Fry Tank

[Ethos]

I need a fry tank...and there's a 35G in the newspaper for $75 with everything included...I'd only need the tank, hood, stand and eventually the filter...do you think they'd go down without that extra stuff?
I would need to put in the basement, 2 stories below the breeding tank...so It'd be alittle difficult.
We have mice in our basement, and my teacher had a 55G once and when she went on vacation a mouse got into her tank, and killed all her fish
Also, we don't have a basement bathroom, so that means luggin all the water around up and down steps so...
What do you think? I need a fry tank anyways....hmhm?

 

[afireinside]

Dude, if you have an extra 55 gallon, use it. Buying a new, smaller tank would be kinda dumb. As for the mice, are you shure they killed the fish? Wouldn't they drown before anything? Or is it the decaying mouse the killed the fish?

 

[Ethos]

I wish I had an extra 55G laying around.

And it was the decaying that killed the fish.

 

[afireinside]

ah, so, were would you get one?

 

[splashluff]

hrm... Why do you have to put it in the basement? I have a 30g in my ROOM, a pretty small room, and it fits perfectly. It's really not that huge, and it just sits on my very very sturdy desk-table thing (it used to have a big TV on it, so I know it can hold up). I'd try to find room rather than putting it in the basement. Doing 3-5g water changes daily on that will be a huge pain, and you CANNOT slack on WC's. trust me.

Ew. The rat thing grossed me out ... I doubt that a situation like that would happen, with a hood and everything. And, the rat wouldn't have time to even die in there most likely, because you'll be down there checking on them at least 3 times a day.

Oppositearmor... read her post. It's in an ad in the newspaper.

 

[Ethos]

Well....With the 55G, 10G, 5G, 2.5G, and cvountless bowls, plus my best, desk and bookshelf (Beluieve me, I took out as much as I could spare) I have absoulutly NO room left. None.

Maybe I could squeeze a couple of 10G's in there? Someone told me I could have a minimul grow-out of 20. So can I just have a couple 10G's?

 

[Synirr]

The minimum size of your growout depends on how many fry you have, but yeah, two 10 gallons would be fine for a small spawn... feel free to split the spawn up into as many smaller growouts as it takes

 

[Ethos]

Thats good... Thats very good....
Now how do I make it a small spawn? You guys talk about having like 170 fry in one go?
Is that considered having a smapp spawn.

 

[ManyFISH4Me]

What fish do you have, and in what tanks? Maybe we can help by thinking of something you haven't thought of yourself.

 

[Synirr]

Getting a small spawn is kinda the luck of the draw... I was hoping for a small one this time, but had 195 babies to begin with. Luckily for me (and I feel bad saying that, but it's true,) about half still weren't swimming correctly and hadn't eaten after 4 days, so I culled them assuming they'd either eventually die on their own or grow up to be weak fish. 90-something still isn't small, but it's better than 200.

As for making a small spawn, that's a different story. If you catch them in the act you can remove the female after you've seen her release a decent number of eggs, you can remove eggs when they've finished, or you can cull fry. It's all up to you. With the first two methods there's a risk you'll cause the male to eat the eggs, but it just depends on the male and how much meddling from you he'll tolerate. With the third method you don't risk losing fry to the male or anything like that so you get a more accurate picture of how many fry you'll really end up with, but you are ending the lives of little baby fish and that's hard for some people
Personally, I don't find anything morally wrong with culling during the first week or two since they're not very well developed and are basically just mobile mouths, but I'm so soft-hearted that I even found it a little hard to cull my unhealthy fry, much less healthy ones...

 

[Ethos]

What fish do you have, and in what tanks? Maybe we can help by thinking of something you haven't thought of yourself.

Lets see....6 cichlids and 2 plecs in the 55G, LR in the SW Nano 10G, 3 WC's in the second 10G(In my bros room)....a betta in the 5G, 2.5G and the bowls....and I'll have to make room when my shipment comes in for my 2 new breeding pair..

Does cull mean selectivly kill?

 

[Synirr]

Does cull mean selectivly kill?

Yeah, normally, though in the first two weeks they pretty much all look alike so there's not much to select from

 

[Ethos]

Would it be bad to give a live mean to my cichlids? Or other bettas? Or will they not accept fry? I don't want to waste anything....but then again, it sounds horrible to feed one small poor thing to another mean thing...hmhm..

I'm still wondering how to cover it and how to keep it warm?

 

[splashluff]

I'm still wondering how to cover it and how to keep it warm?

Do you mean the fry tanks? heaters work well and seran-wrap or a tank cover.

I wouldn't say it's morally reprehensible to feed some very young fry to Chichlids to cut down the numbers. I didn't even have the need to cull any fry, because 200 of mine were eaten by my pygmy cory ... however, caring for 350 fry IS extremely difficult and it's definitely best for the average beginner to have a spawn under 100. If I were you, I'd leave the male alone with the eggs and let them all hatch out, then when the fry are about 1 week old selectively pick those that look like they're struggling and the smallest, but don't cull too many because quite a few die within the first month naturally.

 

[Ethos]

Oh, I wouldn't a though of that.
I have 2 corys in the breeding tank. Thanks, I'll remember I need to take them out..