Fry tank

[leanne]

I have been given a 5 gal tank that I thought would be brilliant for putting fry in. It is a cold water tank but I have bought a mini heater today. It has a filter (which I am going to put in my 10 gal) and I am going to put my "extra" filter from my 10 gal into this one - cheat maturing. I'll still leave it going for a little while to allow it to stabilise.

My question is: What plants do fry like to hide in? I did have some big leafy fern things but they kept going brown and dying. The ohter plants I have are large leafed and not really ideal for babies to hide in - hence the seperate tank. I do have a breeding net but it is ugly and takes up too much room as my tank is only small.

Any other advice is appreciated too. Up until now I have just been leaving them to it and rescuing the few fry I can. As I have a couple of batches of fry I can't really put mummy fish in the breeding net...

 

[jams.alaskan]

What are you "leaving it to stabilise"? The new filter in the larger tank?
If your fry will be in the 5 gal without larger fish they won't need the plants to hid in and you can go with little or on substrate for ease in keeping it cleen. Fry need to be fed so often and they do make a lot of waste as they grow, many folks go without a substrate so that they can keep it as clean as possible.

ALASKA

 

[leanne]

Thanks Alaska. May add a single layer of gravel though cause its going to be in my living room so needs "prettying up" a bit. By stabilise I mean check that the bacteria are functioning properly. Just for my own piece of mind I like to have at least 3 days of 0 nitrate/negligable nitrate before adding any fish. "Ripening" my filters does work as everyone one here said it would but I like to check to be sure - don't want any dead fish...

 

[jams.alaskan]

I see, so when you move the filter over there will be no fish, so no waste, you may loose bacteria as they will have nothing to eat, I'd put a few fish in there to keep the bacteria going.

ALASKA

I can't seem to do the very bare tank either, Like the looks of sand so I clean lots and have been lucky

 

[leanne]

This may be a daft idea...

If when I did water changes I put the water in the fry tank would that keep the bacteria fed?

I suppose I could always put a couple of danios in the breeding net (in the fry tank) to keep them away from the babies...

 

[jams.alaskan]

I think that I've messed you up ) If the fry will be in there already then the bacteria will stabilize to the level of their waste and you should be just fine. The increase of their waste as they grow will probably be kept up on with your bacteria.

ALASKA

No need to add the danios if the fry are in there.

 

[leanne]

hee hee.

 

[smithrc]

Hi - i've just done just this... 12x8x8 tank (just over 3gals US).

It's got a small foam filter with active carbon at the top (air driven) and a heater.

as the above suggests - i've left it clear (no gravel) for cleaning.

feeding the buggers 3 times a day its surprising the amount of poop they make!
they are from eggs too - so are a lot smaller than liveebarers.