Help please! My son just noticed some new fish in my community tank and I'm pretty sure they came from my platy. I managed to salvage around 6-8 of them and moved them into my 2.6g. I used my spare filter from my main tank and put it inside the 2.6g. I know that theres bypass by the way since my 2.6g is sub divided, it has an area at the back for filtration. I moved the fry using drip acclimation. I also crushed some dry food and threw it in. Should I have left them inside my main tank? I panicked since I saw my betta swallow a fry and gathered as many as I could to try and save them. How do I take care of these little guys? I really want to see them through. EDIT: Im sure there are more fry inside my main tank but Im hesitant to move them all to my 2.6g since Im unsure if that tank has cycled or not. I have a few other questions: 1. How can I be sure they are nourished? The food I have are: - Azoo Plus Ultra Fresh Tropical Micro Pellet - Hikari Algae Wafers - Generic betta food 2. How much light? 3. Should I keep the tank covered up top? 4. How strong should the water current be? 5. Water temp? 6. Should I put in an air stone and pump? Sorry for all the questions but I'm a bit overwhelmed by the sudden birth, I didnt even know my platies were pregnant.
Ok, I have extensive experience with livebearers since I breed them regularly, so please listen closely: 1. It's good that you drip acclimated them ASAP. Point and case is: Water quality is EVERYTHING and imperative with all fish of course, and especially new fry! WATER QUALITY IS EVERYTHINGF. And do make sure that the filter's not too overly powerful so they all won't get curious (they're babies after all!) and therefore get sucked into the filter! 2. Feed them boiled eggs yolks or New Bites by Hikari is an excellent choice, 2, 3 or 4 times a day. Most fry prefer to eat at the BOTTOM of the tank, substrate or not, so if you can, use a medicine dropper submerged as deep as you can down within the tank to initiate/stimulate feeding. However they will eventually feed from the top. I'd recommend until they're about 2 weeks old hold back on the crushed flakes (unless that's all that's available of course) Although egg yolks are cheap, plentiful and easy, but don't store them in your fridge for more than 5 days, or they have a probability of clouding your water and making things messy etc. 3. Get a small heater, keep the temp between 78-82 degrees. 3. Get a fake plant or two, to provide them with shelter and safety comfort. 4. Provide some water agitation, but nothing to strong, if it's a small HOB filter, or sponge filter would be ideal. 5. No, do NOT feed them to the predatory betta. 6. Platys in general are very hardy, and are actually more easier to breed than guppies, IME...any other questions, feel free to ask me and everyone else. Feed the babies frequently! I do about 4 times a day in small amounts to adhere to their newly established metabolism. And about roughly 2-2 1/2 months old, you probably, safely can place them in your main tank. : )
Thank you so much for all that info, that is great help! For the boiled eggs, just plain hard boiled egg? And I feed them just the yolk and not the whites? And how long should I leave the egg yolk inside the tank in case there are leftovers? What about water changes, how often should I do it and how much of the 2.6g should I change? Is it safe to treat water with Prime? Here are pics of the tank I put them in for reference. I'll put fake plants so they can get comfy. If you have any other suggestions on how to keep them alive, please let me know.
Wait. Uh is this tank cycled? That airstone seems a big large, so perhaps stick it in as far in back as possible. 2. Yeah get a small plastic plant from your lfs. No, ONLY use the egg YOLK and NOT the whites. What I did back in the day was: Take about an EIGHTH of a TEASPOON of egg yolk, mix it with water, so it's about the consistency of a semi-watered down A-1 sauce-like or mustard or whatever, and use a medicine dropper dipped deep into the tank as far as it will go to promote and stimulate feeding, and squeeze out just a small bit at first, to accustom them to recognize it for them to feed upon. NOT the entire egg yolk! Most humans can eat an entire egg yolk, not match head sized fry lol Water changes won't be super critical since they're little babies, but in a 2.6 gal, I would recommend just about 10% per week, considering frequent use of the the airstone in the smaller tank, will also likely agitate the water to the point of rapid evaporation. Yeah Prime's always good. : ) Always. And even IF and when there is any algae, they'll eat that too. Ok, let me know if you have any further questions.
Im unsure if it is but ive been using the spare filter of my main tank in it. I also used the water from my main tank. Just an update: I decided to remove the substrate from the fry tank since they seem to hide underneath the loose substrate which Im afraid will get them stuck. I have put in a rock display with a cave so they have a place to hide. I also plugged the intakes tightly with fine filter sponge since two of them wound up im the filtration. I also did a 60% water change since the water got real cloudy. Did I do this right?
Another update, I tried the egg thing, they seem to get scared and run away from it. How about Hikari algae waffles or crushed fish food? Will either be enough to nourish them?
Well even though the egg yolk seemed to be mostly liquid, a majority of the water saturated powder-base substance of the egg yolk WILL still ineivtably sink to the bottom. And they will eventually smell it. No algae waffles...try Hikari first bites or finely crushed up/pulverized fish food. A good idea is try this with the flake food: Take a small zip lock type of bag, shake it up until all of the food's down in one corner of the bag. Then proceed to feed 'em. Ehh yeah if the egg yolk regimen's unsuccessful, the flake food should work with better results.
I finally succeeded in feeding them! What I did was to just crush the pellets I feed my grown fish into a very fine powder. If I watch them really carefully, I can see them opening their little mouths and gobbling up the particles of food! How cool! so happy they're eating but I do have to turn the filter off first so they can grab the particles.
