Weaning fry

[Travis_Conklin]

I currently have some Apisto fry which are about 6 weeks old. I have currently been feeding them BBS and Daphnia. I am growing tired of the constant harvesting each night to feed the little darlings. Any suggestions or experiences with weaning them off the live food to eat some flake and if so what have you used...most of the food I currently feed is from Ken's which is on the net. Thank you in advanced and "Hi" my name is Travis and I don't like filling in the new member forum...I am kind of a cut and dry kind of guy.

 

[Mike Wise]

I suggest that you star by mixing prepared food of proper size with the live foods that you use now. Over a couple of weeks decrease the amount of live food and increase the amount of prepared. They will learn to accept prepared foods, but continue to use live foods, too as this will promote better growth and health.

 

[Travis_Conklin]

Prepared food

Call me an idiot but could you give me some examples of what prepared food would be...flake? or is it some kind of home recipe.

 

[Cathy G]

I use a pepper grinder and grind up New Life Cichlid pellets. I've also used a rolling pin and a baggy and 'ground' up regular flake food - probably a Tetra brand. I usually start trying to get the little buggers to eat something other than bbs by the time they are 3 weeks old. I begin mixing in the flake/ground stuff bit by bit and then SLOWLY decrease the amount of live bbs. I make sure they are all eating the other stuff before I stop serving bbs with every meal

Cathy

 

[Travis_Conklin]

Thank you

Wanted to thank the people who responded to my question...Thank you.

 

[eranu]

I used to find harvesting BBS a chore until I saw how easily a friend was doing it. Now I use glass pint milk bottles (UK), water, salt and an airline dropped through the top of the bottle. After 36hrs ish I simply pour the solution out into a BBS sieve to drain away the salt water then wash them back into a small tub using fressh water poured though the back of the seive. No special tools, no special lighting etc.

 

[aquaticclarity]

Try a coffee bean grinder for a quick and easy way to make fine powdered foods. Just buy a new coffee grinder ($15-20) that you use ONLY for fish foods.

Caffeinated fish just aren't very relaxing to watch!

Jeff

 

[Cathy G]

Caffeinated fish just aren't very relaxing to watch!

And fishy coffee in the morning would be disgusting!

Cathy

 

[aquaticclarity]

Cathy,

Talking from experience :tongue: Because you can seldom be sure unless you've tried something.

Jeff

 

[LeviathanGirl]

Mmmm... I'll take some coffee.. Hold the fishy flavor, I prefer chocolate. :biggrin:

I too use a coffee grinder to grind up my fish food. I feed my fry & juviniles a combination of plankton/spirulina/krill flake, vegetable flake and new life spectrum growth. The new life spectrum doesnt grind well in a grinder, so if I need it smaller for a particular batch of babies I use a mortar and pestle to grind it. For the last year I've been buying what I call base foods and mixing them to make my own formulas. I still feed live and frozen foods as well.

I keep my fry mixes in 8 oz. containers and my adult fish mixes in 32 oz. containers and keep all my foods in a mini freezer I bought off a friend some years ago.

Ok.. now I want a soda pop too!

 

[beleg]

I try the same methods but the little buggers don't even want to touch anything that doesn't move. And i don't feel good to leave a small fry hungry for a few days. I use New Life food as well but have been extremely unsuccessful weaning the fry.

 

[ste12000]

If you only have one tank of fry then baby brine shrimp can start to be a pain, its also an expensive food to feed for any length of time.
I recommend trying microworms, they are just as high in proteins and you will see the same rate of growth, if you start a batch on a weekend then you can usually start harvesting midweek and one batch can last for upto two weeks before you need to start another. Highly recommended.
I also feed a powdered high protein food that is infusior sized, i feed this as soon as the fry are freeswimming and just increase the size of food as they get larger. I have no problems and always have sellable fry after two and a half months..Oh yeah 60% daily water changes also help.