Page 3 of 3

Posted: Sun Feb 17, 2008 9:46 am
by Stevie.K
Hi Paul

It can take a couple of weeks or more for all the fry to leave the cave, they will come out more at night to feed.

If i am getting ready to put the male back in the main tank, i turn off all lights early feed them up & leave them for a couple of hours. Then take a look to see if they are out & pop dad back.

I sometimes have left 1 or 2 fry with dad if they seem like they will never come out!

Good luck & congrats :wink:

Posted: Sun Feb 17, 2008 5:24 pm
by PaulH196
Hi Stevie,

Thank you for the advice, I will give it a go tonight.

I am particularly worried that they may not be eating if the male does not let them out, particularly given the post above where I was warned that they could starve to death over the next few weeks. Have you ever experienced this?

Regards

PaulH

Posted: Sun Feb 17, 2008 6:39 pm
by Stevie.K
Hi Paul

Don't worry too much, the post was just to let you know worst case scenario.

I have never lost any to starvation, at this age i mainly feed micro-worm & a little finely crushed tetra prima & its all gone by morning.

I like feeding the micro-worm as it can live in water for up to 12 hrs, so gives them plenty of time to feed without polluting the water. :wink:

Posted: Sun Feb 17, 2008 6:52 pm
by PaulH196
Stevie,

How do you feed microworm with the amount of circultion that the zebras need, surely none of it will settle on the bottom for them to eat.

I will feed some anyway and see what happens.

Regards

PaulH

Posted: Sun Feb 17, 2008 7:10 pm
by Stevie.K
My fry are in a little split 80L bb tank, the mirco-worm fly around the tank for a while but settle soon after on the tank floor :wink:

Tried your trick

Posted: Mon Feb 18, 2008 7:42 pm
by PaulH196
Stevie,

I tried your suggestion last night and it worked a treat.

A couple of hours after lights out and I checked the tank. The male was out of his cave but the babies were still in there.

I took the cave and babies out and put them in a breeding trap, I put another cave in the tank and this morning I returned the male to the tank with the adults.

I have now managed to get a photo of some of the babies, there are about 7 in the photo, 3 still in the cave, 1 in the main tank with the adults and 2 or 3 in the other tank with my 7-8 month old babies that I got from Andrew Coxon.

Fingers crossed that I can grow them on now.

Regards

PaulH

Posted: Mon Feb 18, 2008 9:30 pm
by Stevie.K
Pleased it worked for you, great looking fry 8)

Posted: Tue Feb 19, 2008 8:17 pm
by Zebrapl3co
Hi, sorry for hoping in and out like this. But I don't really logon to here that regularly.
Anyway, it's a fine batch you have there. Looks like you are well on your way and the hard part has mostly passed.
Sorry if you been left to misunderstood what I was saying. I just want to clarify that the zebra dad will encourage the fry to go out to eat at night. However, some fry are just too stuborn/scared to go out to eat even when dad is encouraging them. These fry usually starve themselves to death. It's not because the dad won't let them out.
It's possible that this is due to an inexperience dad or that the tank's is setup in a way that the fry feels threathen.

A couple more photo's

Posted: Tue Feb 19, 2008 10:18 pm
by PaulH196
Stevie, thanks for the message, I think they look great.

Zebrapl3co, I appreciate your previous comments and now understand them. I had to coax the male out so that I could leave the babies to fend for themselves.

I managed to get another couple of photo's today of some of the babies.

They seem to be doing fine now that they have left the cave, and seem to be eating too which is good.