# Are Fry Eating?



## dwool36 (Jan 31, 2006)

First let me share my learning experience to date. About 1 month ago my Blue Rams spawned. I siphoned out the wigglers and kept them in a 1 gallon bucket. I noticed that the wigglers left behind became free swimming and very active soooo.... I panicked  I returned the siphoned wigglers back to the tank with the parent fish. Everything went great for the next week. On day 9 of free swimming I was prepared to move the free swinning fry to their own tank. It was late and I decided to wait until morning. OOPS!!! The next morning, ALL of the fry were gone and mom and dad ram had evil little grins. I also noticed that they had already spawned again (perhaps the reason they ate the fry).

Anyway, this time, as soon as I had wigglers I again siphoned them out. They are now in their own 10g and doing great. I added some hornwort (floating on top) and an apple snail from my established tanks (hoping for infusoria). I am also feeding "liquid fry" 3x daily and doing daily 30% water changes. They seem to be doing fine.

They have now been in the fry tank for 4 days. There progress is comparable to the 20 fry left behind with the parents (I read that it strengthens the bond to leave some of the fry). I am not too concerned about the 20 fry in the breeding tank, however how do I know if the others are eating? I started feeding newly hatched brine on day 3 (yesterday) and they seem to be ignoring it. They will follow the brine or look at it but they do not eat it. Maybe a better question is how long does it take the fry to die from starvation? Is their some other way I can feed them or are they maybe getting enough infusoria?


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## SueM (Jan 23, 2004)

Maybe baby brine is to big for them. (?)
Theres microworms, and UncleRick has an even tinier size of BetterThenBrine, for the tiniest of tiny.


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## Guest (Apr 2, 2006)

I see you live in Southern Indiana. I would go to a flooded woodland pond today, bring 3 buckets. Collect water in one, and while you are there collect some daphnia and possibly some fairy shrimp with a fine mess net and put them in the other two buckets. Take all this home and use some of the water from the water bucket to add some infusoria to your ram tank. Add some lima beans to your water only bucket, add some dried grass or leaves (oak seem to work best) to the other two buckets and presto live food city! It is best to keep these buckets outside where they will receive full or partial sunlight.


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## dwool36 (Jan 31, 2006)

All I have access to is creeks. Will this work or must it be from standing water like a pond?


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## Cichlid Man (Jan 19, 2005)

I wouldn't risk it. You will more than likely introduce a disease into the system. I would stick to comercial fry foods if I were you. I use first bites.


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## Guest (Apr 2, 2006)

Cichlid Man said:


> I wouldn't risk it. You will more than likely introduce a disease into the system. I would stick to comercial fry foods if I were you. I use first bites.



Well that is why I recommended the flooded woodland area, fish don't live in those waters because they dry up in late Spring, plus it is very hard to find those live foods in water that has fish living in it. I still think it is a good idea for anyone breeding fish to get out early in the year and get some good live food cultures going in their back yards. You ever culture fairy shrimp? They are awesome food for fish, they are just like GIANT brine shrimp but freshwater. Get outside folks, get your feet wet and get some live foods! Now is the time!


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## ron v (Feb 24, 2005)

I just gave my fish a snack of mosquito larvae. Place a bucket with old aquarium water outside and wait a week..... Don't tell your neighbor!


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## leveldrummer (May 27, 2005)

ron v said:


> I just gave my fish a snack of mosquito larvae. Place a bucket with old aquarium water outside and wait a week..... Don't tell your neighbor!


oh god, and here come the west nile law suits.


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## dwool36 (Jan 31, 2006)

If my fry are not eating, how long until they die?


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## Daddyo72 (Apr 2, 2006)

SueM said:


> Maybe baby brine is to big for them. (?)
> Theres microworms, and UncleRick has an even tinier size of BetterThenBrine, for the tiniest of tiny.


Making a batch of green water also helps for the smallest of fry.


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## dwool36 (Jan 31, 2006)

Just an update on my ram fry. The 20 left behind in the breeding tank are gone (eaten I presume). The 100 (approximately) in the fry tank have been greatly reduced in numbers. I notice one morning that MANY of the fry had vanished. Puzzled, I watched the tank for a while...who knew that apple snails would eat fry? So, I am now down to about twenty fry. They, however, are readily eating the brine; so I am keeping my fingers crossed. I figure only a few hundred more ram deaths and I will have this down


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## dwool36 (Jan 31, 2006)

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH.....Well, 0 for 2!!! If you read my previous post, you know I had 20 ram fry left. Well, I read that you could add a couple of corys when the fry started eating well. They were so I did. Can you guess what happened? Huh? Anyone? Ding Dinn Ding...you win. THEY ATE THEM!!!

You live and you learn.


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