Fry Dying PLEASE HELP!

[SamHowlett]

Hey guys, I have a breeding pair of blue acara's which spawn like crazy. But every time the fry hatch and become free swimming they all die after a week or so. I had them set up in a two foot tank with an air filter and no substrate. I fed them a few times per day and did approx 20% water change every couple of days.

Out of the 10+ spawns the pair have done, none have made it passed the 2cm mark. It's really frustrating and a bit embarrassing aswell lol.

I feed them liquifry and rotifers frozen food.

Thankyou in advanced for you answers


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[Andrew]

Live food would help a lot. Try starting a culture of microworms to feed them. There will be some available at the Aquafest auction or you can find Frank here on the forum.

 

[verbal]

Are you using an established filter in the fry tank?

A lot of time with fry there are two potential issues - ammonia and food. If you are getting most of them to about 2 cm and they are dropping off it maybe that the food is too small for them to get enough.

If they seem to be dwindling slowly, that would point more to water conditions. I would do 75% water changes using new water from the parents tank.

Is keeping the fry with the pair an option? In an established tank there are more opportunities for small fry to find food. Also they may be able to get scraps when the parents eat.

 

[ltrepeter2000]

Whats the temperature of the tank? I have found with fry that keeping their tank slightly warmer helps with survival, I keep most fry around 80 degrees.

 

[Tony]

Some good advice up there.

I love this club.

 

[rainforestexp]

I fed them a few times per day and did approx 20% water change every couple of days.

Here is what I saw to be the issue I think. Like Jesse said ammonia is a huge issue with fry. I feed just as much as you do but I also do a water change the next day. Increase you water changes and yo wont see an issue.

 

[Frank Cowherd]

I agree with the food you are feeding being too small after a couple weeks. It is easy to overfeed liquidfry and frozen anything. I suspect you would have to do daily water changes to keep the water quality healthy. Any excess food, not eaten food, is a source of a bacteria bloom. Bacteria consume oxygen and produce wastes. THe fish have a hard time surviving low oxygen and polluted water.

Live foods are much better because most will live for hours in the tank to be eaten at leisure by the fish and with live food wiggling, it attracts the fish. Microworms are a good first food particularly in a bare bottom or nearly bare bottomed tank. Microworms end up on the bottom of the tank and survive for hours. Vinegar eels are about the same size but swim in the water column and live for days. Baby brine shrimp can be hatched on a daily basis. BBshrimp are only slightly bigger than microworms or V eels (really they are worms) but surprisingly very small fry will manage to eat them. BBshrimp stay alive in the tank for hours also. My favorite live food is daphnia. Daphnia not only eat bacteria and uneaten food in the water column, they also drop baby daphnia about every three days. These baby daphnia are about the same size as BBshrimp. The growing fish fry can eat the baby daphnia but are not big enough to eat the big daphnia. So daphnia provide food for the fry and eat the bad stuff the fish do not, that is, daphnia clean the water.

I do sell live foods -- see my thread on this by searching for daphnia.