Nervous about moving krib fry

[karma_llama]

My krib fry are now a month old and still living with the female in the 10 Gal tank. I've got a small fry tank ready for them and there's no reason why i can't move them. The only problem is that this is the first batch of fry that i/the krib parents have been successful with and i'm scared that if i move them that they're all going to die!
Can any body reassure me

 

[Orion]

Make sure that the new tank has the same water parameters as the current tank. Temp, ph all that good stuff.

If you can seed the new tank with media from a bigger tank (say that 20 in your sig), then thats less of a chance of a cycle that would harm the fry. Using that much is overkill, but better safe than sorry.

Algae is a good thing in this case. Like I said in your other post, mine love to spend time picking at aglae on the glass, in the java moss or anywhere else they can find it. So if you have an established tank with a bit of algae to put them in, I would go for it. This is my biggest fear right now, lack of food. At the moment I have a 60w hallogen sitting above the soon to be home really tring to encourage algae growth. (Brand new tank)

Are you going to go with a bare bottom tank? A big plus with these is that you can easily get up any and all waste mater out of the tank when doing your water changes. But in the end its up to you. I would not remove all of the fry, leave some with momma or the pair may blame each other for the missing fry and turn on one another.

I'm sure you (and your fry) will do just fine Karma. Concider yourself reassured.

 

[karma_llama]

thanks Orion

My fry tank doesnt have any substrate in and i'll do what you suggest with the water from the 20 and finding some algae.
Next hurdle will be to build up the nerve to do it (then catch all the little guys!!!)

I'll take some photos when i've moved them, they're so cute (as i'm sure you know )

 

[ozziegt]

In another thread someone suggested siphoning them out if they are small enough. Orion can tell you whether this is a good idea, but I would imagine it would be less harmful than netting them...

 

[Orion]

That was probably me oz.

I've not tried it yet, but it would seem as if it is easier on the fry so long as the other end of the tube is below the water line. Plus its just easier to manuver the end of a tube rather than a net. And with fry like krib fry,they school, it just makes it that much easier.

 

[ozziegt]

I would just make sure that the water levels between the two tanks isn't taht different, this will give less flow so the fish won't get sucked up so fast.

 

[Orion]

A very good point. But you don't want it so weak that it will not pull the fry in. I have an emporer 400 on my krib tank with the filter up one notch from totaly off and the week old fry have no problem going up and picking food of off the filter intake and swimming away.

It would just take a little playing with to find that 'sweet spot', but I don't think either way would cause much if any damage to fry.

 

[karma_llama]

I did it! Sort of!
I siphoned 10 of the fry into the fry tank about 4 days ago and left about 20 with the female. However after finding a fatality in the fry tank today i've put the remaining 9 fry back with the others.
They seem much happier there anyway.

Just one more question - As there is no male in the 10gal with the female and fry can i leave the fry with the female indefinately untill they are alot bigger?

 

[Orion]

lol, I was just wondering if you moved them or not just this morning.

Any idea what could have caused the fatality? Some fry are just not ment to make it far in life, and when you have them seperated and counted out, you notice one a lot more than if they were with a large group. I've noticed that mine love to pick on aglae and anything else that you would find in a well established tank. You may want to mature a tank just for the fry, and then try to move another spawn sometime down the road. Thats exactly what I'm doing at the moment. I have 9 danio's in a 10 gallon bare bottom. I over feed, and have a halogen light over top of the tank. This should help spur algae growth. I also have some java moss that I'm going to put in the 10 gallon as well.

I see no reason that you couldn't leave them with the female.

Instead of moving the fry, have you thought about moving the female back in with the male to try to get them to spawn again, and leave the fry alone in the tank they are currently in?

I was wondering if your fry are showing any signs of color yet. Or if they are even starting to look like kribs. At two weeks, mine still have that nice 'camo' pattern going on. And I don't know if the fry are getting to big for the pair to herd around effecently anymore, or if the pair has lightened up on keeping them in a tight group after removing the remaining tetra's, but those little fella's are running amuck all over the tank.

 

[karma_llama]

I think i'll try maturing the tank until the next spawn like you suggest. It currently has my guppy fry in and a few snails and some algae covered plant fromt he other tank. Hopefully it will take hold.

I thought about moving the female in with the male but i didnt think that they would be 'nice' to the other fish in the community aquarium if they do spawn.

My fry are nearly 5 weeks old now and they are still pretty small, looking slighty more like small kribs (e.g can see all their little fins etc) but they dont have any colouration as of yet, nicely camoflagued like yours.

My fry also seem to swim all over the tank, 'mum' just keeps a watchful eye on them and herds them up every so often, especially if i come to look!
I really hope they all make it to adult hood as i'm enjoying the experince so much.

Hope yours are doing good too