Newbie With Baby Zebras

[Two23]

I've been keeping a 5 gal tank (plastic hex with BioWheel & Pura filter pad) with x4 GloFish (zebra danios) for a year with no fish loss. For the second time I've had baby fish, about 20-30. (First batch didn't survive.) I've had them for about two weeks now and they are 2-3mm long. They are in a grapefruit sized glass bowl, no aeration & no filter. I do daily water changes from established tank, about a quarter to half cup of water, and remove film (thin scum) from top of water with a spoon. I've been feeding Fry Food daily, and try to remove old food from bowl as possible. With first batch of babies I tried using a nursery net in main tank but none survived.

I have just set up a new 1 gal tank. It has simple undergravel filter in which I placed a piece of Pura filter media in the uplift tube. Half the water came from extablished tank, half was bottled spring water. I put in 1/4 cap Cycle bacteria. Tank has been running for two days now.

My question is what do I do now? I can keep doing the daily water changes to the small glass bowl, but I really can't clean it too well because it's so easy to pipette off the baby fish along with the crud on the bottom. I was hoping to transfer babies to new tank after 7 days of setting it up. The 1 gal tank seems relatively huge and not sure if baby fish can find the food? Not sure the new 1 gal tank is the way to go right now, but the small bowl (with maybe 1 cup of water?) seems cramped. The small glass bowl will hold twice as much water but I've been keeping it half full to maximize surface to air contact. SO, what do I do at this point?


Kent in SD

 

[joy13]

The cleaner you keep them and the more room they have to move the healthier they will be. I don't know anything about cycle bacteria since I seed my tanks with some filter medium from another tank. You need to make sure your out grow tank is cycled since ammonia can kill the fry.

 

[missileman]

I keep platty and mollie fry in a 20 gallon. Don't worry they will find the food.

 

[Two23]

Thanks. I checked the bowl with the fry using test strips and found ammonia levels were very high. I immediately emptied half the water and replaced with bottled spring water. Levels are now OK. Looks like I need to be more aggressive with water changes. I've read more advice here and will take a piece of the filter pad from my established tank and put it into my new 1 gal tank.

There are no fish yet in my 1 gal tank, which I set up 2-3 days ago. Should I put one of my GloFish (danio) in the new tank to cycle or wait a few more days? I also have three ghost shrimp in another established 5 gal tank. I really don't want to lose these fish though. I've had them awhile and take very good care of them. I'm still wondering if the 1 gal tank is going to be too large for the fry fish, which are only 2-3mm long.

I've been reading about infusoria. Where I live it's been below zero until today. The ponds have a foot or two of ice on them. Should I try the lettuce or potato method of growing some protozoa for food?

I've been feeding HBH Baby Bites and Hikari First Bites for the past two weeks. I alternate them, and try to skim off uneaten food once a day.


Kent in SD

 

[missileman]

I would put one adult in the 1 gallon, it will not cycle and any bacteria you seed it with will die without an amonia source (fish poo)
As for food, my fry will eat crushed flake food. I have some fry about 3 weeks old that even nibble on the piece of zuchini I put in for one of my BN plecos.

 

[joy13]

You probably don't have time to start a batch of infusoria right now it takes about a week or two to get it started. The food you are feeding them now should work. One thing about fry you major in water changing.

 

[meegosh]

I wouldn't worry about the fry finding food. I had some guppy fry survive to adulthood in my 30g, with many predators. All of my male guppies (12 total) were grown out in a 10g with adult female guppies. They will find the food. If you want to see a frenzy, try dropping a shrimp pellet in and come back in 5 minutes, every fry in the tank will be fighting for a piece.

 

[Two23]

I ended up putting one of my adult GloFish into the 1g tank to get it started. I picked the bully fish, the one that's always chasing and nipping the others. He could use a time out. I'm now checking the ammonia levels of the baby bowl daily and finding that it gets high pretty quickly. I'm thinking I have more like 40 little fish in there! I've tried a little harder to do a better job of cleaning out the poo at the bottom of the baby bowl too. I stuck some strips of the slimy filter from my 5g tank into the uplift air tube of my 1g tank as a bacteria source.

The bully fish doesn't seem real happy about his new home, but once I tossed some food in all was forgotten. I will check that tank's ammonia level daily also. I'm hoping I don't have to keep this 3 ring circus going too long! Maybe 10 days would do it?


Kent in SD

 

[cwt]

yeah, adults will get ornery if they are put in smaller tanks. He/she will get over it as long as the water's clean and it is fed.

I didn't have any problem feeding my zebra fry; the Hikari First bites work, and I had hatched a few brine shrimp packets which everyone in the tank loves. Zebras are aggressive feeders, but you probably already know that. The adults will eat the fry up until the fry are about 1/2" long, so you have a while before they can go into the bigger tank. Hope you can keep the water clean!