What to feed newborns

[Jan Cavalieri]

I checked some previous threads and most discussed older fry (like 2 weeks old). I just had two of my very large Blue Gourami's produce a number of fry (who knows how many originally but looked like less than 20 or so were left). I set up my hospital tank with 1/2 fresh water and 1/2 water from the tank (we were in the middle of cleaning it when we discovered the fry - so I'm sure we suctioned up a ton of them and others got eaten. Given that we clean this tank weekly and I inspect everything daily I have no idea how I missed the bubble nest, supposedly this species produces some beautiful ones. I've had these 6" fish for a year and it is the first time I've seen them produce babies. In fact, I can't even tell the males from the females so I concluded we had all males since that's what they looked like.

So they are a day or two old (we think), in their own 5 gallon tank. I ground up some flakes as small as I could get them but I can't tell if they are eating them (bad eyes). I've got a brine shrimp hatcher but other posts said they won't be ready for this for two weeks. So what do I feed in the meantime and where would I get it (our pet stores barely carry any gravel or anything else so I order everything from Amazon or fish specialty websites.

 

[Sylvan]

I bought Liquifry No1 for my Betta fry.

 

[Colin_T]

Baby Labyrinth fishes need green water and infusoria for the first few weeks of life. If you don't have that, then boiled egg yolk is the next best thing. The following link has information on culturing foods for baby fish and includes how to prepare boiled egg yolk. Look under "Emergency Fry Food".

You can also use a clean fish sponge and wipe algae off the glass of the main tanks and squeeze the algae into the rearing tank for the fry. It won't feed them all but will provide some food to them.

Back to Basics when Breeding Fish

STARTING OUT Make sure you have a pair, (1 male + 1 female). There is nothing worse than spending your hard-earned dollars buying a couple of fish to try and breed and ending up with a pair of fish of the same sex. Let's face it, to reproduce fish you need a male and a female. Two males won't do...

www.fishforums.net

 

[JuiceBox52]

Congratulations on your fry. My mum once had a blue male gourami and a yellow female. They had purple babies!

 

[Jan Cavalieri]

Thanks for the help. Eggs I have, so I'll get that recipe I may have a little algae in one tank but the abundant snails and some fish remove it. Would grinding up some algae pellets work? I have some now for fish that enjoy it. Looks like most of your suggestions are for those preparing for breeding so egg yolk is the way to go. I have a small filter installed and a heater and am keeping the water warm. Haven't done any water tests on it. If it takes 2 weeks to make some of this stuff should I just feed an egg diet until they are big enough to eat other food - like brine shrimp? Should I start making green water even if it takes 2 weeks to make - will they still need it then? It's really tempting to get rid of these - they are about the last species I own that I want more of - they grow way too big and get too aggressive for my tanks - the "parents" I got by accident due to a screw up in a shipment - twice - they are too big for my tank, fight constantly and are generally a pain. I have found it's nearly impossible to overfeed them because they eat everything - so the tank stays nice and clean.

I may have some algae on a tank I am cleaning tomorrow - we'll salvage those and put in the babies tank. What a pain, but I can't just kill them on purpose. I only have about 6 or so left before we noticed some and there are 3 left in the main tank I need to get out of there. All the fish in the tank are very jumpy right now - I have to approach the tank slowly and tell them who is coming or they are jumping all over the place. Still don't know which two are mom and dad but one fish is hiding to the extreme and very defensive so I think that is dad. The female (I think) has some cuts on her underside that hopefully will heal - I guess if the female doesn't "cooperate" after the bubble nest is made then the male kills her. Yeah, I really want more of these monsters.

 

[Jan Cavalieri]

going with the boiled egg and algae method. Tempted to flush them all down the toilet or let them get eaten - they are such undesirable fish - aggressive and huge = it's constant fighting and the main tank is already too small for the ones I have. But I'll give it a try. Nice notes btw. If I had only known two weeks ago they would breed. I've had them for a year. Thought they were all males.

 

[Colin_T]

Infuoria and green water take about 1 month to get going so just use boiled egg yolk for a couple of weeks and then start adding newly hatched brineshrimp.

You can try grinding up algae pellets but it has to be powder fine, and you only use a very small amount to float on the surface. You can also mix some of the powdered pellets with some water and shake it up well, then pour that in the tank.

 

[Jan Cavalieri]

I was able to order and receive "Grow - Fry Starter" which is a powder 100% fish (no soybean), and I purchased "First Bites" from Hikari. - a company I usually like (or the fish do). They do add soybean powder but also add a bunch of different vitamins and it floats midway which is where these fry seem to be looking for food. One of the fry can already eat brine shrimp but he's twice the size of the other two. So quite a group of expensive little fish - I'd never make a profit LOL All this for 3 fish (3 more died). The adults are unusually quiet and staying well-hidden until it's time to eat then it is an all out battle for every thing. They are all behaving much worse than usual - the tension of the breeding or something got them all riled up.

But seriously Colin - those are some amazing notes you wrote. I had no ideas that it was so complicated, I just remember being SERIOUSLY traumatized as a child when our guppies had babies and the parents started eating them so I started screaming. My mother came in to move the parents to somewhere else, then dropped the whole bowl all over the carpet - we had flopping fish and babies all over. I think we lost one of the parents so whatever babies we recovered we put in the big bowl with the remaining parent only to watch them eat them. I don't know what my mother was thinking when she bought a mating pair of fish and what she was going to do with them.

I wasn't prepared either but figured my multispecies tanks would be unlikely to breed and this was the LAST tank I would think would breed. But it's also why I have a small extra tank. The notes really make you appreciate what a breeder goes through in order to produce living fish and make it profitable. Then some idiot like me goes to a pet shop and asks a jerk there for a Gourami and gets sold a Cichild that turns out to be 8" long and still growing. and then order some more actual Gourami that are supposed to be all males and only 3-5" long (and are now 5-6". ) And obviously not all male - I can't tell them apart either other than I believe the female is lighter color (almost nearly white right now and the male is lighter too) - since they were sent by mistake I don't know the species - I just called them Large Blue Gourami.

Anyway, keep up the good work!!!

 

[Retired Viking]

Good luck, I hope your fry make it, post a picture when you can, love to see fry

 

[Colin_T]

if you post pictures of the fish, we can tell you what sex and species they are.

 

[Barry Tetra]

if you post pictures of the fish, we can tell you what sex and species they are.

Why do some LFS feed new born yeast?

 

[Colin_T]

does LFS = local fish shop?

I don't know of anyone who feeds yeast to baby fish. The fry can't eat it and it doesn't have a lot of nutritional value for fish.

 

[Jan Cavalieri]

I tried taking a picture and they are still too small. Feeding them about 5 times a day so hopefully they'll grow fast just like they do as adults. It would be nice to know what they are so if I give them to a fish store I can tell them. I just call them Blue Gourami's. They are kind of a marbled light blue with one a medium blue color. Several have the classic gourami spot. There are 4 blue gourami one that looks like it has tiger stripes and once cichlid (no idea what species).

Ok first is the picture of 2 of the 3 fry
Second is a picture of who I believe are the parents - if anybody knows what name to call these Gourami's that would be wonderful. They are about 5" long
Third is a copy of an unknown species of cichlid - if anybody knows what it is that would be great. I call her "Hot Lips" - she is about 8" long (sorry about the dirt - they just finished fighting)

Well that got mixed up the cichlid is the first picture, babies second and parents third

 

[Colin_T]

Top picture appears to be a Geophagus cichlid of some type.

Middle picture is baby gouramis that are too small to sell or identify.

Bottom picture is two "blue gouramis" or "3 spot gouramis", same fish different common name. Scientific name is

Trichopodus trichopterus​