Hi Siamese Fighter05 
Your fry are doing well indeed.
All the water changes you have done have contributed a lot to your success. It's a lot of work, but it does pay off both in their survival rate and their growth rate.
I don't know of any site that has information that you can compare their growth rate with, but here is a picture I took for you yesterday of a small batch of blacks I am raising. The biggest ones are the black C. aeneus and they are 25 days old. (Yours will still be a little smaller.) The smaller ones are the gold shoulders I mentioned earlier in this thread. If you look closely you will also see a few gold shoulder fry that are just a few days old.
I had to combine them because I was in great need of a 10 gallon tank. My C. axelrodi just spawned and if I planned to save the eggs, the parents need a place to be moved to. This is the first time they have spawned for me and I want them to be successful.
The picture was taken about 4 hours after I did their daily water change and I was getting a sponge filter ready to put in with them. It's in there now.
The reason you are putting in a sponge filter is to begin growing some beneficial bacteria. It won't do much to actually filter particles from the water, but is more in preparation for the time when you will be able to slow down on the water changes and have them in a cycled tank. Then, you can put a splitter on the airline and add a box filter to do that job. (Wait until they are big enough not to get sucked in the slots when they sit on top of it) It's just that if you wait to cultivate the bacteria, it will still take daily water changes while the tank is cycling. I find this is a more gentle way of doing it.
Sand can wait a while because it will make it harder to keep the tank clean. With the bare bottom you can see where the dirt is and get it out. I prefer to be on the safe side with this, especially since I have already started feeding them chopped live blackworms at least once a day. I don't want any dead meat rotting on the bottom. (Although, I must say, as long as they are chopped into very tiny bits, they seem to eat it all.) Your bbs are the same sort of thing.
I add sand at around 6 weeks to 2 months of age. By then the tank is cycled and the sand is another place for the beneficial bacteria to grow. I don't like to hurry this because I am afraid that tiny fry could get buried when I am cleaning. Once you decide to add it, it need not be all at once. You can scoot the fry out of the way and add a half cupful at a time until the bottom is covered. There is no need to have it very deep and you won't have to take the fry out to put it in.
I've read that too, but except for one time, I've never had that problem. In that case, I lost a whole batch of C. sterbai fry within a day of adding a sponge filter from another tank. This is why I like to grow the beneficial bacteria right in their tank and do the water changes for a longer time. At 5-6 weeks they are starting to get bigger and I think it's easier to forget that they are still delicate babies. That's too early to ease up on water changes and cleanliness, with filtration or not.
I can't wait to see pictures of you fry. Hope you get your computer going again soon.
Your fry are doing well indeed.
All the water changes you have done have contributed a lot to your success. It's a lot of work, but it does pay off both in their survival rate and their growth rate. I don't know of any site that has information that you can compare their growth rate with, but here is a picture I took for you yesterday of a small batch of blacks I am raising. The biggest ones are the black C. aeneus and they are 25 days old. (Yours will still be a little smaller.) The smaller ones are the gold shoulders I mentioned earlier in this thread. If you look closely you will also see a few gold shoulder fry that are just a few days old.
I had to combine them because I was in great need of a 10 gallon tank. My C. axelrodi just spawned and if I planned to save the eggs, the parents need a place to be moved to. This is the first time they have spawned for me and I want them to be successful.
The picture was taken about 4 hours after I did their daily water change and I was getting a sponge filter ready to put in with them. It's in there now.
The reason you are putting in a sponge filter is to begin growing some beneficial bacteria. It won't do much to actually filter particles from the water, but is more in preparation for the time when you will be able to slow down on the water changes and have them in a cycled tank. Then, you can put a splitter on the airline and add a box filter to do that job. (Wait until they are big enough not to get sucked in the slots when they sit on top of it) It's just that if you wait to cultivate the bacteria, it will still take daily water changes while the tank is cycling. I find this is a more gentle way of doing it.
Sand can wait a while because it will make it harder to keep the tank clean. With the bare bottom you can see where the dirt is and get it out. I prefer to be on the safe side with this, especially since I have already started feeding them chopped live blackworms at least once a day. I don't want any dead meat rotting on the bottom. (Although, I must say, as long as they are chopped into very tiny bits, they seem to eat it all.) Your bbs are the same sort of thing.
I add sand at around 6 weeks to 2 months of age. By then the tank is cycled and the sand is another place for the beneficial bacteria to grow. I don't like to hurry this because I am afraid that tiny fry could get buried when I am cleaning. Once you decide to add it, it need not be all at once. You can scoot the fry out of the way and add a half cupful at a time until the bottom is covered. There is no need to have it very deep and you won't have to take the fry out to put it in.
I've read that too, but except for one time, I've never had that problem. In that case, I lost a whole batch of C. sterbai fry within a day of adding a sponge filter from another tank. This is why I like to grow the beneficial bacteria right in their tank and do the water changes for a longer time. At 5-6 weeks they are starting to get bigger and I think it's easier to forget that they are still delicate babies. That's too early to ease up on water changes and cleanliness, with filtration or not.
I can't wait to see pictures of you fry. Hope you get your computer going again soon.
I finish early wednesday so i can post the pics i took earlier if i can find the CD (Finally).
) 
