality was 100% because I think they starved. That is the reason why I do 3 water changes a day with the parents tanks water. Do you know of anything smaller I could feed these little guys than the Vinegar worms?

 

[mumrah]

You could just try letting the parents raise them. From what i hear, they will figure it out after a few attempts.

 

[nimbus46]

I have free swimmers!

mumrah


Ok so I took your advice and a week ago I had one of my pairs lay eggs and let them raise their own. It is just the two of them in the 10 gal tank. Its very hard to not try to get involved, but I have managed to let their instincts take over. I am happy to say that the babies are free swimming and all I am doing is providing Walter worms to their environment. There were about 100 eggs and right now I have about 50 free swimming. As far I can tell I am still ahead of the game. But I don't think I could do this with my other pair only because there are other fish in the tank.

I will keep you updated

Thanks so much

nimbus

 

[rubysoho]

good luck! I've been down this road before and came very close to success until my female died. I never found out why she got sick. Letting the parents raise the fry themselves is a ton of fun to watch! Once they are big enough to eat baby brine shrimp, I would get them into their own "grow out" tank because by then the parents could have another batch of eggs on the way and will eat their fry because the fry would be a threat to the new eggs. I don't know why, but this is just a problem I've found that many people experience when trying to breed GBR's. I hope one day I can start up again. Keep us posted (so I can live vicariously through you! )

 

[Rondory]

Congratulations on getting a bit farther along with your fry! I hope they continue to grow!

 

[nimbus46]

Just had to share this pic, I couldn't resist. It's one of those pics you know your never gonna get again. I swear that little sucker was looking at me!

 

[BrianNY]

IME I've always considered raising fry to be more difficult than spawning fish. I think this is for several reasons.

1. They are very intolerant of even minor changes in their environment. I've actually witnissed fry deaths from the shock of merely turning the light on. I've seen many die immediately after a water change. Perhaps I wasn't careful enough getting the water params where they needed to be.

2. Where adult fish have had time to build up their immune system, fry have not. Any pathogen or parasite in the water column that an adult wouldn't even stress under, results in fry fatalities.

3. For whatever reason many fry have digestive tracts that don't or won't develope properly and they either starve or eat themselves to death.

These are just my theories.