Fry Incubator Parts

[Tony]

Last month, my sulfur-headed peacocks spawned for the first time. After I noticed the bump in her mouth, I isolated the mother in one of those cheapo green plastic-framed baby nets for a week or so until she spit out the fry.

I kept the fry in there for the last month until they were big enough to be able to find the baby brine shrimp in a 5.5 gallon tank.

The big problem that I noticed was a constant buildup of oil on the surface of the water in the net. Every time I fed them, I would sort of dip the net below the surface and swish the water around. There was a good amount of algae buildup on the sides of the net, which I'm sure contributed to reduced water flow between the tank and the net.

So I'm thinking of building a couple of fry incubators out of specimen containers and small sponge filters. I found an awesome design on Ted Judy's site:

http://www.tedsfishroom.com/wp/articles/fry-incubators

I found the specimen containers on one site and the small Tam's sponge filters on another site. If possible, I'd rather not spend shipping on each item from separate places (paying $8 to ship $12 in merchandise TWICE just seems silly to me). Anyone know if either of these items are available locally?

Does everyone else do something similar or do you just put the holding mother into a 2.5 or 5.5 gallon tank to start?

Thanks in advance,
Tony

 

[Pat Kelly]

I usually have put the holding female in a 2 1/2 tank with a small clay pot and either a dirt magnet sponge or a Hydro 0 sponge filter.

Once she lets go I take her and the pot out.

At one point I had 9 of these running just for holding females and wished I had more. lol

 

[Tony]

Sounds easier and cheaper than building that contraption... probably less stressful on mamma too.

Thanks!