Goldfish fry

[MnGuy]

Doing a small water change once a day is fine for fry, especially because there are many and their food can get messy.

The good bacteria is on the rocks, glass and other surfaces. It is not "in" the water.

Good luck.

 

[cosmolove]

Doing a small water change once a day is fine for fry, especially because there are many and their food can get messy.

The good bacteria is on the rocks, glass and other surfaces. It is not "in" the water.

Good luck.

I agree, small water changes (JUST WATER NOT CLEANING GRAVEL) shouldn't cause an issue with the water. The pH and everything like that should be pretty close to your tap water either way if you're doing regular water changes so there shouldn't be a pH change significant enough to hurt them, it honestly shouldn't change at all.

I raised fish for years from goldfish all the way to seahorses and their babies. Never had a problem with a pH change after small regular water changes.

 

[Emmilyy]

Thanks for the advice everyone

I will tone it down with the water changes for sure and only do them when absolutely necessary. But everyone seems fine so far. For small tank I put the baby fish in I used water from the main tank during a regular water change, and took one of my filters from the large tank so that they would have cycled material already.

I would have kept the babies in with the adults, but feeding them was proving to be a challenge as the baby brine shrimp would go right through the slits in the breeder box or through the holes in the net. Wouldn't have been an issue if the baby brine shrimp were large enough for the adults to eat but they are so miniscule that they were just polluting the water! Hopefully the babies do okay in their own set up until they are large enough to find homes for.

 

[taxidermynerd]

Doing a small water change once a day is fine for fry, especially because there are many and their food can get messy.

The good bacteria is on the rocks, glass and other surfaces. It is not "in" the water.

Good luck.

I second this! The bacteria is all over! It's on plants, any decorations, glass, and in your filter. With the water changes, you just need to be sure to not take out too much. If you take out to much and replace it with new water, the parameters (ph, ammonia, etc) can and usually will go haywire. If you do your water changes regularly, you'll be good.

I like to get unglazed terracotta pots (you can find those at anywhere that sells plants, as well as at craft stores) and put them in. Since terracotta is porous, it's the perfect environment for beneficial bacteria to thrive. They're also great hiding spots for fish!

The only time I ever had a mini-cycle was when I swapped out the gravel in my 40 gall from river rock to black so I could see my mystery snails!

 

[cosmolove]

Did you put a brand new filter on there or was the tank they're in now already established?

 

[Emmilyy]

somehow I missed some replies before my last post. I will continue with the small water changes as I feel that is best.

My adult tank is well established (has been running for 2+ years). 2-3 months ago I added a second filter to keep water quality up. I took one of the filters from the adult tank to use in the smaller set up for the fry, as well as plants and a large rock from the adult tank. I knew that by just setting up a new tank with a new filter the tank wouldn't be filtered. I hope I did okay by using a filter from the existing tank!

 

[Emmilyy]

Did you put a brand new filter on there or was the tank they're in now already established?

When setting up the new tank I used a filter from the adult tank they were in previously, as well as plants from the old tank and a large river rock. I hope that was enough! I also used water from the adult tank.

 

[taxidermynerd]

I hope I did okay by using a filter from the existing tank!

You did fine, you just jump-started the cycling process!

 

[cosmolove]

Yes that is perfect I was going to recommend stealing some filter media from your established tank and putting it in the new filter

 

[Emmilyy]

They are doing well so far!! We have had a few deaths since moving to the new tank, but I think that's to be expected as I still have close to 50 fry. They are beginning to grow quickly, they get one meal of baby brine shrimp daily (and they stay alive in the tank for about 4 hours for them to feed on), and one feeding of crushed flake. I do a small water change every morning.

I think I will have to do another cull soon.

Not sure what to start feeding them as they get larger. My adults eat pellets, peas and frozen blood worms on a rotation.

 

[Emmilyy]

Also, my adults CONTINUE to lay more eggs!! I keep cleaning out the tank and removing them the best I can, as I have no room to raise any more fry, I don't have enough tank space to keep any I am currently raising for that matter!

 

[Laced]

How exciting! I've only ever raised guppies and platys, both livebearers, I wouldn't begin to know what to do with eggs, But I've never done anything special with my fry. the first couple batches, i tried to seperate and save them all, but after having 5 tanks running to contain them, got over it pretty quickly and just left any others after that in the tank for nature to take its course. Some still survived and it was always a nice surprise.

 

[Emmilyy]

I've had livebearers in the post and they are a lot of fun!

I really just wasn't expecting this. No babies will survive in the tank without my intervention. The fry were as small or smaller than guppy fry starting out. The largest adult is as large or larger than my hand! The tank is also bare bottom with minimal decorations so no places for fry to hide. Oh and I usually run two filters in my main tank so there's too much current for the fry to handle and most would get sucked up!

They are starting to look like little goldfish now and are so cute!!

 

[MnGuy]

Also, my adults CONTINUE to lay more eggs!! I keep cleaning out the tank and removing them the best I can, as I have no room to raise any more fry, I don't have enough tank space to keep any I am currently raising for that matter!

You could also just leave them as food for the adults.

 

[Familyof12]

The good bacteria is on the rocks, glass and other surfaces. It is not "in" the water.

No. The good bacteria isn't on the rocks. They live longer in rocks due to the holes in them and the moisture it contains. It is in the water. It goes from urine (uric acid) to NO2 nitrides, then to NO3 nitrates. This is called cycling. When you get rid of all the good bacteria by "flushing" you not only change the ph of the water, you also take the bad and the good bacteria out. In order for the cycle to complete, you will have NO2 nitrides come in first (bad for fish) they must survive this then the NO2 attracts the NO3 Nitrates are attracted (eat the nitrides) once there is a balance, this takes time and all the fish are kind of in a "danger zone" until the water is cycled again. This takes time. It isn't in one hour. This is bad for any weak or young fish, especially fry who have much more delicate systems than the older fish. The water the fry was born in was in perfect condition, otherwise they wouldn't have hatched. Should this change drastically in any direction, they will die or become weak and as @MnGuy states, food for the other fish.

 

[taxidermynerd]

No. The good bacteria isn't on the rocks. They live longer in rocks due to the holes in them and the moisture it contains. It is in the water. It goes from urine (uric acid) to NO2 nitrides, then to NO3 nitrates. This is called cycling. When you get rid of all the good bacteria by "flushing" you not only change the ph of the water, you also take the bad and the good bacteria out. In order for the cycle to complete, you will have NO2 nitrides come in first (bad for fish) they must survive this then the NO2 attracts the NO3 Nitrates are attracted (eat the nitrides) once there is a balance, this takes time and all the fish are kind of in a "danger zone" until the water is cycled again. This takes time. It isn't in one hour. This is bad for any weak or young fish, especially fry who have much more delicate systems than the older fish. The water the fry was born in was in perfect condition, otherwise they wouldn't have hatched. Should this change drastically in any direction, they will die or become weak and as @MnGuy states, food for the other fish.

\

Yeah. For reference, it took 3 weeks for my 40 gallon to be cycled. I cycled with 7 male guppies in. If you are doing a fish-in cycle, the fish need to be a hardy variety (such as guppies). If the fish are more sensitive, the cycling process could kill them completely.

If you're impatient like I am, 2 weeks seems like a long time, but it's better than losing 40, 50, 60 dollars worth of fish.

 

[Familyof12]

@taxidermynerd is completely right on. We start with "starter" fish in our tanks before we get some really expensive ones. I've used mosquito fish to cycle but you can use any inexpensive fish you don't mind losing before putting in expensive fish. We used the mosquito fish that were free from Vector Control in our county as they provide them free for pond-owners and anyone to help with West Nile and Zika Viruses. They are super hardy and can live in extreme ph and cold/heat.

 

[taxidermynerd]

@taxidermynerd is completely right on. We start with "starter" fish in our tanks before we get some really expensive ones. I've used mosquito fish to cycle but you can use any inexpensive fish you don't mind losing before putting in expensive fish. We used the mosquito fish that were free from Vector Control in our county as they provide them free for pond-owners and anyone to help with West Nile and Zika Viruses. They are super hardy and can live in extreme ph and cold/heat.

I also just happen to really like guppies They were my first fish, and I managed to keep the bloodline of my original 8 running for 2 years, until my last died. I now have guppies from a different bloodline and different color, but I still like them

 

[Familyof12]

@taxidermynderd you seem to be a marine biologist almost! You are awesome at this!

I've been practicing and teaching aquaponics for about six years. I raise fish, the fish pee and poop creating nitrites (bad bacteria) which in turn attracts nitrates (good bacteria) which then feeds my vegetables. I use a re-circulating water system. I keep a very fine balance between the ph of the water at a 6.8, check nitrites and nitrates, temperature is automated but I double check anyway and if adjust it as necessary (fish/plants taken out or added) daily at the same time every single day. I can't use any unnatural fertilizers as it will kill the fish. I add minerals to the water as it would happen in nature. It is a razer line balance of what the plants and fish can handle at the same time and thrive. This is what happens in nature but it's not always easy to do in an aquarium with both fish and plants, especially non-aquatic ones like red leaf lettuce, tomato or romaine. We've had 800 gallon tanks with over 1000 gallons of water running through the system with rainbow trout, tilapia, koi, goldfish, catfish and some other fresh water fish, we like playing with temperature.

We have a large pond filter to keep it clean without killing the good bacteria, and use shrimp and snails to keep the tanks clean. The tank cleaners as I call them, are kept under a net at the bottom of the tank (about 1/3), where they are safe under the net where the larger fish won't eat them. It is also where the fry go when born as they are small enough to swim through the net but the larger fish can't. They will live down at the bottom of the tank, eating whatever food floats down until they get big enough to be moved moved above the net to the much larger area and be able to defend itself.

Nature is cool.

 

[Emmilyy]

Well either way, I used water, rocks and a filter from the old tank for the fries new tank so they should be okay. I do the tiniest of water changes on the fries tank and they have been handling it well for the past month or so.

I do leave any new fry that have hatched in the adult tank for them to eat... the problem seems to be the eggs that are not fertilized. The fish do not eat them and they are polluting the tank.