Hey, just came back from my 3 days vacation. All the wrigglers are free swimming now. Most of them (50+) are attached to the parents. There are another 10 to 20 are either attached to the cone or near the bottom of the cone, very close to the parents.
This is the 6th spawn and the most sucessful one so far.
I assume this is the 2nd or 3rd day of free swimming. What should I do now ?
Questions :
1 . Should I start raising the water level ?
2. Should I remove the white paper that I used to cover all 4 sides of the tank ?
3. When should I start trying some baby brine shrimp for the fry ?
4. Should I use food like "First Bites" , Wardley Liquid food for small fry? Golden Pearl ? or should I wait for one week before I try baby brine shrimp ?
5. Should I remove the white cloth that I use to cover the Sponge filter ?
6. The parent didn't eat much. Should I start feeding them color bits ? or frozen blood worm ?
We are so excited to see most of the fry attached to the parents. The female is much darker than the male. So most of the fry are attached to mommy. I am worry that mom cannot handle all the fry.
1. Should I remove the cone ? Both parents still staying around the cone and the fry is swimming close by. Some attached to the cone occasionally and then back on the parents. I don't want to remove the cone to disturb them. Suggestion ?
2. Can I start using tap water for WC ? I have been using filtered drinking water for this breeding tank.
All right! Don't remove the white paper from sides of tank or start raising water levels until they are all hooked up. I would try to pull the cone out so they will find the parents. Leave the sponge alone for now. Start feeding bbs right now, try once or twice a day and when you see that most of them have orange bellies start feeding bbs 6 or 8 times per day. Feed the parents once per day switching between foods and hopefully after a week or 2 the fry will start to pick at that food. Good luck!
The parents didn't like the ColorBits but seems to try some Frozen Blood Worm.
It's interesting to see that the male will swim away, take a break, eat some blood worm, then swim back to the female, and let the fry to attach to him briefly, while the female will swim away for a little while to take a break.
Yes, in a perfect scenario they will switch, in my experience so far one of the parents usually becomes a problem. You can switch to tap water now, just be sure to do it slowly, don't just fill your tank up with straight tap right away, it would probably be ok but better safe than sorry!
I removed the cone. All the remaining frys seems to attach to the female. Only a few is attached to the male who is staying very close to the female.
The # of frys is down from 70+ to 50+. Not sure if they died or being eaten by the parents. I am hatching some BBS tonight. Will try that on the fry tomorrow.
So far so good, just keep an eye out for who might be eating fry, one parent would have no problem raising the fry but it's best if they both will. Keep changing water everyday especially as you start feeding bbs you will need to do 2 big changes per day.
No sure if I can do WC twice a day. I need to leave work at 5 am in the morning. There is no way I can do WC in the morning.
I need some advice hatching BBS, as I never raise any BBS successfully.
I brought a San Francisco Bay Brand Brine Shrimp Shrimpery. Let's see how it work.
Here's a picture of mom and dad with the frys.
All 50+ frys are still alive, fully attached to the parents.
The parents didn't seems to eat the frys like the previous few spawns.
This morning I notice that the male is attacking the female. I don't know why. But after a water change, they seems to make up. The frys are attaching to both. Sometimes they will transfer all the frys from one to the other. Seems like they are taking turn to take a break. I am feeding the parents some frozen blood worm. The frys looks significantly bigger than a few days ago. I tried to hatch some BBS and feed them, but doesn't seesm to work. Not much BBS hatched. And with the few BBS, I pour it down near the parents, but the tank is so big (40 gallon tank, with lower water level). I am not sure if the frys can even notice the BBS. Any suggestion on hatching and feeding BBS ?
Anyway, here's another picture for the entire family. The lighter color fish is the male.
From the pictures, you can see that I wrapped the entire tank with white paper. Since the frys are attachd to the parents now, can I remove those white paper ? The hood light is on 24/7. Can I turn the light off at night ?
Take your paper off, put your sponge back in, continue daily large wc's at least 50-100%. You should be good to go. Are the fry eating anything right now expect on the parents? I know you are having problems with the bbs (at least sounds like it) How are you doing you bbs hatchery? I'll walk you thru that once you let me know how you are doing it. We'll get your babies going and growing to be great looking little babies for you.
Okay, I just took the paper off and put one sponge filter back, still covered with white cloth. I am doing daily wc about 30% but will increase up to 50% tomorrow. How can you do 100% wc with the parents and fry still in the tank ?
I am not sure what the baby are eating but I can tell they are growing, probably by eating off their parents. I also gave them some First Bites powder, Golden Pearl, and Liquid baby food. I just drop them on the top of the water but since the tank is so big, I don't know how the food will get to the fry.
For the BBS, I really don't know what to do. I brought a San Francisco Bay Brand Shrimpery kit. The tiny plastic container is to allow the BBS to flow up but the hatching rate is so low. I have a small lamp sitting next to the shrimpery but I don't have any air line going to the kit which has no hole for me to insert any airstone.
I also brought a "Contunuos Hatch'N'Feeder" which I plan to start using this weekend (by that time the fry will be one week old from free swimming). I don't know how to use it yet. The reason I brought that device is that I have to work long hours and there is no way that I can feed them manually every couple hours (even if I can hatch BBS successfully).
I don't have a lot of space to create a BBS hatching lab. Please do give me suggestion on how to easily hatch BBS and how to feed them in a big tank, with the minimum amount of equipment. (I have a 40 gallon tank but only have 20 gallon water).
The parents are not eating much at all. I am kinda worry about them also.
All you need is a 1 gallon container (like a glass jar for pickles, etc.), an airstone, some tubing and of course, a small airpump. That's all I use for mine. If you can't find a nice large size of glass jar, try going to a local deli, butcher, or some other place that sells food and ask if they have any empties.
Attached finally !!
We'll get your babies going and growing to be great looking little babies for you.
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