Danio Fry (not livebearer, but the fry have already hatched)

[ZZ Mak]

Hey! I know danios lay eggs, but I didn't really know where else to post this, so sorry! So I had two danios in a "leave alone" tank as I like to call it. It's 10 gallons, and I barely ever touched it because it was kind of my reject tank. I have a lovely 60 gallon filled with my main stock, and the only fish in the 10 gallon were the aggressive fish that killed my breeder guppies. In this tank there were, of course, two zebra danios, a one-eyed tetra, and a bichir. This tank is stuffed with greenery, but I never really did water changes for it. So when I decided that today was the day I'd finally clean the whole thing out for them, imagine my shock when I saw the greenery was filled with dozens of microscopic fry! Because I breed guppies I had a fry tank on hand, but these fish are so small I have no clue what to do! The tank I have them in now is small, about 3 gallons. Is that too big for them? What temperature do they like? Can they eat brine shrimp eggs? As you can see, I'm pretty stressed right now, because my mother is insisting that I keep these fish alive and I've never raised their species before. I've never even seen something so small (I mean, they're literally see-through)! Thank you so much guys!

I'm an "Eel person"

 

[itiwhetu]

They are fine at the moment, Have a look at my thread " first food " . That is how I feed all fry for the first three weeks or so.

 

[Colin_T]

The following link has information about culturing food for baby fish. There isn't time for you to culture anything so you will have to use the emergency fry food below, which is suitable for baby danios and tetras. It is copied from the link.

Back to Basics when Breeding Fish

STARTING OUT Make sure you have a pair, (1 male + 1 female). There is nothing worse than spending your hard-earned dollars buying a couple of fish to try and breed and ending up with a pair of fish of the same sex. Let's face it, to reproduce fish you need a male and a female. Two males won't do...

www.fishforums.net

It's a good idea to have the water level around 4-6 inches for the first 2 weeks. This keeps the fry closer to the food. And do a big water change on the tank every day to keep it clean. Use water from an established tank to fill up the fry tank so it is free of chlorine/ chloramine.

EMERGENCY FRY FOOD
Some fry like labyrinth fry (Bettas & Gouramis) and Iriatherina werneri are very small when they first hatch and need green water or infusoria. If you can't get these you can hard boil an egg. Remove the shell and white part. Push the yellow yolk through a handkerchief into a small container of dechlorinated water. Put the lid on the container and shake it up, then use an eye dropper to suck some of the egg yolk solution out and put it in the tank with the babies. Do this 3-5 times per day for the first 2 weeks then start adding newly hatched brineshrimp.

Boil another egg each day and make a new solution each day. Keep the solution in the fridge when not using it. Take the solution out of the fridge and let it warm up to room temperature for 10 minutes or so before using it in the fry tank.

Do regular partial water changes on the fry tank or have a small air operated sponge filter in it to keep the water clean. The egg yolk can cause ammonia levels to go up and without water changes or a filter the fry will die from polluted water.

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No fish can eat brineshrimp eggs, however if you hatch the eggs in salt water, you can feed the newly hatched brineshrimp to the fry when they are a couple of weeks old. The link above tells you how to hatch brineshrimp eggs and a bit more about feeding the fry.

 

[itiwhetu]

I like Colin_T's cautious approach but in all my years of breeding fish. I have never had an ammonia spike, I have never warmed the egg yolk, I have never used an eye dropper, and a single egg will last about a week in the fridge. Look at my thread " First Food " that is the way I use egg yolk and then make up your own mind.

 

[Colin_T]

I like Colin_T's cautious approach but in all my years of breeding fish. I have never had an ammonia spike, I have never warmed the egg yolk, I have never used an eye dropper, and a single egg will last about a week in the fridge. Look at my thread " First Food " that is the way I use egg yolk and then make up your own mind.

Have you got a link to your thread so the OP doesn't have to spend hours trying to find it?

 

[Essjay]

I have moved the thread to Tropical Discussion - as @ZZ Mak said in the first post, danios aren't livebearers

 

[itiwhetu]

Have you got a link to your thread so the OP doesn't have to spend hours trying to find it?

If you put " first food " into the search it comes up at the top

 

[ZZ Mak]

OK, thank you guys so much! Right now I'm feeding them Hikari First Bites because that's all I had on hand. I know the bigger ones are definitely eating it, but I can't tell if the smaller ones are...You said that they eat insofuria right? So the tank that I found them in was filled with this really wild bushy plant, and I'm guessing they were finding food all in that. I put a nice chunk of it in their tank, so would that be enough to feed them for a while? Like, can I switch out the plant every week with a new chunk from the tank, and they'll get more food? Or can they just eat the little powdered fry food I have right now? I feel like it would be easier if I could feed them the powder, but I don't want them to starve. I'm also worried about the yolk a little bit. Although I conveniently own chickens (haha), I'm scared that I'll pollute the water and kill everything.

 

[itiwhetu]

The amount of egg yolk that goes into the tank is tiny. Like I said I have never polluted a tank using egg yolk in the manner that is described in my thread. These are very small fry, if you can see the particles with the eye then they are to big for the fry to eat. With the egg yolk in the water it will look just like milk, and you won't see any particles at all.

 

[ZZ Mak]

ok! Thank you so much