Tips on catching fry

My Caudopunks had fry about four weeks ago, and next week I’m bringing some of the fry to my LFS. I was thinking of just netting them out or scaring them into shells, and removing the shells from the tank. But Removing the shells may be tricky, because I have maybe 30-40 smaller fry (still stay in the shells, for the most part) that I might accidentally remove if I go that route. So would netting them out be the best option, or should I look into other ways to remove the fry?

 

Not sure, but I wonder if you could catch some with a water bottle minnow trap.
you know, cut off the top of the water bottle and put it back in the wrong way sans-lid so it makes a funnel. If it’s filled with water it’ll sink.
Maybe the older fry would be curious?

 

Not sure, but I wonder if you could catch some with a water bottle minnow trap.
you know, cut off the top of the water bottle and put it back in the wrong way sans-lid so it makes a funnel. If it’s filled with water it’ll sink.
Maybe the older fry would be curious?

Hmmm, that could work. Any suggestions on how to keep the smaller adult females out?

 

To be honest I used a brine shrimp net when i was moving angel frys.

 

I've used a turkey baster to catch free swimmers.

 

I've used a turkey baster to catch free swimmers.

Most are a bit too big to catch using a turkey baster, but I could try to remove the smaller ones that way. Thanks!

To be honest I used a brine shrimp net when i was moving angel frys.

That was kind of what I was think I should do. Maybe I’ll see if I can net out a few today or tomorrow to see how hard it is.

The parents are jumpers, so I’m worried the babies will jump out of the net or something.

 

I always net my fry. They are fine with it.- just my experience

 

I recently caught most of my Cichlasoma fry by feeding them at the surface then netting them, they are real foodies though and were not scared at all at first - I got 3 netfuls quite easily, after that they were more freaked and I didn't manage to get the last 6. Trying again tomorrow!

 

Hmmm, that could work. Any suggestions on how to keep the smaller adult females out?

how small are the adults?
Either use a bottle who spout is too small for them, or block part of the opening so they can’t fit. (Potentially by gluing a little plastic pieces from the bottle to make the opening smaller.) Same concept as a creep feeder for young lambs or calves: they can fit but the grownups can’t.
I’m making this up as I go along. It seems like the options are either actively catch them with a net or turkey baster or something, or something like this.

Alternately, you could just do nothing and if you catch a few small females in with a bunch of fry you could net them out later.

 

Would it be ok to net out the fry a day in advance, and keep them in a breeder box?

Im worried that I’ll be spending an hour trying to catch the fry, and I’d prefer to do it a day before they go to the LFS, so I’m able to net out more and I don’t need to worry about not getting enough out in time.

 

If the breeder box has clean water and you feed them. I use one of those boxes that fit in the tank - ziss ez breeder.
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Now when you say fry i'm thinking 4 day old angel frys - if you are talking about 8 weeks old frys that are eating powder food they are not quite as delicate - you still want to make sure the water stays very clean and warm - i've also used marina boxes which hang off the side of the tank and water flows from the tank into them and then overlows back into the tank..

 

If the breeder box has clean water and you feed them. I use one of those boxes that fit in the tank - ziss ez breeder.
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Now when you say fry i'm thinking 4 day old angel frys - if you are talking about 8 weeks old frys that are eating powder food they are not quite as delicate - you still want to make sure the water stays very clean and warm - i've also used marina boxes which hang off the side of the tank and water flows from the tank into them and then overlows back into the tank..

I’m using a mesh breeder box that stays inside the tank, so bio load shouldn’t be an issue.

The fry are going to be between 1-4 weeks old, depending on how many I catch from each spawn.

 

If I were to remove some of the hardscape, but then I put it back in the same spot once I’ve caught enough fry will that disrupt any of the territories/trigger fighting over “new” territory?

I don’t think it will because I’ll put all the hardscape back in the same place, but I want to make sure.

 

If they're small enough and swim towards the surface you can put in a styrofoam cup and press it down bottom first into the water. It'll create a suction that most fry can't swim out of. If you decide to use a net, you should always get the net under the fry, and gently swoop up. They won't feel the current as much as a net heading towards them.

 

If they're small enough and swim towards the surface you can put in a styrofoam cup and press it down bottom first into the water. It'll create a suction that most fry can't swim out of. If you decide to use a net, you should always get the net under the fry, and gently swoop up. They won't feel the current as much as a net heading towards them.

I might try this with my guppy fry. The shellies rarely swim higher than the middle of the tank, so I don’t think the cup would work with them. It’d work well to catch the guppies though!

 

With guppies I can just set my open hand in and they will swim into it. Guppies are not aware they are suppose to run.... I was thinking about your frys - if you put bbs in a net and just set the net into the tank and wait a bit is there much chance they will swim into it to eat ? I escaped this head-ache with my angels because i took the leaf they were on when they were wrigglers of course once they became free swimming i'd be lucky to not suffer a lost finger from the parents if i tried to removed them...

 

With guppies I can just set my open hand in and they will swim into it. Guppies are not aware they are suppose to run.... I was thinking about your frys - if you put bbs in a net and just set the net into the tank and wait a bit is there much chance they will swim into it to eat ? I escaped this head-ache with my angels because i took the leaf they were on when they were wrigglers of course once they became free swimming i'd be lucky to not suffer a lost finger from the parents if i tried to removed them...

If I can get some bbs then I’ll try that. So far I’ve managed to catch two, but one fry seemed to have been stressed out enough to the point where it passed, so I’m going to give all the fry a break to avoid losing any more.

 

My Caudopunks had fry about four weeks ago, and next week I’m bringing some of the fry to my LFS. I was thinking of just netting them out or scaring them into shells, and removing the shells from the tank. But Removing the shells may be tricky, because I have maybe 30-40 smaller fry (still stay in the shells, for the most part) that I might accidentally remove if I go that route. So would netting them out be the best option, or should I look into other ways to remove the fry?

Shrimp net, I use for my fry. More precise / smaller and more fine net the fry dont get stuck in.

 

Yay I caught two more!!! My goal is to bring in 6-10, and so far I have three. Right now I’m taking a break from catching them, and I’m leaving the net in the tank so the fry hopefully get curious and swim into the net.

 

Yay I caught two more!!! My goal is to bring in 6-10, and so far I have three. Right now I’m taking a break from catching them, and I’m leaving the net in the tank so the fry hopefully get curious and swim into the net.

I'm in same boat as you today, most my breeders are 20longs with medium amount of plants. My favorite purple guppies are in 55gal with some plecos and its heavily planted and this morning I noticed babies. I got like 6 or so this morning, now back to even try to see more let alone catch. but yes I love shrimp net for this. long and precise.

 

I’ll be trying the bottle trap idea sometime in the next few days. The babies are too fast for me to catch them, and they’re also small enough they can fit in spots the net can’t, so I either need to use the bottle trap or wait till they’re big enough they can’t hide in the tiny cracks. I don’t really want to wait a couple more months, so hopefully the bottle trap works.