Got A Problem With My Babies (i Think)

[nicolabradshaw]

Noticed my red platy was pregnant about 2 weeks ago, didnt realise she WAS pregnant but thought it was a possibility. In the last few days I was fairly certain thats what it was so bought a breeding box today (only one i could get was a rigid plastic one) within 2 hours of putting my fish in there i had a good 20 or so babies in the bottom. Ive just counted them again and theres about 30 of them in total. I went back into LFS and bought interpet liquifry 2. All well and good until I started to feed them, I pierced the top of the bottle and while squeezing the drops into the water the top came off the bottle. As i was needing to change the water today (for reasons below) I decided it would be best to suction out some of the water as the whole tank was pretty full of cloudyness from the liquifry. Ive now got sediment sitting in the bottom of the breeding box but cant siphon that because of the babies in there.
Will it hurt them (being overfed)? What do i do now?


REASONS FOR WATER CHANGE:
(All this has happened at the same time as having new carpet fitted. I had to drain as much water as possible out last night so that the tank could be lifted and was going to have to do the same this evening to get it back into the room they belong in.)

Please help
Regards
Nicola

 

[theotheragentm]

Being overfed is not a good idea for any fish as it creates bioload buildup. You can try tweezers and do it manually. As there is not a great way to get the sediment off the bottom of the breeding net, I would recommend keeping up with water changes, dropping the water level down as far as you can go while keeping a water level in the breeding net.

 

[dunchp]

Hi Nicola,


If I were you, I would gently aerate the water in the breeding box with an air pump and the current it will produce in the water will hopefully sort out the issue with the liquifry as well; you are going to do a water change anyway so that should resolve any overfeeding issues.

Don't worry too much about overfeeding the fry, but if you have 30 fry, you will have to think about doing something with them quite soon as they will not last too long all packed into a breeding box. I would recommend a 50 litre plastic tub like you get in Ikea which will be fine in a centrally heated house without heating the water.

 

[nicolabradshaw]

Hi Nicola,


If I were you, I would gently aerate the water in the breeding box with an air pump and the current it will produce in the water will hopefully sort out the issue with the liquifry as well; you are going to do a water change anyway so that should resolve any overfeeding issues.

Don't worry too much about overfeeding the fry, but if you have 30 fry, you will have to think about doing something with them quite soon as they will not last too long all packed into a breeding box. I would recommend a 50 litre plastic tub like you get in Ikea which will be fine in a centrally heated house without heating the water.

Ive got a main airation system in there (tube with holes in) which ive turned against the side of the tank so the waters gentler and it seems to be giving loads of little air bubbles so i think thats fine. didnt think i could put them in a tub, how would that fair with air? maybe i should ask the LFS if they could take some now. how many would you say i could keep in the breeder box??

 

[nicolabradshaw]

Also, have you got any idea how long they need to be seperate from the others? I have neon tetra, 2 guppys and 2 eel loaches (as well as the male and female red platys obviously)

 

[theotheragentm]

In order to make sure fry are safe, keep them separated until they are larger than the largest mouth that will eat them. Air pumps don't actually put much air in the water directly. What they do is agitate the surface of the water, which allows oxygen to dissolve across the film that standing water develops. A filter that disrupts the water's surface by making waves will accomplish the same task. There should be plenty of oxygen in a tub, assuming it is large enough. Put a heater in it and the water change you do will be enough to provide enough oxygen.

 

[dunchp]

Hi Nicola,

Regarding your questions;

Firstly, I have an idea which you may or may not like.

The fish you have listed are all quite small and your tank seems quite lightly stocked, although you don't say what size your tank is; guppies and platies aren't generally that interested in eating fry and the neons are quite small; I would suggest that you should try half a dozen of the fry in the main tank and see how they get on - I suspect that they will be fine, although I wouldn't bet my house on it.

Platies and most other Xiphophorus species sit amongst the gravel when first born and hide until they are confident they will be OK.

Regarding the breeder box, it is obviously very small and I would not leave the fry in there for more than a week; you will get problems with lack of oxygen, with pollution and if they survive then I there will be long term growth issues; they will be fine in a tub and, as theotheragentm says, there should be no problems with regard to oxygen, although you should change the water every couple of days.

Basically, the secret to getting fry to grow quickly is to give them plenty of space, change their water often and feed them good food little and often (preferably newly hatched brine shrimp, although I have good results with decapsulated brine shrimp and flake is OKish as long as you crush it up quite small).

Anyway, hope that helps, feel free to ask any more questions. Good luck with it.

 

[nicolabradshaw]

I let out 6 of them and can find 4, so thats not too bad a figure. I bought some plastic plants for them to hide amongst once I leave the rest of them out.

Only had one plant in the tank so i took a trip to maidenhead aquatics where i was told my fish would not survive in my tank let alone the breeding box and I should get a female guppy as she would eat the fry, as I have male guppies I would have a problem with guppy fry but also was told that one female with my males would stress her. As I wandered around the shop I seen gorgeous blue guppies and had to have some so I bought 3 of them. When I got home though there was a hole part way down one of their tails - think hes been bitten, when I got up this morning this hole has split along his tail, will this heal? After putting them in the tank last night they were acting a bit feisty - think they were deciding who was boss.

Thank you for all of your help, Ive had two people nominate themselves to take on some of the babies if they survive, how soon can I tell the sex of them?

 

[Alistriwen]

Personally, I used to also have a problem with messy breeding boxes and nets. I solved my problem by putting a small ramshorn snail inside the breeding box when it is in use. The little snail has worked marvelously to keep the box clean of the usual crud that accumulates on the bottom and since the box has side slats (Im assuming yours has some sort of holes as well, if not get a new one that does) I can get a lot of the feces out by simply raising the box out of the water a bit. Using this method I have not had to do any maintenance on the box except for the lifting out of water I mentioned every couple of days. That said, most of our fry are born in seperate 5 or 10 gallon tanks and that will be your best bet in the future.