Omigosh I have killifish babies! Care?

[siva]

Thanks Wendi! I've read it's just 2 wks but I found the first 4 fry atleast 6 wks after the mom and dad were gone, so I'm not sure. They were pretty easy to find..I mean they shot right out when I was gravel vac'ing so I really don't think they had been in there long, and then the next 2 I found are still much smaller, they must've hatched later. I know now that the gardneris sprinkle their eggs all over the substrate so I imagine I would have had alot more babies had I not vac'd the gravel so thoroughly every week! Which means in their new tank, where I do want them to breed, I won't be using a gravel vac. That's going to be..interesting...

 

[WendiDell]

Thanks Wendi! I've read it's just 2 wks but I found the first 4 fry atleast 6 wks after the mom and dad were gone, so I'm not sure. They were pretty easy to find..I mean they shot right out when I was gravel vac'ing so I really don't think they had been in there long, and then the next 2 I found are still much smaller, they must've hatched later. I know now that the gardneris sprinkle their eggs all over the substrate so I imagine I would have had alot more babies had I not vac'd the gravel so thoroughly every week! Which means in their new tank, where I do want them to breed, I won't be using a gravel vac. That's going to be..interesting...

My Kenyi just had fry day before yesterday, but they are so tiny that each one can hide behind a piece of gravel so I've no idea how many are there are, I've only seen three so far.
This is all very new for me. In seven years of keeping fish, we never had babies.
Any advice for a noob on how best to care for these tiny guys?

 

[siva]

Yay, it's always exciting to find babies! Yes that's where mine were hiding! Down in the crevices in the substrate. Tricky little buggers. I've only ever had 2 platy fry before, so I'm not much more experienced than you are. I've read hatching your own brine shrimp is best, but with both those platy and these killi's, I've been doing powdered fry food in the mornings (graduating to ground flake pretty quickly) and thawed brine shrimp in the evenings. So far it seems to do the trick..they sure grow fast!

 

[WendiDell]

Yay, it's always exciting to find babies! Yes that's where mine were hiding! Down in the crevices in the substrate. Tricky little buggers. I've only ever had 2 platy fry before, so I'm not much more experienced than you are. I've read hatching your own brine shrimp is best, but with both those platy and these killi's, I've been doing powdered fry food in the mornings (graduating to ground flake pretty quickly) and thawed brine shrimp in the evenings. So far it seems to do the trick..they sure grow fast!

I went out and got the fry powder too. when the fry are big enough to eat something else, I have some NLS Grow, which I've fed to all my Mbunas and they have grown HUGE and healthy. So most likely I will stick with the NLS. It's pretty amazing food, really.
My only problem now is that I;m suppose to remove Rainbow (Mom) from the fry tank tonigt or tomorrow at the latest. But every time I go near the tank she scoops the fry up in her mouth to protect them from danger (or me) so if I put her back in the main tank a few fry will end up there too, not good for the fry.
Any ideas on how to move mom and not babies?

 

[siva]

Well my goodness it doesn't sound possible! You need to talk to the cichlid ppl! She can't stay with the babies? She sure sounds like a good mommy..I really didn't know of any fish doing that sort of thing.

 

[WendiDell]

Well my goodness it doesn't sound possible! You need to talk to the cichlid ppl! She can't stay with the babies? She sure sounds like a good mommy..I really didn't know of any fish doing that sort of thing.

She's a mouth brooder, it's what they all do. She carried the eggs in her mouth for 3 weeks and never ate. Of course she eating like mad now.
I was told that after she's eaten for a few days she's suppose to go back with the other Mbunas while the Fry grow up. Once the Fry reach about 1" they can be sold. If I had the space I'd keep them just because they are our first, but I'm maxed out on tank space.

 

[siva]

Wow, how interesting. Cichlids are so cool. How do you plan on selling them? I wish I lived in a larger city so I could do some direct selling locally via craigslist or something like that.

 

[WendiDell]

Wow, how interesting. Cichlids are so cool. How do you plan on selling them? I wish I lived in a larger city so I could do some direct selling locally via craigslist or something like that.

McMinnville, Or. isn't very big either but, Salem is an hour or so away and Portland is two hours away. With lots of dinky towns in between.
I plan on posting pictures of them
and selling them on craigslist. It's the only way I can think of to sell them.

 

[siva]

McMinnville, Or. isn't very big either but, Salem is an hour or so away and Portland is two hours away. With lots of dinky towns in between.
I plan on posting pictures of them
and selling them on craigslist. It's the only way I can think of to sell them.

It's bigger than Roseburg lol I don't know, maybe there are more hobbyists around here than I would think. We only have one good lfs so there should be some demand. If not there's always aquabid..just need some kordon bags and heat packs.