Well - I goofed. Need info on fry care

[jifr]

Hiya.

I goofed.

Last week, I came home to find 1 baby tiger barb in my tank. It was soooo cute. Tiny, too.

Since I have a rope fish (and other carnivorous fish), I figured I better take the baby fish out so it didn't get eaten. I put it in a 5 gallon bowl.

My GF came over and was worried that the baby fish didn't have any air to breathe - so I put it in a 2.5 gallon tank with a filter on it.

The filter killed the baby fish. It got stuck to the uptake and :-( no more baby fish.

What am I supposed to do to take care of the baby fish? Should I have left it in the 5 gal bowl aquarium? Should I have left it to fend for itself in the big tank (75gal) with everyone else?

I'm sure we'll have more tiger barb babies and maybe some danio babies so - I don't want to goof again.

help?

[Severus]

I put all of the fry i have in a 10 gallon grow out tank and they seem to do fine with the filter. Maybe leave your fry in the 5 gal bowl for a little im not sure how they wil do though. If you get more i also recommend feeding them hard boiled egg yolk. It helps them grow very quickly.

[jeffs99dime]

yeah. i too would keep the fry in the 5 gallon like 100gw said.

[Fishguy2727]

For fry use either a regular filter with a Whisper Bio-bag over the intake or use a sponge filter. For food I have had great luck with Hikari's Fancy Guppy food, then crushed TetraMin Pro Crisps, then uncrushed, then they should be good to go on to whatever they need from there.

[Abbeys_Mom]

For fry the 5g should be fine.

When I bred fish, I used to use a sponge filter, it would take care of filtration and aeration in one shot. They need to be seeded before you use them in a non cycled tank. I used to run the filters in my 55g for a few days.

[Severus]

The sponge filter sounds cool. Perfect for a fry tank. i want to look into getting one for my 10gal

[Abbeys_Mom]

I love that they are cheap too.
I use this shape, but a different brand (it's blue). Cost me 5 bucks. If you are running more then a 5g tank, use 2 (one in each corner)
I used them in my 27g Brackish tank, but I wouldn't recommend them for tanks that big.

[Fishguy2727]

The best ones are the big circular ones with lots of foam, can't remember the brand right now.

[Severus]

The best ones are the big circular ones with lots of foam, can't remember the brand right now.

Ive seen them at my LFS. Ill try and check them out today

[Fishguy2727]

It's a black foam with light gray plastic with a heavy weighted base.

[jifr]

Great! You guys are awesome.

I'm going to stop by my pet store to pick up one to have on hand in case anymore little ones pop out. :-)

[jeffs99dime]

Great! You guys are awesome.

I'm going to stop by my pet store to pick up one to have on hand in case anymore little ones pop out. :-)

it's always good to have an extra tank for qt also

[Sasquatch]

I ran a fathead minnow culture and in the space of one year I managed to produce on the order of 1500 babies, so here's what I've learned that could be useful.

For really small fry (less that 10mm) you don't really need a filter. Regular water changes to siphon the crud on the bottom will keep the water clean and aerate it sufficiently. I can't say for tiger barbs, but many larval fish (before they develop adult morphology) can breath through the skin, so you don't need super aeration. Often I only had a glass syringe on the end of an air hose to bubble, and even then it was to create current so that the crud pilied up in a corner and was easier to clean.

For juvelines, the corner filters mentionned above work great. But if you have a canister filter or "hang on tank" filter, just put a chunk of foam over the intake. This enlarges the area over which the water is taken in and "diffuses" the suction. Juveniles often tend to stay close to the intake, this way if they get too close, they can get away more easily.

Hope this helps.