Dead Fry - Help Needed

[fishpedagogue]

Hello, I am fairly new to Apistogramma C. However, I have had a pair spawn twice and there have been fry. My first set of fry were eaten. My second set of fry were moved when they were wigglers and died after 2 days. What should I do?

A) Do I move the fry to a separate tank when they are free swimming.

B) Do I move the female with the eggs to a separate tank and let the eggs hatch and allow her to care for them for a few days?

C) Do I simply move the eggs in the cave and let them hatch on their own.

What do you feed them after the first few days. Does frozen Baby Brine Shrimp work?

Help, Please advise as I am about to give up on my breeding program!

 

[Simon Morgan]

Be patient, the female needs a bit of practise to get it right!
Make sure the water is right and let her get on with it.

 

[Mike Wise]

Did you try to move the fry? If so, please let the female try to take care of the fry. If there are no fry predators or other distractions in the tank, females usually raise more fry than you will by rearing them away from their mother. Frozen BBS will work OK, as will powdered dry food. For best results, however, you should feed live BBS or other small live foods. The fry are more oriented toward moving food & will eat better.

 

[mooman]

I usually wait untill the fry are at least two weeks free swimming before I move them. When you see them start to spread out around the tank then you should start thinking about moving them. Of course by this point it's a little tricky.

Turn off the lights for the night. After a few hours the fry should be gathered together (outside a cave if your lucky) and be asleep for the night. Take the end off of your siphon. start a siphon into a small bucket. stop it by putting your thumb over the end in the bucket. Now have someone shine a flashlight on the school of fry. Get the tube right over top of them, and remove your thumb. I have gotten whole spawns in seconds this way. Once they are awake and alert they scatter, and chasing them around the tank with a siphon or net once thier awake is too hard.