A few questions about Fry

[ChocoMeijin]

Well, this is my first spawn and it's been going well, but some issues are starting to come up and I'm not sure what to do... >_<

My fry are 1 week old (but twice as big!) and I started to feed them BBS 3 days after hatching. Then, being my first spawn and all, something bad had to happen.

I ran out of BBS. (Stupid "90%" hatch rate!!!! Only like 10 came out!) So I've been feeding them boiled egg yolk in water for 3 1/2 to 4 days now. I don't think I'll be able to get my hands on any BBS for awhile now... so for my questions:

1) Is it possible to raise fry on just the boiled egg yolk?

2) Are there going to be any nutritional deficiencies?

3) My fry are 1 week old today and I checked the growth chart and they're the size of 2 week old fry. No dorsals or anything yet, but I can see ventrals, pectorals and the tail a bit on some of them. Should I be concerned about the rate of growth?

4) I can see te tail a bit on some and not others. The ones that I can see the tail; are they male? And the others female?

5) My fry have black stomachs. Is that their poop? I'm not sure what color their stomachs are after eating the egg yolk (haven't actually seen any fry actually eating it and keeping it down, but I assume white 'cause they just look like that).

6) They don't seem to sit on the bottom like when they ate the BBS before, indicating that they're full. Does this mean that they're hungry? I'm feeding them like 4-5 times a day since the egg bits just fall to the bottom and they don't really seem very interested in eating them at all anyways. (I'm secretly a bit glad they're not on the bottom so there's less chance of them losing ventrals ^-^;

7) If they're hungry and not eating much, will this slow their growth rate?

So far, I've only lost 1 fry for sure, possibly 2, and that was right after I missed 2 feedings to try and wait for the BBS to "hatch". So I ASSUME they're eating or else they would have died, right? I'm hoping this all turns out ok.... >_<


P.S. Thanks to Cation for welcoming me to the board, it's nice to be acknowledged by such a "famous" person. B)

 

[cation]

1) Is it possible to raise fry on just the boiled egg yolk? I don't know about just yolk alone, although on other boards I visit I know people have successfully used it.

2) Are there going to be any nutritional deficiencies? Egg yolk is actually superb food, very nutritious. But variety is key, and the egg will foul your water in a heartbeat. Also, sometimes the fry won't eat it, so it doesn't matter how healthy it is. Try, try, try to get your hatchery up and running. Pick up some first bites, and some frozen BBS and Daphnia. Hopefully they'll eat those if you can't get the BBS hatchery up and going.
Next time you spawn try to have some back up live food - Microworms or vinegar eels are great first foods too.

3) My fry are 1 week old today and I checked the growth chart and they're the size of 2 week old fry. No dorsals or anything yet, but I can see ventrals, pectorals and the tail a bit on some of them. Should I be concerned about the rate of growth?
Nope, sounds like they're doing great! Although the ventrals are a bit suprising...shouldn't show up until later.

4) I can see te tail a bit on some and not others. The ones that I can see the tail; are they male? And the others female? It's WAY too early to be able to tell male from female - but they all should have tails...

5) My fry have black stomachs. Is that their poop? I'm not sure what color their stomachs are after eating the egg yolk (haven't actually seen any fry actually eating it and keeping it down, but I assume white 'cause they just look like that).
Could be. If they're eating, they're pooping, and poop is black when I see it in my fry. But look on the bottom of the tank for poop. If you're feeding egg yolk you need to be doing water changes, so you should be able to see their little poops there in the waste water or on the bottom of the tank.

6) They don't seem to sit on the bottom like when they ate the BBS before, indicating that they're full. Does this mean that they're hungry? I'm feeding them like 4-5 times a day since the egg bits just fall to the bottom and they don't really seem very interested in eating them at all anyways. (I'm secretly a bit glad they're not on the bottom so there's less chance of them losing ventrals ^-^;
Don't know, sorry.

7) If they're hungry and not eating much, will this slow their growth rate?Absolutely! That's why you need to get some more opions and offer them a varied diet.


P.S. Thanks to Cation for welcoming me to the board, it's nice to be acknowledged by such a "famous" person. B)
I think you mean infamous...

 

[ChocoMeijin]

Thanks for the reply! I'll see what I can do about the BBS now... I don't have any other cultures going since I couldn't get them in time (had to do the spawing asap if I wanted to do it at all because of being away from home, mom not knowing, etc. lol) and I figured I would just use the egg yolk for the first few days anyways and it would be fine (I'm none too smart, could ya tell? XD). Turns out they didn't even start swimming horizontally till the third day after hatching, and by then, they looked big enough (to me) for BBS, which they were. lol, my fry are weird I guess XD

The smallest are __ long and the biggest are ___ long. Most are in between those two sizes.

About the tails thing, I mean they have tails (long things that stick outta their body) but some have like a tuft? or a rounded bit at the end and some don't? Not a fungus, but's it's like their "adult" fan part of their tail (they're VTs but my LFS said they'd buy em off me )

As for the ventrals, yeah, I made sure that I could see em; one swam right close to the glass and swam up so I could see two tiny branch things on their body. Really tiny lol. It's not their pectorals cause I could see em too.

As for the tank cleaning, yeah I'm doing it two times a day since the egg really makes a mess >_<

I'll see if I can get some pics up so everyone can understand what I'm talking about lol. They'll be a bit blurry but oh well


EDIT: Maybe the reason for their growth is that since I don't have enough room to house 100+ fish, I took the female out in the middle of spawning to have less fry, so I only have between 20 and 50 fry (they hide behind the filter)? So there's less ammonia etc. to restrict their growth? They're in a 10 gal. about 5-6in. deep in water. I add about 1/2 an inch every time I clean it, which is twice a day lol.

 

[f250fisherman]

If you bought the bbs at the lps, it is probably old eggs. Brineshrimpdirect is the best place to get the eggs. Having the right salt content means more than anything else, other than maybe the temp. The temp has to be 80-82 degrees. BSD has a great article on raising bbs. I would recommend you read it. It will make a pro out of you..