Hi,
In February I bought a 48l tank to replace my old 26l. I cycled the tank which took about 6 weeks and then slowly started to add the fish from my old tank. The old tank has been set up and running here for 8 months, it housed 6 white cloud mountain minnows, 2 peppered corys and an assassin snail. I first moved over 3 of the white clouds, that was about a month ago, just over 2 weeks ago I moved over the 2 peppered corys, and then just over a week ago I moved over the final 3 white clouds. I left the 26l up and running with the assassin snail in as I have some java fern and 2 types of crypts growing in there which I hadn't decided what to do with yet, and there were a lot of pest snails so I wanted the assassin snail to keep eating them before they ate all my plants.
So today I was sitting watching my assassin snail when I noticed that there were 3 little babies darting around the tank! They are really tiny, about 1-2mm long. All you can really see is 2 little black eyes and then a little tapering bit of body that is creamy translucent sort of colour. They seem to be quite strong swimmers and can swim fast and against the water current, I turned the filter right down just in case it was a little strong (it's already covered with tights). I didn't see any eggs before moving any of the fish over, but then I wasn't looking for any. I've no idea how long they've been in there but I guessed with it being an established tank there were probably some bacteria and what not floating around which they can eat, as I've not put any food in there for over a week! So far I've fed them some powdered fish flakes and crushed up bloodworm mixed with a little water (they did seem to dart towards this) and I smooshed up some multi wafer (a mix of algae and fish protein etc) mixed with water and have put some of that in using a dropper bottle (they seem to have largely ignored this).
I've never had fry before (that I've seen) and have no idea if I'm doing the right thing feeding-wise. I don't have any fry food but may be able to get some tomorrow, or is it ok to keep feeding them as I am now that they're free swimming? Which fish do you think they are most likely to be babies of? Or could they be something else entirely from outside of the tank (I did google mosquito larvae but they don't look like that!)? Do I just leave them in the old tank with the assassin snail, carry on as normal, and hope for the best?
I was ridiculously excited when I saw them! I do appreciate though that it's quite difficult to raise fry and it's probably unlikely that they'll survive. Any advice would be much appreciated.
In February I bought a 48l tank to replace my old 26l. I cycled the tank which took about 6 weeks and then slowly started to add the fish from my old tank. The old tank has been set up and running here for 8 months, it housed 6 white cloud mountain minnows, 2 peppered corys and an assassin snail. I first moved over 3 of the white clouds, that was about a month ago, just over 2 weeks ago I moved over the 2 peppered corys, and then just over a week ago I moved over the final 3 white clouds. I left the 26l up and running with the assassin snail in as I have some java fern and 2 types of crypts growing in there which I hadn't decided what to do with yet, and there were a lot of pest snails so I wanted the assassin snail to keep eating them before they ate all my plants.
So today I was sitting watching my assassin snail when I noticed that there were 3 little babies darting around the tank! They are really tiny, about 1-2mm long. All you can really see is 2 little black eyes and then a little tapering bit of body that is creamy translucent sort of colour. They seem to be quite strong swimmers and can swim fast and against the water current, I turned the filter right down just in case it was a little strong (it's already covered with tights). I didn't see any eggs before moving any of the fish over, but then I wasn't looking for any. I've no idea how long they've been in there but I guessed with it being an established tank there were probably some bacteria and what not floating around which they can eat, as I've not put any food in there for over a week! So far I've fed them some powdered fish flakes and crushed up bloodworm mixed with a little water (they did seem to dart towards this) and I smooshed up some multi wafer (a mix of algae and fish protein etc) mixed with water and have put some of that in using a dropper bottle (they seem to have largely ignored this).
I've never had fry before (that I've seen) and have no idea if I'm doing the right thing feeding-wise. I don't have any fry food but may be able to get some tomorrow, or is it ok to keep feeding them as I am now that they're free swimming? Which fish do you think they are most likely to be babies of? Or could they be something else entirely from outside of the tank (I did google mosquito larvae but they don't look like that!)? Do I just leave them in the old tank with the assassin snail, carry on as normal, and hope for the best?
I was ridiculously excited when I saw them! I do appreciate though that it's quite difficult to raise fry and it's probably unlikely that they'll survive. Any advice would be much appreciated.
