Water Changes with Fry?

[itafx]

Are water changes hard on fry? How do you reduce their stress? Once I ended up with about 50 fry in my community tank. I wanted to raise them, but couldn't dedicate a 72 gallon for it, so I transferred them carefully to a 10 gallon at the same temp. After a few days they all died.

[bs6749]

I have wondered this myself with some of my GBR fry that I have had and I think I know what I did wrong. I transferred them into a ten gallon tank that was recently setup and I used RO water and some cleaned PFS as the substrate. Therefore there were few if any microorganisms for the fry to feed on as I don't think that they could eat the egg yolk and other stuff that I tried feeding them. I would say that the biggest factor when moving a fish would have to be the water temp, especially with very young fish. How old was the tank that you had setup?

[Mosaic]

I agree with bs6749. I transferred krib fry to a recently setup 10g, and soon they all died. My latest batch I moved into my planted nano, and they are thriving. I think they really depend on the microorganisms, especially when small. I had no problems when moving them or doing PWC in their nursery tank. I think it's just a matter of food supply. If you want to move them into their own tank you should probably culture some infusoria for them.

What kind of fish are they?

[itafx]

Can I get a little help on acronyms? GBR?, krib?

[bs6749]

GBR = German Blue Ram - A South American dwarf cichlid.

Krib = Kribensis (I think that is the spelling of it) - An African dwarf cichlid.

[Jchillin]

Originally Posted by bs6749

Krib = Kribensis (I think that is the spelling of it) - An African dwarf cichlid.

Yes...your spelling is absolutely correct.

[itafx]

Thx! I'm learning. Today I graduated from "apprentice" to "advice regular".

[itafx]

I've been pampering 3 Giant Danio fry in a 10 gal for about 6 weeks. This morning 2 were dead and they were the 2 that had seemed the healthiest. They had grown to about 1/2 inch long and I thought I was out of the woods It was heavily planted with large pots and a few days ago I took the pots and cleaned off some BGA that had grown up.

I'm about to give up trying to raise fry in a 10 gal. It just seems to hard to keep a ecosystem going in such a small tank well enough to support sensitive fry.

[BillD]

I don't try to keep up an "ecosystem" in a fry tank. Frequent large water changes to keep the water clean. Fry are sensitive to unclean water. The amount of water and change frequency would depend on the tank size and number of fry. As an example, with 200 angel fry, in a 30 extra long (48") I would change 60% daily.

[itafx]

Wow! How do you keep enough "prepared" water on hand for that kind of daily volume? The only feasible way I can imagine to do 18 gallons / tank / day is to use faucet water.

[Mosaic]

Faucet water should be fine as long as it's treated with a conditioner.

[itafx]

Originally Posted by Mosaic

Faucet water should be fine as long as it's treated with a conditioner.

I've never used conditioners. My faucet water is from a deep well we own and control. There are no chemicals introduced by any municipality or by me. I believe it's very clean. The only real concern I have with it is that it's Ph is around 7.8.

[BillD]

I did prepare half the water, with half from the tap. Now, all comes from the tap, with the cold part coming through a carbon filter (cannister type) which removes most of the chlorine.

[itafx]

Originally Posted by BillD

I did prepare half the water, with half from the tap. Now, all comes from the tap, with the cold part coming through a carbon filter (cannister type) which removes most of the chlorine.

How do you figure out how much cold part the fish can stand without too much of a shock in temperature?

[Diablos]

Here is an idea that has always worked for me, and it just to simple. If you are really trying to breed, you will notice a couple pair up. Take them out of the main tank and let them go in a seperate tank for awhile. Usually they won't breed right away, but should go long enough to get an ecosystem going. Than if you have to simply remove them one the fry hatch.

Or you could also have some cheap feeder fish going in the tank until it is needed for the breeders, too... or both I guess.

[BillD]

How do you figure out how much cold part the fish can stand without too much of a shock in temperature?[/quote]

I adde hot water to get it close. Now I have a liquid crystal, stick on thermometer attched to the pipe after the taps, so I can control the temp. If you can get within a few degrees, that is good enough. Better slightly warmer than cooler.