OK, OK, OK another confession

[Larry Grenier]

I'm on my 3rd batch of healthy fry. Small batches probably due to hard water; using peat pre-filter and not RO. (Small is OK with me). Very little die-off after free-swimming. 1st batch are over 2" now and healthy.

Never hatched a single brine shrimp or other micro live food.

Don't throw down your hat and kick dirt on home plate and yell in my face or you'll be thrown out of the game.

[brewmaster15]

Hi Larry,
Not that size matters...but how small are we talking here? :)

-al

[Larry Grenier]

Most recent batch looks like around 35. Many eggs don't seem to get fertilized. If I were trying to get the largest count, I'd probably use RO water for the breeders. The ones I do get are fine.

[YellowClaw]

Larry,

What do you feed the frys? "Never hatched a single brine shrimp or other micro live food." Do you hatched lot's of brine shrimps instead of a "single"? :D

[Larry Grenier]

Hey Tin, that would have been funny.

The babies start-out on just their parents slime for a few days. Then I pour decapsulated brine shrimp over the parents and their fry. After about 2 week I also pour crushed tetra-bits and crushed flake food over the fish. You can actually see some of the fine particles of food stick to the slimy parents and the babies feeding intensify. After doing this a few times you can see the fry leave the parents sides to pursue the slow sinking foods and also feed off the bottom until they're eating the floating foods more than feeding off the parents. At around 3 weeks they can be seperated from the parents. Using this method forces me to vacuum the bottom daily.

More confession is needed on decapsulated BBS. Larry. I've never tried it. Tell me more. Do they take it eagerly compared to live BBS.
Jimmy.

[Larry Grenier]

Mine do take to it eagerly. It sinks slowly and I pour it (eggs in water) directly over the parents with fry. You can read what the maunfacturer says here http://www.brineshrimpdirect.com/decapsulated-brine-shrimp.html

[Dkarc@Aol.com]

I decapsulate my own brine shrimp cysts. If I ever need to hatch live bbs, I can still use the ones I decaped myself. Plus, I get a slightly higher hatch rate because the bbs dont have to go through a thick shell, just a thin membrane. My fry go for it once they realize what it is.


-Ryan

[richgrenfell]

Never used decaps for baby discus fry, but I do use it for betta and angel fry when I get lazy about setting the eggs up to hatch.

Rich

[jared]

You can also use golden pearls instead of live bs. These are suppose to stay in the water column longer and resist breakdown for longer periods.
Jared

[KD]

Hi Larry,
What is your PH , GH & KH before and after you use the peat?
Congratulations on the fry. Your method sounds pretty easy. How about some pictures?
Karen

[Larry Grenier]

Karen,

Gotta fix that dern camera!

This pic should sum-up my filtering technique. The peat bomb is a Tap Water Purifier with the old media replaced with Peat. It doesn't last long but the water comes out softer and tea-color.