Fry Dieing :(

[1eyedtuna]

I have about 3 week old fry now and they are away from the parents. For some reason the past few days they have been starting to die off one by one...

I do a large 80-90% water change every other day and feed crushed flakes.

Is there something I am doing wrong? They are in the same water the the breeders are in.

[pinoysport]

I have about 3 week old fry now and they are away from the parents. For some reason the past few days they have been starting to die off one by one...

I do a large 80-90% water change every other day and feed crushed flakes.

Is there something I am doing wrong? They are in the same water the the breeders are in.

are they eating the flakes? i have tried to feed crushed flakes, frozen bb and live bb... and the live bb gave me the healthiest batch

[scottthomas]

I have had the same problem before. I began doing 2X 90% WC daily and wipe down everything in the tank. No more problems with week four die offs.

[1eyedtuna]

hmmm yeah I would like to try bbs but dont have the room right now. I am actually living in a college dorm so it is about the size of a prison cell haha

I will try 90% water changes everyday rather than every other.....maybe that will keep the rest going good.

[dxiong5]

Keep us updated on your fry - I just got my first spawn so I'm looking forward to all sorts of tips I can get.

Scott - what do you wipe down the tank with?

[Jennie]

1eye, are these from Crystal?

[Pardal]

Water Changes should be daily, religiously, one day slacking you loose all the work of many weeks in any case try to do two water changes, a day.
Observe the swimming pattern of the fry for signs of any abnormal swimming
in case you need to use any antibiotics.
Also you will have better success with live bbs, and vacum dead artemia between feedings. also try to use decapsulated bbs. I decapsulated the amount that i going to use for a week and save in a refrigerator. So I can hatch one in the morning one in the afternoon.
In the night time WC clean the bottom throughly and pass your finger trough the bottom so you notice there is not mulm specially in the four corners where the like to cuddle when sleeping.
I currently raising my third batch and these are albinos so is artificial from day one. a lot work but the rewards are great .

[Keith Perkins]

You can wipe the tank down with just about anything, as long as it's clean. A sponge, dish cloth, towel, t-shirt, paper towel, you name it. Once a batch of fry starts dieing off from inadequate tank maintenance, good luck stopping. It's a whole lot easier doing the work up front.

[1eyedtuna]

yup these were from crystal.

now that I started the daily 90% water changes the fry have been doing much much better so we will see!

[1eyedtuna]

6 more dead fry....could it just be them not eating enough maybe? I need to try bbs....

[scottthomas]

Not sure how to answer the problem you are having. Many people have experienced fry die offs at about 3-5 weeks. I have seen varied ideas about "4 week syndrome". Many suggested to me that I should try various chemicals to rid bacteria etc. I didnt like the idea of treating fry with medications every spawn. I was having fry die of a few at a time every spawn until there were usually only a dozen or so left. This happened over and over during a 2 year period. They would breath heavy, bunch up in a corner, stop eating and die a few every day. I quit trying to breed again until recently.

My solution was: I cleaned up the breeding pair (dewormed w/levimosol sp. and did a metro treatment. ) Next spawns I fed bbs several times a day until fry accept other foods and wiped down tank 2x daily with paper towels and 2x 90% wc daily. I feed pretty heavy.

I have had zero fry die now at 8 weeks with 3 seperate spawns from three different pairs. I am guessing I have 300 fry going strong.

HTH Good luck, I know it can be discouraging.

[Tito]

I really wish there was some science behind the methods.

IF you'll notice many people use many methods. I'm really turned off form that sort of thing.

I like emperical data.

Edit: Actually I'll throw out some questions:

Does wiping the tank down reduce or eliminate nitrates? Why do the fry die? Do they begin to die at a certain Nitrate level? There shold be no ammonia or nitrite reading in the water with a mature sponge. If it's more of a bacteria thing - has anyone used the microscpe to identify? Does the mulm contain harmful bacteria? Those the slim coat the parents produce begin to bio-degrade in the tank and possibly produce a toxic by-product that is harmful to the fry?

I just really hate to do something blindly.

[cooksa]

Have you checked your tap water parameters and compared them to your tank water? This was my issue. The PH in my tap was way out of whack. I thought I was doing them good by changing the water everyday, when in reality it was what was slowly killing them off. :-/

[Tito]

Have you checked your tap water parameters and compared them to your tank water? This was my issue. The PH in my tap was way out of whack. I thought I was doing them good by changing the water everyday, when in reality it was what was slowly killing them off. :-/

Hello.

Edit: I can definitely see how pH shock can kill fry very quickly.

I'll need to be convinced on how many Nitrates (ppm) it will take to kill fry.

Will also need to be convinced on the mulm and slime as well.

[Tito]

Water Changes should be daily, religiously, one day slacking you loose all the work of many weeks

That's a very strong statement my friend.

Just questoining the validity to it.