Average Mortality Rate Of Bristlenose Fry

[Teelie]

I've got maybe 15-20 out of 40-50 fry left from a first successful hatch and release. It started out great with dozens swimming all over the tank but now the numbers seem to have settled down to the 15-20 range and I don't know if that's a good average or not. This is only the second time I've had fry, so I'm not expecting instant success or a large number of survivors but 50% mortality seems kind of high to me. Then again it might not be so bad. I have no idea.

Info:
40g breeder (set up for roughly 3 months though contents and filter are roughly 4 years old from a 29g)
2 Bristlenoses, male and female
6 c Sterbai
1 Male Betta
5 Apple snails (4 are 2nd gen hatchlings)
A few pond snails
Lots of driftwood, java moss, caves, black sand, strong (but not severe) lighting
Water changes were 25-30% every other day for the first two weeks roughly (would've kept up but got to be too busy)
Constant supply of fresh cucumber and every other day feeding of algae wafers and other foods
Addition of iodine and calcium for the snails in small amounts

 

[dane261]

have you checked in all the nooks and crannys in the wood and caves as they are little gits for hiding

mind you i had one suvive out of about 60 on my first batch external filter got them had to put tights around the end to stop the getting sucked up

cheers dane

 

[Teelie]

I've looked as much as possible and there's just no way half of them are hiding in the wood. I have seen them voluntarily and willingly sit right on my filter intake then swim off so I'm pretty sure none got sucked up. There are no bodies either though so whatever ones have died must be eaten quickly. Then again, I might have more hidden in fake plants too. They're still small enough and the tank large enough I can't count them all but it's definitely under 30 survivors at this point.

 

[dane261]

they are litlle gits for hiding on the leaves of fake plants best thing to do is have about you and some one else count as when your by yourself you end up going bong eyed and miss loads

cheers dane

 

[Mushroom]

Dane261 is quite right, I thought I only had about 30 out of 2 batches, and the next thing the whole tank seemed to be wriggling. I had about 90 of them.

Once they got bigger, they came out. They really are expert at hiding themselves.

 

[Teelie]

Good to know as I've only seen 5 or 6 of them recently and only 3 this morning.

 

[dane261]

now that they are breeding you have a tank full in no time

cheers dane

 

[Teelie]

Bumping this thread. My BN's are at it for a fourth time, at least, and other than two moved from the previous batch to a planted aquarium (which are doing great) I've failed to keep any alive. Anyone know what I could be doing wrong? At this point I'll be moving a few of the hatchlings to the planted tank once they come out and see how many make it. I don't know what's different but it seems to be working there.

This is how large those two are here, here and here.

 

[dwarfgourami]

Hard to tell. I've got maybe 40 out of 5 or 6 hatchings, and I've been away quite a bit, so haven't been able to look after them in the holidays. Are you sure they are all getting at food? I try to provide a fairly constant supply of veg broken up in small bits and spread all over the tank.

 

[Teelie]

They should be. I leave at least three large chunks of vegetable in three areas of the tank so they should be able to reach it. The ones in the planted tank certainly have had no trouble finding it and devouring it.

 

[dane261]

plenty of algae waffers aswell my arverage rate is on in 15 die but not doing that bad as i have about 700 fry and there is 3 males with fry/eggs


cheers dane

 

[Teelie]

I do wafers too although I could do more I suppose.

 

[dane261]

the thing is if you under feed there wont be enough food about and you over feed the food rots and becomes harmfull you can clear the old food but you aint going to getr it all out so its quite tricky

courgette is best as you can remove it and they all have plenty and arnt fighting over the waffers ,i feed wafers in morning when i go to work and before lights out put a few lumps of courgette in the tank and in the morning take the courgette out that aint been ate


cheers dane