Temperature swing

[cdawson]

How much of a temperature swing can fry (in general) tolerate? How big of a water change should I be doing every day after the fry have hatched? 10%? 20%?

 

[tjudy]

Thermal change in the water will depend to a great extent by the heat capacity of the rest of the water in the tank. A 10% change in a 10 gallon tank is a much greater shock than a 10% change in a 30 gallon tank, because the greater mass of water will insulate the temperature change more.

I usually do not worry about it and do 20% changes. The temperature difference is usually only about 10 degrees cooler though. I pour away from the fry... not so much for temperature though, I am more worried about dispersing them away from their mother. If you are very concerned you can refill with an airline hose siphon. That will refill the tank very slowly and negate any risk of temperature shock.

 

[cdawson]

Thermal change in the water will depend to a great extent by the heat capacity of the rest of the water in the tank. A 10% change in a 10 gallon tank is a much greater shock than a 10% change in a 30 gallon tank, because the greater mass of water will insulate the temperature change more.

I usually do not worry about it and do 20% changes. The temperature difference is usually only about 10 degrees cooler though. I pour away from the fry... not so much for temperature though, I am more worried about dispersing them away from their mother. If you are very concerned you can refill with an airline hose siphon. That will refill the tank very slowly and negate any risk of temperature shock.

That's how I've been doing it, using water from the parents tank which is a heavily planted 135g show tank. I lost almost all of the fry in the last two days, I think it could be due to the temperature dipping so much from a water change. alot of the fry are also hugging the bottom of the tank, not really swimming up off the bottom. Is this normal for the first week or two? They rarely swim above 2-3 inches off the bottom.

 

[tjudy]

I do not know what is causing your losses. I raise fry in different manner. I either do not separate the fry from the parent until the parent starts to ignore them, or I remove fry to an incubator. My incubators are plastic dishes that float in a tank. The fry are isolated adn in a small space so I can concentrate food to them. I will usually put some floating plants in the dish as well. The fry seem to congregate around it for structure. THe incubator is filterd by water flowing into it from the top, and them allowed to flow out of gaps that are covered with microscreen on the sides of the container.

 

[cdawson]

I do not know what is causing your losses. I raise fry in different manner. I either do not separate the fry from the parent until the parent starts to ignore them, or I remove fry to an incubator. My incubators are plastic dishes that float in a tank. The fry are isolated adn in a small space so I can concentrate food to them. I will usually put some floating plants in the dish as well. The fry seem to congregate around it for structure. THe incubator is filterd by water flowing into it from the top, and them allowed to flow out of gaps that are covered with microscreen on the sides of the container.

What about the eggs, do you get many fungused eggs that way?

 

[tjudy]

I do not separate the eggs from Mom... just the fry. What I will usually do is take half a spawn to incubate and leave half for Mom to care for. I raise more Pelvicachromis than Apistos, but I have raised Apistos this way too.

 

[cdawson]

I'm raising angels and apistos, but I'm having the most trouble with angels. For some reason I can't get them past the first week of free swimming. With my apistos I'm only getting half a batch of eggs to hatch and if I leave them with mom they get eaten on the first night they hatch.

 

[Apisto Mike]

I have had luck doing a 10% change every 2 days with our water. I make sure that the water is roughly the same temp going into the tank, or a little bit warmer. My only problems before regarding breedin problems was daddys getting the munchies But that is not too much of a problem anymore.

 

[cdawson]

I have had luck doing a 10% change every 2 days with our water. I make sure that the water is roughly the same temp going into the tank, or a little bit warmer. My only problems before regarding breedin problems was daddys getting the munchies But that is not too much of a problem anymore.

Thanks mike, good to get a local perspective =)