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First Fry Food

NewbieFishGuy

New Member
Messages
2
Not exactly sure if this is the right spot to post this so forgive me if it's not.

My A. cacatuoides pair had their first spawn about two weeks ago. I noticed the fry free swimming a week ago. There were maybe 40-50 the first day but as of today at the one week mark, theres maybe 10-15 I can see. I think this is because I only offered very fine, crushed up flake food and cichlid pellets. I wasn't exactly prepared for the spawn so I don't have any BBS ready which I'll be getting the eggs whenever they get shipped. I do have access to a microworm culture but I'm curious if microworms are too big to feed newborn apisto fry?

TL;DR: Are microworms too big for newly born apisto fry?
 

finzz

New Member
5 Year Member
Messages
16
Location
northern VA USA
Micro worms are small enough, but I've never had any luck getting Apisto fry to eat them. They go crazy over freshly hatched brine shrimp and will eat until their bellies are bulging and bright orange.
 

Mike Wise

Moderator
Staff member
5 Year Member
Messages
11,202
Location
Denver, Colorado, U.S.A.
Apisto fry will eat microworms. The problem is that the worms quickly sink to the bottom where they hide in the gravel out of sight of the fry. Apisto fry are very oriented toward movement in the water column, which is why sinking foods, live or prepared, are not the ideal food.
 

Ade205

Active Member
Messages
172
Location
Swadlincote, England
Personally a big fan of vinegar eels, mainly because of how easy and mess free they are to cultivate. Don't think they are as nutritious as other options but their excellent for really small fry and they stay alive in fresh water a good while giving fry a chance to clear up and with less potential of fouling water. I use them primarily for Ram fry as Rams are mostly to small for bbs for first few days of free swimming, and get excellent success rate.
I've Cacs aplenty and nearly always have at least two broods on the go, and although I've stopped trying to rear their spawns, every now and then I'll just suck up a few fry with a turkey baster when I see a new batch that coincides with a Ram spawn and pop them straight into my Ram rearing tank where they get a lot of vinegar eels as their first food. Despite what people say about temperature acclimation ect, I remove them from a tank at 25.5c straight into a tank at 27.5c with pretty much zero losses, though these fish predominantly end up being males because of temp. These fish do very well though, grow well, and after a few days when ram fry are big enough bbs is added to their diet.
Have to say though that I've never had a Cacatuoides mum bring out free swimmers that couldn't handle bbs straight away.

Ade.
 
Last edited:

yukondog

Well-Known Member
5 Year Member
Messages
664
Location
N.W. Fl.
In a pinch like it sounds like your in, you could mix some boiled egg yolk to the powdered food until you can get shrimp going.
 

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