Possible Fry Deformity?

[sf_discus]

I have some 6 week old fry and some of them have an indent in the forehead area, like the one pictured below. I am doing 75% daily water changes and feeding Vern Archers beef heart mix to them 3-4 times daily. The female parent of this spawn is a bit “beaky” so I guess it could be genetic, but what are the odds this resolves itself as they grow? Or is this deformity mostly likely permanent? Thanks.
IMG_0115.jpg

[brewmaster15]

I have some 6 week old fry and some of them have an indent in the forehead area, like the one pictured below. I am doing 75% daily water changes and feeding Vern Archers beef heart mix to them 3-4 times daily. The female parent of this spawn is a bit “beaky” so I guess it could be genetic, but what are the odds this resolves itself as they grow? Or is this deformity mostly likely permanent? Thanks.
IMG_0115.jpg

Hi,
Thats a growth plate you are seeing.. if the fish were darker colored you would probably see what looks a small gash on the gill plate. Its typically from power feeding high protein foods and and/ or lack of proper minerals in the diet or water. Do you have soft water? These are basically stretch marks where the fish is putting on muscle and tissue faster than the skeletal system can keep up with.

Solutions.. add more minerals to your water.. or add more minerals to your beefheart mix. Changing more water may help as well.
In your case these will probably not have scars that are visible because they are light colored if you fix their diet
If they were darker base colors scarring can happen. I've seen this first hand in my tanks years ago when powerfeeding beefheart mix..

[sf_discus]

Hi Al, thanks for the reply. My water TDS is about 220 so I wouldn’t say my water is soft. I have some fdbw that I was planning on adding into their diet, so I guess I can try that along with cutting back on beefheart.

[brewmaster15]

Hi Al, thanks for the reply. My water TDS is about 220 so I wouldn’t say my water is soft. I have some fdbw that I was planning on adding into their diet, so I guess I can try that along with cutting back on beefheart.

Does your Beefheart Mix have calcium added?

If its a large group of fry It may just be that instead of 75 % daily water changes for your fry numbers you would better more uniform Growth doing a second water change at night . Adding Calcium Chloride to your water can also help.


Hth,
al

[sf_discus]

My beefheart mix includes lettuce, so there is some calcium in the mix from that. I also added 1 multi-vitamin capsule/kg into the mix so there could possibly be some calcium coming from that as well, but I don’t remember the contents of the vitamin off the top of my head. There are about 35 fry so it is not a very large group. Unfortunately the only time I can do a water change is at night when I’m back from work, so 1 water change per day is realistically the max I can manage.