Fry tank dilemma

[Tomt]

Hi all,

My Black Calvus pair and Gold Compressiceps trio have bred simultaneously. I need to set up a fry tank for parents and the fry because the tanks that they are in right now are a bit on the large side and not easy to get to the gravel. I have two small perspex tanks (a 30L and a 40L I think) which would be suitable for growing the fry in for the first month or so. I plan to leave the females in the tank with the fry which brings me to my first problem.

The Black Calvus female is sitting on her eggs and will go into her own tank with the fry, but the two gold females appear to both have eggs. I would like to know if anyone has had any experience raising the comp fry with two females in the one tank with different broods of eggs?. I could have them in separate tanks with quite a bit of effort or even only put one female in to look after both broods of eggs. I am pretty sure that the eggs are less then 3 days apart.

My second problem is setting up the fry tanks. I could have them in their own small tanks with their own heaters and water with a seeded filter. With individual tanks I could preform more frequent water changes (30% every 5 days sort of thing) and be able to dose the tank with prime more often. My other option would be to hook it up to my breeding setup with about 1500L of water, being constantly filtered by mature filters and is the same water the parents spawned in. The breeding setup is currently understocked for the amount of water and has more then adequate filtration and heating, the only problem is I cannot really preform water changed more then a bi weekly basis.

My other question is would it be better to grow the fry in their own isolated tanks with more frequent water changes but possibly poorer constant filtration or to hook the fry tanks up to a larger system with water that is not going to spike in conditions and has a larger water turnover but with fewer water changes?

Would appreciate it if anyone can help.

Cheers,

Tom

[mattrox]

In my experience fry add a negligible bioload to a tank. You should be fine with frequent water changes, siphoning out uneaten food regularly. It is leftover uneaten food that causes water quality problems. I wouldn't worry too much about the filtration capacity on the smaller tanks, just get out the food so it doesn't foul the water.

[damoq]

Another important thing with any alto fry is that you need to make sure you feed them regularly and also make sure the food is getting to the fry so i think the smaller tank option is the best for these fish!

Like Mattrox said make sure you remove any waste from the fry tank cause they need good quality water too.

Damo

[fishinf]

what i do is wait till the fry start to pop there heads out .then tip the shell into a fry saver without the mother ,

then feed them two or three times a day .they can stay there for months.......good luck

[Link2Hell]

Hi

with the Alto's wait till they are just free swimming and empty the shell into

a fry saver but remember they will fit through fly screen if you use that type

I'll post some pics of my fry saver they are in later ......... it has water pumped

in with a small internal filter that drains back to the tank it hangs in

you'll need food the right size so get some micro worms to start them on

you can then look at hatching BBS or try Cyclop-eeze

then when they are eating try some ground pellets (I use NLS thera-A)

be careful not to overfeed the dry food

I feed 2-3 times a day week days depending on whats happening

morning and when I get home from work plus will top them up 3 or 4 hours

later (works out as approx an hour before lights out) with micro worms

keep up the water changes and syphon out uneaten food and waste if

in a stand alone tank at least once a week about 50% but better to do 20-30%

2-3 times a week

[Rod54]

I have MTS in fry tanks to clean up leftovers

I add duckweed to absorb nitrates...

Cycle the tank.....

A small air driven sponge filter is all you need.....at least you get some mechanical filtration

Even an airstone that circulates the water will work for formation of bacteria

IF YOU WANT FAST GROWTH>>>A small separate tank with frequent water changes is better than a fry saver.....

New water is better than filtered water......all fish will grow much quicker in New water....this is worth reading

http://discusguide.com/massive-discus-growth/

This applies to all fish in my opinion