Set up a 10gallon nursery tank

Hi, I'm looking to set up a 10 gallon nursery tank. I currently have my guppy fry plus 1 black lyretail molly fry in a breeding trap and to me the trap looks like it would delay their growth and it doesn't look healthy leaving in a box when you could be swimming freely. But I'm new to this and am not sure if breeding traps are fine or if they're 'death traps'

 

well breeding traps are fine (in theory) but if you leave them in too long they can end up stressing out the adult fish and can end up in her aborting her pregnancy or holding her fry. The breeding trap is really just meant to keep the fish alive while the female is giving birth so you can put the fry in a net box or a separate tank. It would probably be easiest to just set up another tank for a breeding tank or a nursery tank
(that's what I have done) and that way she won't get stressed by the lack of room or other fish bothering her. If you have a breeding tank many people leave it bare bottom because the fry leave a lot of extra food and its easier to clean. People also put in floating plants real or fake it doesn't matter a whole lot. The best part about the breeding tank is that I have had my platy in there for 2 weeks now I thought she was about ready to drop fry but she still hasn't and all you have to do is wait.

 

thanks this helps alot! I'm also looking into setting up a brine shrimp hatchery because i've heard fry love baby brine shrimp and its very good for them. Lets hope that this 'breeding' experience goes well. If it does I'll probably stop with the livebearers and maybe try my luck at angels...

 

well good luck and I hope to hear updates on your fry!

I hear a lot of people use brine shrimp I just feed mine crushed betta flakes

 

I will definitly keep you updated but I have one more question. How should I transfer them from the breeder 'trap' to the breeder 'tank'?

 

I use a bowl that is larger than the breeder trap and put it in the tank under it and take the whole thing out

 

Thanks for all the info. I'm just wondering for the nursery tank I just set it up like a normal tank? No special requirements? And if so is there anyway to speed up the cycle process? I don't want to dump fry into a new tank and just watch them die off. Would I just take say a small decoration from the main tank because it'll have some off the bacteria?

 

You can do that, I have heard of people using a nylon stocking and putting gravel from a cycled tank in the stocking and put the stocking in the uncycled aquarium

 

you can also take some of the media out of your established filter and put it into the new filter.