raising fry

[ccmick]

Hello, ccmick here,
I,m new to fish keeping. I've learned a great deal from reading infomatiom on sites like this one. I think this site is very helpful to folks like me. A newbie.
My tank is a 29 or 30 gallon cycled tank with plastic and real plants. I have 5 Mickey Mouse Platy, 4 Zebra Danio, 2 Cory Catfish.
My Platy have had fry and I've tried to raise them in a bucket. I was changing their water twice a day and feeding them powder flakes. I've been doing this for two weeks. We didn't have another tank.
We bought a 10 gallon tank to put them in. It is set up with a cave, gravel,heater,lights and a filter.
I put a stocking over the intake tube of the filter so the fry wouldn't get sucked up in the filter. When I put the fry in the tank they seemed to be staying away from the intake tube. I thought they would bo well in this tank. When I checked on them about 2 hours later, the fry were sucked onto the intake tube. I turned the filter off but they were dead. They were pretty small. My question is, how do you raise fry in a tank with a filter? Thank you for reading this post and I hope someone can help me with infomation on fry.

[crackatinny]

It is best to use a sponge filter for your fry, is the new tank you have set up just for fry, if so, invest in a sponge filter for it.

I have raised convict fry on very finely crushed flake, or you can buy special powder like food for them.

[Algenco]

Sponge filters are definitely the way to go for fry tanks. livebearer fry prefer too stay near the surface, some floating plants will provide them with a place to hide and feed

[Lady Hobbs]

Bare bottom tanks, too, with no gravel.

[gm72]

Most everyone here knows I use and advocate the use of these:

http://www.aquariumguys.com/lupr.html

I use them on all of my filters, whether or not it is a fry tank!

[*Sarah*]

or...you could just put a piece of new pantyhose over the intake and secure it with a rubber band like I did...

[gm72]

The poster did that but his fry still got stuck to the intake.

[ccmick]

ccmick here
Thank you, Crackatinny, for your help. I have another problem right now. I've noticed one of my Sunset Mickey Mouse Platy fish, looks as if his nose is changing color. It looks like a green spot on the top of his nose. It's not real green but I hate to think it maybe fungus.
I change the water twice a week and they seem happy with that.

I've read so much infomation until, I think I may see disease that is not really there. My husband tells me that too. Thank you again for helping me.

[cocoa_pleco]

that disease could be cottonmouth, its bacterial and contagious. i just had a outbreak of it with my serpaes and theyre all better, but its common with livebearers. pimafix treats it and thats what i used

[ccmick]

ccmick again,
Thank you to all who answered my question on fry. I didn't realize I had so many to respond . This is very helpful for folks like me.
The 10 gallon tank I used for the fry was only for the fry. I made a mistake in putting gravel in the tank because I can't find any fry any where in this tank. I think all of the fry died after being stuck to the intake tube. I had a panty hose stocking over the tube and it was held on there with a rubber band. I think the filter was just too strong.

[Dave66]

Always use a an air powered sponge filter with fry, not a power filter. Make sure it bubbles slowly, like one a second. The sponge acts as a biological filter, meaning a 40 or 50 percent water change every day to keep the nitrate under control.

Dave

[kirk]

would a 10g tankbe large enough to house fry??