Nitrate/Overfeeding/Fry

[GentleHeart]

OK.... i'm kinda not sure what i'm doing yet
i've been trying to learn everything i can about all this stuff especially since the baby fish was born.... i know they are fry but baby fish sounds cuter LOL
anyway..... i konw the big fish might eat the baby..but i wasn't exaclty prepared to have a baby as i'd just bought the mom and she had the baby like 5 days later
anyway..... the baby has survived about 4 days now..hides in the plants so well sometimes i think it has been eaten and then i'll see it again.

My concern is how much should i be feeding the baby?
i'm getting high nitrate levels..and i think it might be cuz i'm overfeeding cuz i keep wanting to make sure they baby gets some of it.
i crush up part of the food so it's powder like.... i see it eat....
i got a nitrate reading of 80 this morning.... i changed like 15% of the water...it's down to 40 now
nitrite was 0...ammonia was between ideal and safe (between 0 and .25)
pH was neutral
so ummmmm do you think the extra food is what is causing the high nitrate reading?? I checked it cuz i had one dead fish.......
GH

 

[GentleHeart]

oh and i forgot..some of you would probably ask how long since the last water change..... i did it this past week on Tuesday.... today is sunday for me (i'm in the US) ..... and i figured with it still reading 40 i should probalby do another 10% change in the morning? what do you guys suggest?

 

[jams.alaskan]

Do another 20 percent change now if you like. You are overfeeding your tank for one little guy that will only eat what falls in his area since dashing out of hiding will cause him to loose his life. Get a breeder net to hang on the inside of your tank to target feed the little one and cut down on feeding for the rest of the guys till your reading come down a bit. Are you vaccuming the substrate when you do your water change? You should...

ALASKA

Best of luck!