Hatching eggs with out the Mom {Apisto fry being used}

[maxwell1295]

I think I'm going nuts here. I was way off on the numbers. The ones that weren't moving before are moving now and free swimming (I assumed they were dead). Now it doesn't look like any of them are dead at this point. I did a rough count and it looks like I may have ~75 fry in there right now. As of yesterday, I thought that only 10-20 had made it, but now I see that most of them just weren't moving yet. That's incredible with all the wild fluctuations in my temps.

I'll try to get some pics up tomorrow evening when I get in. I want to try to catch them in natural light. They are still so tiny that taking pics might be difficult.

 

[Guest]

A lot of times what happens is they will stop all movment for a while. Then pick back up when your not looking. It's a littlie easyer to stop the air stone an whatch for movment like that. You can leave the air sone off for around 10 mins and that gives you a pretty good count. Another thing could have been the differnts in the temps has cause'd some to hatch later.
Kinda like killi's do some one day some the next day or two later. You find that some will be free swimming way before others and this is because of the killi facter as i call it. I'll bet when it's all said and done your hatch counts going to be around 80% of the total count.

 

[maxwell1295]

Man, this is been a real learning experience.

Things I've learned so far:

1. Remove the rock, leaf, or whatever the fish spawned on as soon as the eggs are hatched. The unhatched (fungused) eggs can foul up the tank pretty quickly.

1. Regulating the temp can be tough with a sma container. It may be a good idea to use a bigger container or a really small heater like the one Weasel F. mentioned above.

2. Egg yolk can be messy! It's handy becuase you're more than likely to have some eggs around.

3. Water changes can be fun. I syphoned about 10 of those little suckers up when trying to get the extra leftover egg yolk out of the container.

4. Fry (at last these guys) are much hardier than I expected them to be. With all the mistakes I made, they are hanging tough. I feel like a proud grandparent.

 

[Guest]

Hey Max if you get a change post a pic or two of the little guys/gals . It's some times more fun then alot of people want to take on. They thank at frist this will be a cake walk. Then it soon turns into take ungly four letter word {WORK} iT'S WORTH IT IN THE END THOU. I thank anyway.
I find it to be fun to see them go from egg to aduly in the fast amount of time. LOL

 

[maxwell1295]

I plan on moving them into a real 10g tank, probably on Saturday. I will post some pics then....if not sooner. I took a few yesterday, but it was tough to get a clear shot.

 

[maxwell1295]

Yesterday was a bad day...

I lost ALL of my ram fry. They were fine when I left in the AM. Since I didn't get home until almost 10pm last night, there's no way I can monitor them during the day. I have no idea whether it was the temp or water conditions (egg yolk is messy), but they were all gone...

On top of that, my female was laboring and sitting on the gravel. I'm at 86*F (treating ich), but the other parameters are ideal (ph 6.6/0ppm ammonia/0ppm nitrite/5ppm nitrate). I lost her overnight...

It was not a good day.

 

[Guest]

OOOHHH this was the fry you hatched with the parentless hatch Max? Man I was just fixing to ask how they where doing. I'm needing a male too. LOL Oh well next time we'll knowto get a new heater before we try huh? Now was the female in with the fry?