Lost Fry

[Pelvicachromis]

Ok need some help.

I continue to get spawns from several types of P. taeniatus and from my Albino Pulcher. The problem is the fry only last about 3-4 weeks, then slowly disappear. I don't see dead fry, I don't see predation.
This has happened in tanks with different types of tank mates. One tank has cherry barbs, another pencil fish, another one line African Tetra, another panda cories.
Any ideas? Tips?


Keith

 

[Mike Wise]

Usually by the age of 3 - 4 weeks the fry are not hard to feed. This is a time when water quality starts being affected by the growing fry. You might want to do water changes twice as often as you did before or split the fry between several grow-out tanks.

 

[Randall]

Where are the fry?

Hello Keith,

Your fry could be vamoocing for a myriad of reasons. To cite but a few, firstly, after about 4 weeks or so, parental care ceases, subjecting your fry to predation. Just because you don't witness predation first hand, that doesn't necessarily mean that it isn't occurring. Also, are you sure that your fry are getting enough food? Are the other fishes in the tanks out competing them come chow time? Finally, how's the water quality? Fry can be more sensitive to water quality than adult fish.

If you'd like to engage in a save the fry program, may I suggest using dedicated spawning tanks (if you aren't already). After about 4 weeks or so, or when parental care ceases, remove the parents and raise the fry separatly. This affords you complete control over the fry, their food intake, and water quality.

Good luck!

Randall Kohn

 

[tjudy]

I remove my fry while that parents are still actively caring for them. Usually between 3 - 4 weeks. I want the fry large enough to eat a variety of foods, but still be in the 'grouping' phase of behavioral development. If I have very few fry (less than 20) I will start them in an incubator container or net breeder so I can concentrate small amounts of food to them several times a day. I have an advantage in being at home all day in that I can feed letirally once an hour, and often do.

Larger batches of fry will go directly into a ten. When I put fry in a ten the only structure in the tank is the sponge filter and maybe a very small piece of driftwood that the fry can get under. I have also started using a broad, whole catappa leaf in some tanks and really like them. They add tannins and the fry will all congregate under the leaf. I want the fry to stick together in a tight group for as long as possible because I can continue to feed very small amounts of concentrated food to the group. I water change the 10 gallon tanks 30% - 50% a day.

I also had a little salt to the fry water. My breeder taeniatus are maintained and bred in 40 - 60 mS water with 0-1 KH and 6.8 - 7.0 pH. After the fry are in the tens I increase the conductivity to about 200 mS. This is still soft by most comparisons, but I find it easier to maintain water quality and pH in the presence of a lot of fish and food if the hardness is a little higher. When the fry are about two months old I increase the hardness again up to about 400 mS. The only reason for this is that when I send the fish off to new homes the water they are going into is often a lot harder than the 200 mS they are raised in.

All that being said, I have been having problems lately with egg survival with all the kribs other than P. pulcher. I am starting to increase the conductivity a bit to see if maybe I am keeping the water too soft with the breeders. My Apistos and P. pulcher are doing well, but to date I have had three P. sub. 'moanda' clutches and about five P. taeniatus clutches get eaten by teh parents within two days of being laid. One pair of P. taenitaus has done it three times. The only difference between teh P. pulcher tanks and the wild fish's tanks is the conductivity... it is higher (about 200 mS) in the captive strain P. pulcher tanks.