Eeeeek! Tiny fishies!!

[juliethegr8t]

Alright I'm rather excited, but also very stressed. I just gravel vaccumed my new tank, and what do I find when I'm on the verge of pouring out the 2 gallons of water, than about 10 TINY baby fish. They're unbelievably small, I didn't even know they were babies until I noticed they were moving. They're zebra danios!~ I'm so happy to be a grandmother! hehe... but anyways, I'm freaking out because these babies are currently in a slightly larger than 2 gallon bucket, and I have no place else to put them! I would go buy a net breeder, and probably will tomorrow, but I'm afraid the babies will die. Can they survive in this bucket overnight and for part of the morning? I read that there may be food in their since I gravel vaccumed and there's gunk which may have little things feeding on it that the fry can eat. Is this right? I don't have any baby food, because I certainly wasn't expecting fry anytime soon! I'll buy some tomorrow, but once again, can they survive? If not, is there anything I can do?! All suggestions needed, please! I'm like WHOA. Total huge surprise. They're about _ that long! Whew, I'm stressing, I don't want my first fry to die. Thanks everyone.

Julie

 

[canis_lupus]

aw congrats on the babies......i got my first batch of babies 2day also!! i think they should b ok in the bucket overnight but thats just a guess....sorry i'm no help but i just wanted congrats......and good luck

 

[Angel Lady]

just take you a cup or something and dip you a cup of the water out the bucket that you have them in and pour it back in it (you know what I mean) like swirling it around every now and then it should put enough air in it for them to live until you get a net for them. Crush up some flake food real fine and feed them also make sure that the temp stays the same when you put them back in the tank that is the most important thing to remeber. That would be cool to find something different baby wise other than mollies or guppies for me I bet you are so happy I know I would be I hope to find some baby corys one day.

 

[Lipreader]

I went through the same thing. I was about to clean my tank and I notice something tiny swimming in there. I panic and I rushed to get a glass bowl and put fresh water in it, fished out the babies and put them in there. I had no backup tank. They were fine in there for three days. I did water change and I fed them crushed flakes which I crushed and crushed til it's almost like powder. As soon as you can, get a small back up tank. My baby fry is in a one gal because that's all I have for them. They are doing fine since they are so darn tiny. Of course use the water from your current tank.

Right now my babies are healthy and getting bigger every day. Soon I have to put them up for adoption.

 

[AllusiveLife]

WoW, I've only had BlueGuill, Goldfish, minnows, " that's about it as egg layers" breed... I want my corries to breed but they're stuborn... I have like 7-8 in my 160 gallon tank right now, what would you suggest? I'm happy to hear your danio's breed, that's very exciting information for me, cause it tells me theirs hope for fish to breed when you don't even try to breed them " at least I don't think you tried"

 

[juliethegr8t]

Update - I used my baster to suction up all the babies I could find out of the bucket, and put them in a jar, which I then put back in the tank, with the top above water so they can't swim out. I figure this way the temp will stay warm enough for them. Otherwise, it gets pretty chilly in my house at night, and I don't have any other way to keep them warm. I also put some of the gunk that I vacuumed up in the jar with them, because I figure there's gotta be some lil creatures in it they can eat. There's also some uneaten food in the mix, which is dissolving, so who knows... hopefully they'll be fine till tomorrow afternoon.

Thanks so much to everyone for the congrats! I must admit, I'm pretty darned proud. I think it's pretty cool to get an egg-laying fish to have babies, especially when I wasn't trying. I most certainly wasn't expecting this!

I did buy another tank today, a 5 gallon, which I was going to use to seperate my gouarmis, but now it looks like I may have some young danios in there as well. Hopefully it will cycle quickly so I can stick them in there.

Anyways, I'm psyched, I hope at least one of my babies survives. I already have fallen in wuv with them.

 

[Kossy]

Thats great news!!!!!!!!! Just make sure you keep checking yoru nitrates they seem to rise incredibly with fry. Good Luck

 

[CFC]

I want my corries to breed but they're stuborn... I have like 7-8 in my 160 gallon tank right now, what would you suggest?

You need to seperate a female and 2 males into a breeding tank and condition them by feeding twice a day with loads of good quallity live food (bloodworm is best IMO),then start to do daily large (starting at 25% and working up to 50% over 10 days or so) water changes with soft clean water,RO water is best for this IMO as it has been purified of all metals and nitrates.The tank should be around 10 gallons and have one or two pieces of bogwood, some plastic plants and be filtered by a small air powered sponge filter,there is no need for any substrate or lights.
Follow this guide and you should have cory eggs before you know it

 

[AllusiveLife]

Ok, I'm gonna set up the aquarium today! How many times can I have them breed? How many babies can they have at one time? What would the eggs look like? And what is Bog wood?

How can I literaly tell the difference between female and male? What do you mean start to do daily charge? What's RO water? Can I have an underground filter? Can I have rocks in the aquarium?

 

[CFC]

Woh woh woh too many questions all at once The eggs will be small (about 2mm diameter) and are usually a clear brownish colour and depending on the species and health of the female she could lay up to 100 eggs which will be attached in small clusters to the leaves of the plastic plants,how often you can get them to breed is entirely down to you and the willingness of your fish.

If the fish are adult and ready to breed then you will be able to clearly tell the females from males,females are bigger and thicker across the body.
Bogwood or mopani wood as it is sometimes called is a common aquarium ornament which helps to acidify the water as it leaches tannins into the water,one or two smallish pieces will help greatly in a 10g breeding tank and will not need to be soaked as you will be doing large frequent water changes anyway,the tea like colouration of the water caused by the tannins from the wood will help set the "mood" for your corys.It should be available from any good fish shop.

RO or reverse osmosis water is water that has been pushed through a membrane at high pressure to remove all toxins,this process is so effective that it even removes the essential minerals from the water which you have to put back in to suit the hardness you require,it has a pH of 7 which is neutral,the bogwood will help to acidify it.RO water should be available from any good fish store that has a marine section.

Undergravel filters will not work without gravel,since you have no substrate in a breeding tank you cannot have a UGF,a small sponge filter powered by a air pump is the best way to go.

Since the tank is for breeding only there is no need to add rocks or any other decoration other than some bogwood and plastic plants which are there to serve a purpose.It is best to keep things as simple as possible and to avoid adding anything to the tank that might alter the pH and hardness of the water (other than the bogwood).

The effect you are trying to create is a amazon rainy season,so there will be low light levels (no lighting), increased turn over of water (the water changes and murky water caused by the tannins in the bogwood) and a abundance of food washed in by the rains (heavyfeedings of live food).

Good luck and let us know how you get on and if you have any further questions dont hesitate to ask.

 

[AllusiveLife]

I don't have Bog wood, is there some other type of wood I can use?

Not too sure about the water Could I use " store bought water " ?

I don't have a sponge filteration, could I just use a bubbler?

Everything else I have...

 

[CFC]

You cannot use just a bubbler in the tank as you will have no filtration and perfect water is a must when breeding any fish. The instructions i gave were for the quickest way of getting corys to spawn,if you dont have the necessary stuff already then my advice would be to wait until you can get them,although corys can be spawned without using this method it is a tried and tested way of breeding corys and is the standard form used by most breeders.
When you say store bought water do you mean bottled drinking water? If you do then no way, bottled drinking water is usually high in mineral content and very hard, the exact opposit of what you need.You must have a lfs that you can get to to get some RO water surely.

 

[AllusiveLife]

Alright I'll buy it later today or probably tomorrow, depends cause of Arizona having gass problems and getting this isn't a life and death situation. One guy made it 4.00's a gallon, what an idiot... Thankyou I appreciate it