overfeeding bbs

[aspen]

i have 15 little opal borelli babies floating around the corners of a 10 gal tank and today i pulled the female to re-join the male for the next batch. the fry are 3 weeks free-swimming and seem independant enough. i haven't lost one yet, (knock on wood). they all have big a fat orange stomach and their size seems pretty good.

is it possible to overfeed them on bbs? i want to feed a bunch once per day to last them. or should i feed them less twice per day? man, they love those little guys...

rick

 

[farm41]

pollution is your enemy here Rick, the bbs will die in a couple hours and then probably won't be consumed by the fry. 2 times a day is better.

I know I have been overfeeding my fry everytime I feed(3 times a day when possible), I just keep up on the water changes, they won't eat too much.

 

[tjudy]

Pollution is most definitely the problem. That is why I have been using fry incubators for the really small fry. I can isolate a batch in a plastic dish and feed them in a confined space. The dish floats in a larger tank. I feed less and get a greater food density. I can also put a bunch of older fry in the tank below the dish to eat the bbs that flow through the holes in the dish, or a school of cory cats (I use dwarf cory cats like hasbrosus, hastatus or pygmeas).

I think that you will get better growth if the fry are fed more times per day. I use three or for feedings per day, but I probably feed as much in one day as most people feed in one day total. A drop of concentrated bbs has A LOT of shrimp, and I will feed one for two drops per feeding (depending on the number of fry).