the 4th attempt

[soundtweakers]

Hi, over the last three spawns between my red turk and pb, the wigglers were completely consumed in my community tank(with other discus). On this 4th spawn, I finally worked up the guts and intervenned. Since the father(PB) was the culprit for eating the wigglers, I had siphoned the babies into a breeder tank with water from the tank they hatched from, I had also placed the mother(Red Turk) in the breeder tank with the babies. I moved them when some of the wigglers started to dart around and the parents couldn't keep up with them. Today is the second day of free swimming.

Although I tried my best to be gentle when moving the mother, she stopped signaling for the fry to feed like the way she did in the tank where spawn took place. There are only a couple of fry feeding on the mother, and the rest of the spawn scatter around looking like they're picking for food on the glass and the sponge filter.

My question is when should I start to introduce them to bbs and how can I help the mother to relax and do what she's suppose to do?

thanks
billy

[troyclark]

I'm no expert but this is what I would do.

If the breeder tank is big enough and you do your daily WC I would remove the sponge filter for now. With daily WC and only 1 adult in a 20 gallon or larger tank a filter really isn't needed. You can put the sponge filter back in after the fry have attached to the mother for a day or two. I would also put a light directly over the tank and leave it on 24/7. This way the babies will be attracted to the darkest thing in the tank which hopefully is the mother. I have heard that if you harvest the BBS really soon after they hatch, the two day old freeswimmers should be able to eat a few. This has worked for me in the past so HTH.

Troy

[diamond_discus]

Here're some tricks that I have learned to get the frys to attach:

1. Lower the water level to around 6"
2. cover up all 4 side of your tank with white paper
3. put your sponge filter inside a white filter bag, a white panty hose or something like that.
4. I don't feed the frys until after 5 to 7 days that they attach to the parents. This will keep the water cleaner. I don't feed much to the parents either because they won't eat anyway. I try to minimize the water change because the frys are just too small. Minimize the chance to disturb them
5. Next time, put the pair in the breeding tank. Place the cone in the opposite corner from the heater and sponge filter. This will guide the parents and frys to stay at one corner. Easier for them to attach.

[tdr1919]

As diamond disc says - lower the water to about an inch above the dorsal fin of the parent, this kind of forces the fry to attach.

That suggestion was the thing that got my fry to attach after 20X
of free swimmers not making it! do it now not later or they will die.

Tom

[soundtweakers]

The female mother does eat, but she ignores the babies, there are a couple of more fry feeding on her now(about 5 at the time), but the majority of the babies still darting around on the opposite side of the tank picking on the walls. I have taken the advise and lowered the water level and guess we'll see tomorrow.

thanks