Feeding fry in a community tank?

[Drayden Farci]

Hello all. This is my first post here, but I've been browsing in and out for a while now. I bought a pair of A. macmasteri about two weeks ago, and it looks like I chose well...they have about 20-40 fry squirming around in a pot in the corner of my 55 gallon.

My question is: What's the best way to get these suckers some food without removing them or other fish?

*Insert Mike comment about how a community tank is not a breeding tank*

I have 8 rummynose, 10 R/B Colombian tetras, a few C. habrosus and 3 larger cories that mind their own business, an angel, a gourami that I had left over from an older tank, and the pair of macmasteri.

The pot is in the corner of a planted tank, and should be fairly protected from intruders if the mom does her job. I have some java moss that I thought I could move into the corner to provide more cover and potentially food bits for them.

Is there an easy way to feed the fry without moving them? If they do survive the next few days, they'll be swimming hopefully. If I add BBS to the tank, it'll attract the other fish, and the fry will be swallowed surely. Will moss with food bits hidden be enough for them for a while, along with scraps that fall during my regular feeding? Or should I try to swoop them into a breeder box for a while? My acrylic tank makes the HOB breeder nets that I have difficult to use, but it could be done in a pinch and it's big enough for 5-20 super small guys.

I can supply pics of the set-up if needed/interested. I don't measure water parameters other than the occasional pH and nitrate tests to make sure nothing is out of whack. I assume that because they hatched, it should be fairly close to what they need to survive, and weekly changes keep the water clean.

 

[gerald]

Add food at the opposite end of the tank to draw all the other fish that way, and while they're feeding at that end, squirt some fresh-hatched BBS toward the Apisto fry with a long pipette or baster. This is a very short-term solution at best; you WILL need to get those fry out.

 

[Mike Wise]

I think that your best bet is to put a divider in the tank to separate mother and fry from the rest of the community. Those Rummynose tetras will eat most of the fry in a few days if you can't keep them separated.

 

[Drayden Farci]

So, went to the store to grab a divider, but it doesn't fit my tank. I think the acrylic walls are slightly further apart than a conventional 55 gallon, so no divider.

The mom moved the ~30 to a different burrow under a log, still in the corner of the tank. A few fish go near there, but she's been defending fairly well and the male steps in every so often.

We'll see what happens tomorrow. I'm hesitant to remove the fry from the tank, and I don't have a suitable rearing tank anyway, so we'll see how it goes. If I lose them all to predation, I'll have learned something and we'll try again in a few weeks?

 

[gerald]

I hate to be the messenger of bad news but ... more tanks.

 

[Drayden Farci]

Yea, well, that's not an option right now unfortunately.

It's been 3 days since they hatched, and the momma has moved them to and from several places in the corner of the tank, which has been fun to watch. It's one of the behaviors that made me love my kribs, and I'm glad I can watch it again.

There are still wriglers alive, so I'm just waiting to see when they'll start swimming. I found some BBS eggs and started a bubbler, but do eggs "go bad"/die? It's probably been several years since I bought them.

 

[gerald]

If kept DRY then BS eggs can last for decades. I keep my BS can in the freezer after opening it. My climate is humid (plus multiple fish tanks and house plants to add more humidity) so the eggs lose their hatching viability within a year if I leave them out in room conditions. Refrigerate the fresh-hatched BS immediately after hatching in a shallow dish to preserve their nutritional value for a few days. This prevents them molting to 2nd instar, which uses up some of their nutritional value. That way you dont have to start a new hatch every day.

 

[Drayden Farci]

Thanks for the tip. I used a tube of eggs that had been opened, but I have another that has not been touched in its original packaging. I'm assuming there's a seal underneath the cap. No luck yet after 2-3 days of bubbling in the brine.

I've had fry of other species make it to adulthood by feeding on the scraps of food around the tank, on plants, in moss, etc. Looks like there are about 30 fry, free-swimming around the mother as of today Looking forward to seeing their progress. Rummynose haven't crosses the half-way point in the tank all week (though they usually stay either at the halfway point or on the far side, anyway). The biggest threat so far has been my bushynose, who comes in and wags his tail and disrupts all of the sand, plants, and I'm assuming fry, knocking them all over the place. Hopefully they don't suffer from whiplash!