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Posted: Fri Jan 06, 2006 6:02 pm
by sharko
I lost 3 or 4 fry who were about 1 month old, and I started to smash a couple of tetra tabimin, into powder and gave them that instead and dropped the temp from 31 C, to 28 C, and have not lost one fry since then...

The lack of food, or wrong kind of food was the reason in my case...

Posted: Sat Jan 07, 2006 8:57 am
by Raul-7
Do you test your gH and kH (directly affects pH) when doing water changes? I mean you should try to have those as close as possible to the tank water. Chloramine can easily removed by Seachem Prime; it neutralizes chloroine, chloramine, ammonia, and heavy metals. :)

I've heard it is really hard not to kill fry by overfeeding; what is the general guideline everyone uses?

Posted: Sat Jan 07, 2006 3:08 pm
by Mindy
I just feed as much as I think is appropriate for the sizes of their bellies. I have three fry at the moment, and I feed what I think is enough for those three bellies. Seems to work... Though I can imagine that would be a bit more difficult to judge if you had lots of fry... :roll:

Posted: Sun Jan 08, 2006 1:33 pm
by INXS
Mindy,
I feed Aquadine Flake - I mix the high protein and spirulina, every few days I will add a little decapsuled brine shrimp eggs. This is for both the fry and adults in the tank. The fish have been on that diet for months and are breeding regularly. The older fry and the surviving new ones are looking healthy and well fed. It's not like a gradual withering away - this is a shock type of thing.

Raul-7,
I checked the GH regularly on the zebra tank for months - have not done so in a while as I discovered that they did not respond to alterations of the hardness to promote spawning - at least for me. The water is hard and well buffered. The PH is holding ar around 7.8 which is what my tap is. Since I feed frequently with the colony being big and having the babies I have been concerned with the nitrates and tested that . At one point they were high - over 50 so I did small daily waterchanges to bring it down and they are now at around 15-20 and holding.

I don't even use a dechlorinator on many of my tanks but do on the zebras . The adults never have a problem, it's only the young ones that go into shock. I do use a dechlorinator and am changing to a different one now.

As far as feeding goes it is generally thought that the young ones can usually find food in the tank well for themselves and are best left with the parents, though people will raise them for the first few weeks in an in-tank-holding tank so they can monitor the feeding better. As far as dry food they will consume what the adult fish eat. The problem can be with frozen and particlularly bloodworms which the young ones can choke on.
It is pretty much assumed that you do enough vaccuming and waterchanges to keep the tank sanitary if you increase the feedings.

Sharko,
I had not thought of lowering the temperature - it might keep the excess food from deteriorating?

Alga,
I don't really know if separating the fry would do much for losses during waterchanges. I don't have any problems with the fry dying off between the waterchanges. They are generally healthy, well fed and active. I may check into the separation though.

Barbie,
I have basically stuck with the Aquadine flakes mostly because your warning of fry choking on larger pieces of frozen food.
The Aquadine (they should send me free food for all the promo I do :roll: ) seems to work very well for the adults as they breed regularly as do a number of other fish I feed it to. The young are definitly eating it and occasionally I will feed a little dry decapsuled brineshrimp eggs for the frys sake. As I mentioned above - there doesn't seem to be an eating problem (at least for me) but it's a shock thing during waterchanges.

Just as you mentioned, I have a hard time thinking that the turbidity (basically the only thing I feel changes when I lower the water before changes) would harm the young as they seem to develop quite the ability to suck on to things withing a few days of hatching and these guys are several weeks old.
I am concerned with tank sanitation as I do feed plenty for the frys sake so waterchanges are important but at this point I would not even concider a change of 50% or much or a temperature change during it.

I have done plenty of large changes with much cooler water on both the zebras and other tanks , when using water that is a lot cooler and the temperature drops 10-15 degrees I have observed even adults going into a frenzy and sometimes almost shock but they usually snap out of it quickly and try to keep the temp drop within reason now.


I am getting a feeling that young zebras can be a bit sensative as has been mentioned by others and the crucial time appears to be from newborn til about 2 months (?).
Also from what I have gathered it seems like shipping zebras or moving them would not be advisable until they get to be close to a year old and hardy enough to withstand a drastic change of conditions?
Thanks