Swordtail Fry Help

[zuulan]

Hi All

I'm on my 3rd batch of Swordtail fry after my 1st 2 bathes all survived with no casualties at all. The batch sizes were only 9 and 2 though as I wasn't able to fish the mother out sooner.

Anyway in my 3rd batch I had about 20 fry and after the week or so, everything was fine. However they have began to die off 1 by 1 and I'm left with about 12 now. Does anyone have any idea why it could be?

The stats are:

Temp 24.5 degrees C
Ammonia Nil
Nitrite Nil
Natrate about 4 mg/L
Tank Size 55 litre

As before I'm feeding them Hikari First Bites 3-4 times a day. Only things I can think of that might effect them is that they are near a cat litter tray (ammonia?) and are near a door leading to my rear garden (draft?) but again this was the situation in my 1st 2 batches.

The only difference this time around is that I have noticed some white things floating on the water surface which I'm skimming off every other day. Not sure what these are, possibly snail eggs? I do seem to have a lot of snails now.

Could it just be because this batch size is so much bigger then the previous two?

Thanks All

 

[OldMan47]

Losing a large number of fry with no predators and good water stats is very unusual. In your tank you will need to be doing water changes of at least 15 or 20 litres every 2 or 3 days to maintain the truly pristine conditions the fry need. Feedings of very finely ground food several times each day will promote better survival and I always have some kind of plant material in any fry tank. So many livebearers are grazers that feed on micro-organisms to supplement what we feed them, that I feel somehow remiss if I don't have plants to support micro-organism populations.

 

[zuulan]

OK, thanks. All the fry, including the dead ones have had a full belly.

 

[zuulan]

Well the deaths continued and that White stuff floating on the water was getting worse so I've transferred them from the nursery tank to the quarantee tank. Only 13 were still alive and 1 of those was so close to death I didn't transfer her.

Hopefully they'll do much better in the new tank.

 

[DarrenEPB]

Hi

I currently have over 40 swordtail fry, from 3 separate births, orange and also black, I have 9 molly fry, 17 guppy.

Firstly how often are you feeding them? They are not being over fed are they? Little and often, and ensure it is very fine.
Also, ensure you are keeping the water changes up to date as the water condition is even more important for fry, and there is def nothing getting into the water is there such as cat litter? Things being blown in through the door? Just trying to eliminate things.

The tank has good filtration I presume?

Would you mind just saying how often you feed them and how many times per day. Also do you have plants in the tank for them, fry do like to have plants and as mentioned by Oldman47 they do feed on micor-organisms

 

[zuulan]

Feeding them First Bites 3-4 times a day.

Nothing is being blown into the tank but the new tank their are in is well away from the door & litter tray now.

The filter is quite small but it did give a strong water flow. If anything, too strong. Previously I waited a month or so before turning it up but I decided to do this earlier this time because of the number of fry I had.

There is 1 small live plant in the tank plus lots of plastic ones.