More Eggs!! Some Questions

[aussiefish]

Hi All
First I would like to thank eveyone who has help with my questions about water parameters and rearing fry, I do have some other questions.
My fry are about 6-7 weeks old now and doing very well, most are about the size of my thumb nail and are eating well. I have just noticed that there are more eggs been layed in the breeding tank by the same parents. Last time I did not notice any eggs, I only new when I saw the fry swimming with the parents!! So this time I would like some info on what to do and watch for during the next few days so as to improve the success rate with the fry ??
Do I still keep on doing my water changes?? Still vacuum the tank?? keep the filter going ?? Any advice would be appreciated.

[mmorris]

I assume the fry are no longer with the parents, and the parents are on their own? If you want to improve the success rate over the previous time, when did you have less than success with the previous batch? I guess you don't know what proportion hatched the last time. Was that batch on their own with just the parents? Is the tank a bb tank? Did you lose fry and if so, at what age? How did you raise the fry? You haven't really said enough to help at this point.

[aussiefish]

I assume the fry are no longer with the parents, and the parents are on their own? If you want to improve the success rate over the previous time, when did you have less than success with the previous batch? I guess you don't know what proportion hatched the last time. Was that batch on their own with just the parents? Is the tank a bb tank? Did you lose fry and if so, at what age? How did you raise the fry? You haven't really said enough to help at this point.

Yes fry are in there own tank, have been since about 2-3 weeks old I think ?? as I only noticed them when they were feeding of the parents and could only estimate from there size, there age. The parents are in there own bb tank as they were for the previous batch. I only lost 3 out of 18 fry when I moved them at 2-3 weeks old in to there own tank, they were the smallest of the batch. Not sure what you mean by RAISE THE FRY, I have been feeding them 3 times per day (frozen bloodworn and brine shrimp shaved of a cube) I am not sure what % of eggs hatched as I did not see the eggs for there first batch.
Now that I am home I would say there is about 100 -150 eggs all but about 8 are brownish in colour and the 8 are white.

[mmorris]

Best of luck with the eggs! It sounds positive! Young fry need to be fed more than three times a day. I feed mine six or more times. The fry I have now are about five weeks and well over an inch long - 1 1/4 or almost 1 1/2 inches, I'm guessing. I don't think frozen brine shrimp has much nutritional value, although it is good as a roughage. They need a variety and so mine get shaved beefheart (with shrimp, spinach, vitamins and calcium), chopped fbw, a variety of flake, chopped white worm and I've just started them on pellets. The best food you can give the new ones is bbs, beginning from day six or so of free-swimming. Some begin a day or so sooner. I keep feeding it until they are four weeks or so, although I introduce other foods from week two. Water change, water change, water change!

[aussiefish]

Over the past day and night I thought that all the wrigglers that had hatched were now gone due to the parents fighting, now to my amazment there are still about 10 -15 left alive attached to and around the bottom of the sponge of the filter !!!! Will they survive ?? Will they be able to find the parents if they get to free swimming ?? Some are even on the floor of the tank attached to the debreis and poo !! which is stopping me fron vacuuming the tank. What should I do ??????????????? The parents have stopped fighting as i think they believe that the wrigglers are all dead.

[mmorris]

Raising fry is a heck of a lot of work, particularly if you only have 10-15. The parents may eat them anyway. I'd let nature take it's course on this one, and next time, remove a parent after spawning if they begin to fight. If you want to try and raise these, take out the sponge filter for the day - just squeeze it out and leave it in the air. Drop the water level about half-way and see what happens.