Clean-up crew for fry tank

[CrazyPlantLady]

I've heard that some snails would be a good cleanup crew for a fry tank. Could anyone recommend a particular snail or some other alternative animal to clean up any excess food in a fry grow-out tank?

Just don't want anything to eat the fry!

 

[mgamer20o0]

 

[severum mama]

raise the fry in a bare bottom tank and do frequent water changes.

 

[d1anonly22]

i raise dempsey fry and molly fry, and for cleaning purposes i have mystery snails who do an excellent job. they even eat the fry that have died but dont mess with the live ones.

 

[HN1]

I've used pond snails in my fry tanks in the past, but agree that water changes and vacs are easiest. I also have loaches that I wanted to keep fat so allowing and growing the snails was dual purpose.

 

[thatmagicguy]

I use bare bottom tanks with sponge filters if I use a filter at all. I do daily water changes and feed live food. I just use regular air tubing to siphon off any uneaten food. I have used pond snails in my tetra rearing tanks. They not only eat uneaten food but promote infusoria. Water changes are ALWAYS nescessary to raise large healthy fry quickly.

 

[CrazyPlantLady]

Thanks everyone!

I plan to use a barebottom tank with some Java Moss and a sponge filter. I have a 2nd one running in the parents' tank and will move that over when the time comes.

I culture Walter worms and microworms as well as infusoria, so should be set for some live foods.

I had planned on 50% water changes daily. Is that too much or not enough? The fry will be microrasbora, so very very tiny. I don't want to shock them. I have 5, 10, and 15 gallon tanks to choose from. Any thoughts on the 'right' size to try this?

 

[thatmagicguy]

Thanks everyone!

I plan to use a barebottom tank with some Java Moss and a sponge filter. I have a 2nd one running in the parents' tank and will move that over when the time comes.

I culture Walter worms and microworms as well as infusoria, so should be set for some live foods.

I had planned on 50% water changes daily. Is that too much or not enough? The fry will be microrasbora, so very very tiny. I don't want to shock them. I have 5, 10, and 15 gallon tanks to choose from. Any thoughts on the 'right' size to try this?

Don't start water changes in your fry tank till the micro-rasboras have a weeks growth on them after they go free swimming. Accordingly, you will need to be careful about your feeding regimen. When I bred neons I would vacuum off the bare bottom with regular airline tubing. I would reintroduce new water with a slow drip to avoid shocking the fry. Once your fry are larger and able to chase prey down then you can work on a more frequent water change regimen that suits them.

 

[CrazyPlantLady]

Thanks for the tips! I actually use the drip method to do all my water changes, so that's nothing new.

I get a few fry that survive in the tank with the parents, likely because its so heavily planted. But I end up siphoning them out when I do water changes. I try to catch them and put them back in the tank, but I think they could be injured with repeated handling.

Would you say the smaller tank would be best then initially, and move them up to larger tanks as they grow?

 

[thatmagicguy]

It's amazing how much fry can go through. When I first developed my neon tetra hatchery I would actually sit at a table and use a syringe and piece of tubing to suck up every newly hatched fry from the spawning tank and move them to a small fry tank. I never lost any this way and it is insane to go back and read my notes on spawning numbers. I did this with glo lite tetras and on one spawning I actually got 762 live babies from one spawning. Unbelieveable. But they really do handle alot more abuse than we give them credit for.

 

[CrazyPlantLady]

762??! I'd need to install a POND in my house for that many!!

I have two species of fish in the planted tank that I'd like to try breeding. They both occasionally produce fry that survive. I guess with the amount of plants in there and the infusoria, they find places to hide and stuff to eat. Plus I see them grazing on the sponge filter.

I'd just like to be able to do some aquascaping in there and don't want to stir things up if there are developing fry. I thought I'd remove all the fish to the smaller tanks while I re-do things then put them back if they spawned in the Java Moss I'll provide them. I see them hanging out in the moss and also Riccia fluitans.

 

[Rikesh]

..... I did this with glo lite tetras and on one spawning I actually got 762 live babies from one spawning. Unbelieveable. But they really do handle alot more abuse than we give them credit for.

Did you get that from one pair??

 

[colematthewmalaka]

Mystery snails are supposed to be good for that.

 

[colematthewmalaka]

sorry pic didn't work

 

[thatmagicguy]

Did you get that from one pair??

Yes, I did. One thing that I found startling when I was mass producing the small tetras like neons and glolites, and even medium tetras like black neons, was that when you pulled fish for brood stock they would grow to sizes you will never see in a store. I believed it probably had to do more with the superior diets and water quality provided for breeders as opposed to a hormone thing like I initially hypothesized. When you visit commercial hatcheries and if they let you in their breeding houses which they seldom do, you will see fish that are so much larger and bulkier than store bought fish.

 

[Rikesh]

That's really awesome!! You should tell me what you feed them, I lose most of my fry due to bad feeding.

 

[thatmagicguy]

Fry of most tetras should be started on a rich infusoria culture. Fry tanks should be kept relatively clean. I have never used gravel or anything else in my fry tanks. When I use filters I only use sponge filters. And I do like snails, getting back to the original topic. The only thing about snails is that once they are in a tank you cannot use that tank again for spawning purposes unless it is sterilized. But I always have had separate spawning and rearing tanks. After baby tetras have been on infusoria for 2 or 3 days they get nothing but newly hatched brine shrimp. At 3-4 weeks old they reicieve flake food so they will be accustomed to eating in the retail environment.

I have also moved fry outdoors into lined ponds to grow out a day or so after they become free swimming. These ponds are of course teeming with live food for small fry. The loss rate is about 25 to 30 percent in outdoor ponds. In tanks it is nearly zero once they are free swimming. The advantage to pond grow out is the speed that they grow out. Most small to medium tetras grow out to selling size in 8-10 weeks.

As for the broodstock. Their main food source is newly hatched brine shrimp. Supplemented with black mosquito larvae that I culture myself. Sparingly they may get flakes. Once breeders have been isolated and conditioned they grow large. They are kept in bare tanks with a sponge filter and get water changes every couple days if not daily.

Bill

 

[Aadil]

hi blocks !
thank u so much for the help i was searching the answer for this from ages lol.....tnx for making it that much clear......Peace!
regards