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My first zebra spawn was on December 20, 2010. I separated the fry from the father at two weeks. At this point the fry had no yolk sac and took to normal foods quite well. I've kept the fry in a breeder trap in a separate 10 gallon tank the entire time. The fry have been eating quite well and are getting big and growing up quite healthy.

My second spawn was on January 19, 2011. Today would be about two weeks and it is time to separate the fry from the father again. Here lies my question. I only have one breeder trap. Should I put the newest batch of fry in with the older batch and keep the same feeding program? Or should I release the older fry into the 10 gallon tank and put the new fry in the breeder trap by themselves? When would be an appropriate age to release the fry from the breeder trap to have full reign of the grow out tank?

The drawback to releasing the fry is 1) they would have to cover more space to find food, and/or 2) I'd have to feed more in order for them to get the same amount of food and that will probably cause water quality issues.

Any help, or personal insights from experience would be MUCH appreciated!

I have raised a few 100 fry so far.

1. I prefer to leave eggs/fry in the breeder tank until there are too many and I have to spread them out. They grow bigger faster there.
2. I never use a breeder trap unless there is no option.
3. I routinely have grown out zebras in 10, 15 and 20L tanks (gallons).
4. Depending on fish size I can have up to 20 to 35 fish in any of the above tanks.
5. I mix fry from dif spawns (timewise) in the same tanks.

Other breeders I greatly respect use traps or pull wigglers to separate containers/tanks until they are free swimming or later before putting them into more perm spaces. So my way is just that and not necessarily the best nor the only way.

Hi Mistern2005

It will generally depend on the overall tank set up.

Where possible I would leave the eggs and fry with the male throughout, until they were 10 - 12 weeks old, then I would move them to a tank along with other fry. If another spawn occured during this time the fry were already out and about throughout the tank. This was only possible however due to the fact that the tank furniture was relatively simple with few other mature fish. I would use breeding traps whenever stray eggs appeared or if I felt the male had kicked the fry out to early.

If your tank has a simple set-up that means you can keep track of the food and you know there are no places that a gread deal of "krud" to form then I see no problem in the fry from the existing bach in habiting the tank at the same time as future spawns. If the filtation is high enough, (which if i remember your set ups correctly from a few years back, it probably is) then there will probably be no major problems with the water quality. OK... I think that was a bit long winded and:-). I never had any problems with the small fry surviving in the main tank, the biggest downside was not being able to stare in awe at them in teh breeder! However there is something quite satisfying about seeing the very young fry dartign around the tank every now and again.

With reference to the feeding, I didn't have any real problems so long as there was not a huge amount of competition from mature fish.

As TTA said however, all of this comes down to personal opinion, whatever you feel most as ease with. I do not see any major problems either way.
Hope this helps.
Rob

Al my Zeb fry have been raised by dads & I would only ever use a trap if there was a problem, which thankfully there never has.
I have had very young fry kicked out if another female has entered the cave & these have always found shelter & survived.
I have found even though I prefer to move fry around 16 weeks similar to Rob into another tank so I know which fry are which, the ones I leave in with the adults do grow faster & this has been proved many a time.

Wow. Tank you all for the wonderful responses! I guess the consensus is clear....I'll start leaving the fry in with the adults and just do a yearly fry search/ tank remodel to catch the little ones. We will see...hopefully there will be another spawn sometime soon so I can compare growth rates for myself. Thanks again!!!