Baby - Fry - Food

[itafx]

I had a clutch of about 50 giant danios, but couldn't keep them fed. I hatched brine shrimp, but they were too big at first for the fry to eat. What can I feed without fouling the tank and how can I get/grow it in quantity?

Also, when I did get brine shrimp to hatch with an in-tank "hatch-n-feeder", I couldn't get a good steady supply to feed a lot of fry. Is there a better way?

 

[Zagz]

Some feed egg yolk, from hard boiled eggs. Depending on the size of the fry, well crushed flake food works, baby brine shrimp or commercial liquid fry foods. When my angelfish fry hatched I fed the egg yolk for the first while. I was moving and didn't have time to hatch baby brine shrimp.

 

[bs6749]

I would seriously consider Hikari First Bites. If you can't get it/ find it I would go with egg yolk (hard boiled and crushed up), cyclopzeeze or BBS. To feed the egg yolk you can crumble a small bit in a bowl and add some water, mash it up with a fork and then use a turkey baster or something similar to "spot feed" the fry. Not sure how much they are moving though so this may be difficult to do. They should be okay with crushed flake food if it comes down to that.

 

[itafx]

I have been concerned about egg yolk because it seems to be too easy to pollute the tank with it.

I heard a suggestion to wet a toothpick and dip it into the fry food to get small amounts. I tried it and it seems to work well with crushed flakes, but I'm having difficulty crushing the flakes small enough in a baggie.

 

[bs6749]

I would just take some flakes, place them in my palm and press on them with a circular motion with a finger or two to crush them.

That is the reason that I recommended the "spot feeding" with the yolk. It can cloud up the water and soil the water parameters if you overfeed.

 

[BrianNY]

Here's a link to culturing your own infusoria. It's simple and fry that are too small for even baby brine shrimp will eat these one celled creatures.

http://www.aqualandpetsplus.com/Live Food, Infusoria.htm

 

[itafx]

I took some pond water and brought it inside and cultured it for infusoria. There were lots of little organisms swimming around that the fry ate up. Any danger in that?

 

[BrianNY]

Yes. There is always a danger adding untreated water to your aquarium. You've no idea what (if any), pathogens or parasites are included. Additionally pond water can contain chemicals from run off. It should be avoided.

 

[itafx]

Yes. There is always a danger adding untreated water to your aquarium. You've no idea what (if any), pathogens or parasites are included. Additionally pond water can contain chemicals from run off. It should be avoided.

My 8,000 gal pond is lined with a raised edge, so no run off. I usually clean it totally annually and fill it with deep well water, so I think, in general, it's pretty clean. It's more like a huge aquarium than a farm pond. I grow large mouth bass and bluegill in it and haven't had fish kills, so that's another vote for it being clean. It just seems like an almost perfect and low risk source for infusoria to me.

 

[BrianNY]

OK, I hear ya. Then why would you ask if there were any danger? Seems like you've taken the precautions and you mind is made up.

 

[Mosaic]

Mystery snails are great sources of infusoria (in their poop), and they also help keep the tank clean.

 

[itafx]

Mystery snails are great sources of infusoria (in their poop), and they also help keep the tank clean.

I heard a recommendation to get nonhermaphroditic snails and get one where you can tell the sex and just get 1 sex so they don't overpopulate. Do Mystery snails fit this criterion?

 

[BillD]

I wouldn't use water that had fish in it, as there would be the possibility of parasites. Pond water that was fish free might be fine to use as an innoculant to start an infusoria culture. I have a temporary "pond" each spring that is the water on the winter cover of my swimming pool. I grow huge quantities of daphnia in it, and the water is surely rich in infusoria, as my dog "enriches" it over the winter. However, the initial starter of daphnia came from a pond that didn't have fish. the water form the original pond, I wouldn't put in my tanks.

 

[itafx]

By that logic, you wouldn't be able to have fish in your tropical fish tanks because there might be parasites. Also, it seems to me that dog do water would carry a hugely higher risk of introducing bad parasites than a clean pond with healthy fish.

 

[bs6749]

I think BillD was implying that there may be parasites present that will not harm one specie of fish but may be harmful to another. Angelfish are carriers of some parasites that may harm discus and that is why people recommend not putting these two together. BrianNY would know more about this than me though as he is really into discus.

 

[itafx]

I would just take some flakes, place them in my palm and press on them with a circular motion with a finger or two to crush them.

That is the reason that I recommended the "spot feeding" with the yolk. It can cloud up the water and soil the water parameters if you overfeed.

I crushed the flakes and got them small enough, but the finicky fry would eat the flakes, keep them in their mouths for 5 or 10 seconds and then spit them out. I sure hate seeing the tank get fouled because the eaters are so finicky.

 

[Mosaic]

Mystery snails are exactly what I was talking about. They're hard to sex, but if you only get one there won't be any problems. Even if you got more than one (which you will, because they are awesome), they lay their eggs above the water line so they are easy to spot and remove before they hatch.

 

[gu2high]

I raised zebra danio fry very successful. I use two foods to feed them, the first one is home-made, the second one is Hikari First Bites. Both are good, but I more prefer the home-made.

The home-made is a combination of brine shrimp, bloodworms, flakes, and anything you think is good nutrient. Mix and grind them into very fine particles. I have one bamboo grinder bought from China ($3) and use it with hands to grind the mixture for about 5 minutes. Got about 15 grams which is sufficient for raise thousands fry.

 

[itafx]

Mystery snails are exactly what I was talking about. They're hard to sex, but if you only get one there won't be any problems. Even if you got more than one (which you will, because they are awesome), they lay their eggs above the water line so they are easy to spot and remove before they hatch.

I had done some research on snails and found this quote out googling: "When purchasing apple snails, care must be taken. Some species will happily eat your plants. Pomacea bridgesii is the most commonly sold and is generally considered to be safe with most plants." Can you recommend a way of determining whether I'm getting a safe species of mystery snail?

 

[Mosaic]

There are 2 that are common plant eaters out there. One is a huge ramshorn (Marisa sp), so it's pretty obvious and easily avoidable. The other will be a brown or gold cana snail. The differences between these and bridgesii are subtle. However, to my knowledge, the canas only come in those two color forms (or some gradient of them). So if you want to be safe, get an ivory or blue mystery.

Check out applesnail.net for everything you ever wanted to know.