Where did they go?

[ruecole]

Since I moved the baby gouramis to the 10g on Saturday, I've seen fewer and fewer babies hiding out in the gravel. They're too big for the danios to eat and I haven't seen any sucked into the sponge filter, so where did they go?

Are they still hiding out in the gravel? Or have a killed them all?

I haven't checked the water parameters yet today, but last night the ammonia had dropped to about .1 ppm and the nitrites were still at 0.

I'm starting to get rather depressed with how nothing seems to be going right... :sigh:

Rue

[CAF]

I'm sorry things are not going well. Once the remaining fry either grow out or die, I would recommend removing all of the gravel. My fry tanks are bare bottom with java moss and sponge filters. A lot of times small fry will wiggle down in the gravel and not be able to get back out.

My apologies, I should have said something earlier about gravel....

::Smacks self in head::

[ruecole]

Oh, I hope that's not what's happened!

It is rather large gravel. In the 5-10mm range. I thought it would be okay, since there seems to be lots of gaps.

I'm mostly worried that the ammonia and nitrites did them in. :sigh:

Ah, well. At least I have four healthy danio fry. (They actually look like danios now--they've even got tiny stripes!)

Thanks!

Rue

[Arkie]

thats good news about the baby danios but sad news on the other fry. ive just "lost" my krib fry (unsure if they got eaten), so i know how you feel, it looks like things are going well then bang, theyre not. so im sorry for your loss.

[squirt_12]

sorry for your lose. Well atleast you know that your gouramis are capable of laying eggs and you can expect some more in about a month. I think that they spawn every 3 weeks or 2 weeks. Something like that.
Well its a good thing about the danios. Atleast they are healthy. But i hope that your fry are just in the gravel swimming around. Add some food and see if they come out and eat.

[mitcore]

that is very sad
i would just hate to know that my fry was gone
i try not to see how many fry i have in the tank only because i have other fish that eat them and i dont want to cry

[ruecole]

Yup. They're definitely all gone now. I haven't seen a single live one since Sunday morning.

I did a vacuum on the gravel (I was worried the gunk was producing ammonia) and a water change last night and there were a bunch of dead babies in the water. :sscry:

I think the vacuum did help with the ammonia, though, as it's down to 0 this morning. Nitrites have gone from 0 to something like .05 (just barely lilac in colour). I expect they'll be gone by tomorrow, too.

On the bright side, my adult gouramis have begun displaying for each other and swimming together a bit more, though no sign of a bubble nest yet, so I may just have more babies again soon... :ezpi_wink1:

Thanks, guys!

Rue

[CAF]

Go ahead and pull the substrate then while you are between spawns. The sponge filter should have sufficent bacteria to keep the cycle going.

This way when you place the fry in next time, there are less places for them to get stuck.