Cacatuoides Fry Food

[Water Changer]

I just discovered my young pair of Cacatuoides spawned and I have a small group of fry barely swimming off the bottom.

I've read that Baby Brine Shrimp are a good food source for the fry. The only thing available to me is frozen BBS - is that acceptable?

I do not have access to any type of live food/cultures.

Hhowever I can get frozen BBS if that's what I need to do.

The tank does contain java moss which has produced 'floor material".

I've been feeding my pair NLS pellets and frozen blood worms.

Recently I grew some Cardinals out by crushing the NLS pellets into powder - is that an option?

Would appreciate your advice on what to feed the fry based on the above.

I think I will mow the grass tomorrow..... and today.... I'll sit on my bucket and learn more about my apisto's as I watch them go about there business.

Thanks for your suggestions and direction!

 

[Water Changer]

WOW - this happens fast....

More fry starting to "swim" along the bottom and they look like they are getting larger (maybe it's just me staring too long!)....

The female has moved them into the corner behind the pot in an isolated area where it appears she can better protect them - she is making sure the male stays in the far side of the tank.

She's definitely already eaten a good number.

In a 10 gallon should dad come out of the tank?

This is their second spawn and I only saw 2-3 fry from the first spawn.

I know it will take them a number of attempts to be successful, but it's amazing to see all of the information I have read on their behavior coming to fruition in front of me.

 

[Mike Wise]

Your fish have successfully brought schools of fry to the freeswimming stage twice now. My guess is (please don't take this as a 'slam') that your fry loss is not the parents' problem, but yours. My guess is that the female isn't eating live fry. You are probably losing fry to lack of proper feeding/food and possibly water quality problems. Apisto fry do best on live foods. They are attracted to movement. I suggest hatching brine shrimp eggs or raising micro-/Walterworms as first foods for the first 3 - 5 week at least. If you need to use non-live foods, then be very careful with the amount you feed. Excess food will lower the water quality quickly in a 10 gallon tank. Make more frequent water changes (maybe 10-15% every day). As for the male, a 10 is a bit small to leave in a breeding tank and expect him to be out and about.

Like I wrote, this is not a slam against you. We all have been in the same place as you are right now. If you aren't really interested in raising a large number of fry, then continue as you are now. Obviously you are giving the adults proper conditions or they would not be breeding. If you really want to successfully raise a batch of fry, then you need to plan ahead. Have the proper foods and a suitable tank available when the breeding tank becomes too small the adequately house all of the growing fry. Good luck.

 

[Water Changer]

Mike - Thank you for the excellent post - exactly what I was looking for and exactly what I was hoping for - direction.

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,
If you don't want to go to the trouble of raising BBS, Banana/Walter and/or Micro worms are incredibly low maintenance and cheap to culture, and whilst they aren't as good as BBS, they will definitely aid fry survival.

Java moss is good as well, particularly with the smaller worms which get snagged on it, to quote "electric eel".

.i've used gnarly hunks of java moss in the past and there is definitely enough stuff there for them to survive on till they can take bbs.

cheers Darrel

 

[hedylogus]

its been a while since i had cacs, but i raised mine almost exclusively on java moss (or more correctly, the good stuff that gets trapped within, as Darrel stated) and decapsulated brine shrimp eggs. can't say i ever had a problem with the lack of movement (since decaps don't hatch).

 

[Water Changer]

Thanks to everyone for the follow on my thread.

I was able to find and purchase free swimming BBS today.

The BBS appear to be larger than the fry.

I just noticed the fry yesterday morning, they are still hugging and hopping off the bottom, staying to close to the female.

Is it too soon for the BBS?

 

[Water Changer]

but i raised mine almost exclusively on java moss

I have observed the female spitting strands and particles of java moss onto the fry.

 

[sasikan]

no its not too soon to feed brine shrimps, i give it to them the very first day when they come out and are free swimming. if you could also mix in microworms , vinegar ells,or paracelium that would be even better just be sure to clean some of the water after feeding

 

[pawslover]

Resurrecting an old thread here, but for the gnarly hunk of java moss, is this something kept in the tank long term or replenished periodically from a tank without fry?

I have a trio of TR Cacs and pair of GBR in a 30 gal and all are spawning regularly but the fry never last more than a few days to a week without dying off. I have some moss in other tanks, but this tank has a lot of leafy plants and some subwassertang, but no moss. I can pull some moss from the shrimp tank, but not sure how "clean" it is from the shrimp. I'm guessing the subwassertang does not provide the nutrients that the fry need as I never see them picking at it.

With the current batch of fry, they are getting some microworms that I recently picked up and Repashy gel food as well (also new with this batch). I haven't seen the fry pay much attention to the Repashy, but the female seems to enjoy it.

 

[Water Changer]

Paws -

The fry I referenced in my initial post are all doing well, at least the ones that I still have - I sold the majority of the fry once I could determine sex.

Since this post the pair have spawned two additional times, those fry are also doing well and growing great.

I followed the advise of the forum members and hatched baby brine shrimp, it is really quite easy and something you should definetly consider. The fry really do love it and it's fun to watch the fry chase the shrimp.

I leave the same java moss in all of the tanks, I never switched it up or changed it out. The moss continues to grow and replinish the tank with nutrients.

I do move the moss around when I clean the tank to knock off the nasty stuff and I don't see why you couldn't clean up some of the moss in your shrimp tank and use it for your fry? You don't need a big mess of moss the size of a softball, I used something like 3-4 inches long by 2-3 inches wide and only a couple of inches thick and put it near the pot.

But I also firmly believe that the New Life Spectrum Thera A crushed pellets aided my fry survival and enhanced their growth. I placed the crushed pellets in different corners of the tank and I witnessed (daily) mom leading the fry to the different locations so the fry could feed. For me this seemed huge....

I've learned so much over the past few months and it's been absoultely great, good luck to you on your fry.

Keep us posted on your progress and keep asking questions.

 

[Jolay]

Hi all,
If you don't want to go to the trouble of raising BBS, Banana/Walter and/or Micro worms are incredibly low maintenance and cheap to culture, and whilst they aren't as good as BBS, they will definitely aid fry survival.

Java moss is good as well, particularly with the smaller worms which get snagged on it, to quote "electric eel".


cheers Darrel

Hi! I'm new to this site! What do you mean by BBS?

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,

Hi! I'm new to this site! What do you mean by BBS?

Baby Brine Shrimp.

cheers Darrel

 

[Jolay]

Hi! I'm new to this site! What do you mean by BBS?

Hi all,

Baby Brine Shrimp.

cheers Darrel

Thanks Darrel!