Need Some Help & Advice Setting Up Fry Tank

[FrogGirl]

I've been reading on these forums a lot over the last month when I realized we had a pregnant guppy & some pregnant platys. We had mixed feelings on buying another tank to put them in since we don't really want to keep them but maybe the fact that I'm pregnant myself makes it hard for me to just let nature take it's course & see what happens. We do have some LFS that will take them as donation but not until they are bigger. I bought several net breeders & more plants for the tank just in case.

Thursday I noticed our pregnant guppy was being harassed more than usual & since we knew she had to be popping any day & decided to catch her & put her in one of the net breeders. A few hours later I went to feed the fish & was pleasantly surprised to find a bunch of babies in there. I haven't been able to get a completely accurate count but it appears to be between 25-30 little guys. We decided then that we'd go ahead & buy a tank set up. Last night we went & bought a 20 gallon kit that has an under gravel filter & everything we need to get up & running. Our problem now becomes how to get it cycled/ safe for the babies to go into it.

I read about placing some media or something from your main filter into the new tank but my husband said we can't do that. I think I read somewhere about taking water from the main tank & possibly other things from the main tank to help get it/make it ready. I have a pretty decent size thick plant (all of our plants are plastic) that I had bought for fry cover that has been in the tank around 2 weeks. I can move that plant over & we were going to put a few of our zebra danios into the new tank. I'm hoping between the 3 net breeders that we can keep the fry in the main tank for a while & give the fry tank a chance to be cycled & safe enough.

If anyone has anymore tricks or ideas I'd be grateful. When we got home last night I noticed 2 small black fry hiding up by our heater, we caught them & put them in a 2nd net breeder. These are definitely not guppy fry, they're black & a bit larger than most of the guppy fry. We're not sure where they came from but we are assuming one of the platys must have given birth, we are just not sure which, one was being harassed a ton so we thought perhaps it was her & moved her into a 3rd net last night but have not seen any fry in there yet & as I started writing this I spotted another fry by the heater & got him in with the other 2.

So right now I have at least 25 fry in 1 net breeder & 3 in another. I'm not sure when 25 in 1 net breeder will be too much so if someone could give me some advice on when I need to move some into the net with the other 3 & how many.

Any & all help is appreciated. We're pretty new to this whole thing. My husband had this 100 gallon tank as a salt water tank many years ago but he's never had fresh water tropical fish, let alone livebearers. We didn't even know we had livebearers til I started reading about the fish we had brought home. Since we already had some I figured what the hell & bought a few guppies to go along with the platys lol. I've also got a pregnant swordtail in there now.

My husband told me I was contagious & to stay away from the tank cause every female livebearer we have is now pregnant (except maybe for the guppy & whatever else just gave birth)

 

[fluttermoth]

Sorry if this is going to sound harsh, but your husband is a prat.

Of course you can take (up to a third) of your exsisting filter media, put into the new filter (don't bother with UG; they're not that good) and it will be cycled straight away.

You're not 'contagious'
All female livbearers will be pregnant if they've ever shared a tank with a male; they can store sperm for six months.

Keep the fish and dump the husband would be my best advice...

 

[Caprichoso]

Sorry if this is going to sound harsh, but your husband is a prat.

Of course you can take (up to a third) of your exsisting filter media, put into the new filter (don't bother with UG; they're not that good) and it will be cycled straight away.

You're not 'contagious'
All female livbearers will be pregnant if they've ever shared a tank with a male; they can store sperm for six months.

Keep the fish and dump the husband would be my best advice...

I could tell that she was kidding...but I'm not too sure if you are

 

[FrogGirl]

I don't know or understand anything really about the technical aspects with filters etc. That's been his department & I am just trying to learn as much about our fish as possible. He said that we can't move the filter media because our community tank has a huge filter with different media that he can't use with the new filter because they're different?

My being "contagious" was a joke of course. I had just told him that I had noticed that all of our female livebearers were now pregnant & he did the omg thing.

The entire fish keeping process has turned into more than we realized we were getting into. He wanted to do freshwater this time because he said salt was too much work but now he's bitching about how much work this is turning into. He didn't think we had to do a water change until after 3 months until I read otherwise, we did one water change about 2 weeks ago but that's all we've managed to do so far. I'm stuck at home for pregnancy related problems so I can do some stuff but I cannot do a water change on this giant tank. I can probably take care of the 20 gallon we just bought for the fry but the 100 gallon is just more than I can handle, especially with a 2yr old under foot. When he is off work we constantly have something going on or are almost never home. The night we did the water change it took us about 2hrs & getting that much time when our son is not getting in the way or into other trouble is just hard. I want to do this & figure out a way to make all this work but when we are actually home he wants to rest. So I'm starting to think we shouldn't have bothered with fish but I'm still trying.

Sorry I'm sharing much more than I'm sure you care to know, just really frustrated with everything right now.

 

[Zyden]

You can always downsize. I keep just a few danio and platy in the study, and platy fry in the bedroom. I love the lighting effects and water sounds, and my water changes in a 70L and 30L tank take me about half an hour (including prating about with the decor).

My platy just had her second batch, and I let her have them in the main tank with the danio, then moved the fry to a 30L tank I'd be cycling for a about 4 weeks (fishless). I used water from my other tank, and about 1/4 of the filter media to get all the good bacteria going. A fishless cycle was the easiest, but you could always have some Prime handy to prevent nitrite/ammonia spikes if you're really worried about your tank not being mature enough. But honestly, take as much decor,gravel and water from your established tank as you can, and set up a mini-replica for the fry.

They love plant cover, so buy some cheap foliage that can float on the top. (I use stuff form the Pound Store)

Dont forget a heater and some fish netting over the filter in-take if it's got a powerful suck (but plenty of foliage protects from drag and prevents fry from being pulled in).

It appears to be quite safe to mix fry upto 2/3rds bigger in size, so you can mix batches.

When about 2 months old, enquire at your trusted stores if they want some free fry. Most wont pay for them sadly, but I find the fun is in the raising.

If you dont want fry, there are plenty of fish that will eat the poor things, like paradise fish.

 

[the_lock_man]

Fluttermoth is right, there's no reason why you can't put your existing filter media in the new tank - even if it needs cutting about a bit to get it to fit.

And since you're now into livebearers, if you have a little girl, please make sure you call her Mollie

 

[Louiseness]

Fluttermoth is right, there's no reason why you can't put your existing filter media in the new tank - even if it needs cutting about a bit to get it to fit.

Forgive me if I'm wrong but it seems like the OP's new, smaller tank has an undergravel filter? In which case her husband is right. Although in that case you could jsut buy a small, cheap internal filter for the new tank and transfer the media to that instead.

 

[fluttermoth]

Sorry if this is going to sound harsh, but your husband is a prat.

Of course you can take (up to a third) of your exsisting filter media, put into the new filter (don't bother with UG; they're not that good) and it will be cycled straight away.

You're not 'contagious'
All female livbearers will be pregnant if they've ever shared a tank with a male; they can store sperm for six months.

Keep the fish and dump the husband would be my best advice...

I could tell that she was kidding...but I'm not too sure if you are

I was joking; I just manged to get the tone all wrong and it didn't quite come across how I meant it

Sorry; no offence meant, honestly!

 

[FrogGirl]

Yes, it is an under gravel filter.

The 3 (I assume platy) fry look to be a bit older, they're slightly bigger, than the guppy fry which will be 1 week on Thursday. As I said before we have 3 net breeders so we can split them up between the 3 so they aren't too crowded in the nets I'm just not sure how soon I need to move them & how many per net would be good. All the guppy fry (25-30) are still in the net they were born into & the 3 other fry are in another net.

We were planning to try to get the new tank up & running tonight & do a water change & probably vacuum job on our main tank tonight.

I like the suggestion of naming the baby "Mollie" if it's a girl but unfortunately it's not a girl lol. It's a boy & I start my last trimester tomorrow so the name is pretty much set already anyway

 

[FrogGirl]

Oh man, I really hope that at some point this water change process is going to get easier & be faster. We got the new tank kind of put together but haven't put any water or plants or anything in yet. My husband is going to look into maybe getting a small Fluval filter for it so we can move some of the media from our FX5 into it so we can move the babies quicker.

Then we got to work on the big tank, we always end up doing it when it's night time & we have got to stop doing it at night because there is just not enough light to see anything lol. He had to hold a light so I could try to get the babies out so we could change the water. We have 28 guppies & 3 (platys?) so I think when I put them back in the net breeders I'm going to put 15 guppies in one & the rest in the other.

2hrs after we started the 50% water change we are done except putting the babies back in. That will be my job I'm sure & my back & heart need a break. We have an air tube in their bowl they're in for now. I'll probably have them back in soon though. What sucks is that it took 2hrs & we didn't even vacuum still! Hopefully we get time this weekend to maybe do that part.

Thanks for all the help & advice. I thought (and I think he thought) he knew what we were doing/getting into when we started this but thanks to everyone on this forum I've found out that is far from the truth lol.

 

[Fishy friend2]

28 guppies that's alot

 

[FrogGirl]

I wasn't sure how many to expect but from what I read I figured we could end up with even more. I knew there was somewhere between 25 & 30 but couldn't get an accurate count til we did the water change last night.

We just bought a small Fluval filter so we're going to be able to take filter media. Still once we get the water in we're just going to put the zebras in for a few weeks & make sure everything's ok before we put babies in.

 

[OldMan47]

Let me give you a preliminary plan.
Fill the new tank with dechlorinated water and get the UGF running. Go get the filter from your old tank and give it a good cleaning in that new tank. Yes, that will make the new tank look messy. Add only the fry to the new tank, the zebras will feast on fry if you give them a chance. Keep tabs on your water chemistry for the first couple of weeks to make sure that the filter clone has taken. The testing would be similar to that which you would perform for a fish-in cycle but you may never see any ammonia or nitrites since you are going to be seeding the new UGF filter.
The expected outcome is a slightly dirty looking tank with an adequate jump start to support a few fry and a gradual improvement in appearance with routine water changes.

 

[Dieses Madchen]

my fry tank was cycled using media from my established tank. My fry are doing well, and the tank has 0 ammonia, 0 nitrites, and 5 nitrates It will be the best thing to do, then your tank is already cycled. Good luck with your babies!!

 

[OldMan47]

Sorry Dieses Madchen, the OP has a UGF filter so media transfer is really not an option.