Feeding and Raising Zebra Fry

grettonman · Post by **grettonman** » Sat Mar 11, 2006 9:26 am

What do people feed their Zebra fry on from birth to one year old. I am looking for a rough chronolgy of age against food.

Rob · Post by **Rob** » Sat Mar 11, 2006 10:48 am

5-21 days - tetra-Prima / ZMDiscus Small
21 - 6 weeks - Tetra Prima / ZM 400 / sometimes baby brineshrimp
6 Weeks onward ZM Discus Large / Corgette, Mashed Frozed cockle, crushed bloodworm ( after about 6 months)

The reason I am mixing Prima with ZM products is because I am hoping to move the fish onto this eventually.

rob

dave · Post by **dave** » Sat Mar 11, 2006 11:52 am

I raise mine in breeding traps floating in the main tank for 18 days.

For these days I use King British Flake and crushed Doromin Sticks.

I avoid Teta Prima at this time as I had a couple of fatalities after feeding this from brood number 3. Might just be coincidence but not willing to take the chance.

After that in with the adults, and the same diet as them, though I've stopped putting Blood Worm in the tank until they grow on a bit.

Dave

Adam · Post by **Adam** » Mon Mar 13, 2006 4:14 pm

I was up until recently feeding a mixture of ZM fry feed and crushed Tetra Prima, varying the grade according to the age of the fry. As with Dave I was losing fry when feeding Tetra Prima, I now exclusively feed ZM fry feeds, Hikari first bites and decapsulated brine shrimps every now and then. The mortality rate has improved since removing Tetra Prima from their diet.

This is only a guess here but I suspect that the Tetra Prima was spoiling quickly due to the high tank temps and that this contributed to the fry deaths.

Adam

Edit: Fry over one month old seem to be ok with TP but I have chosen to remove it from their diet all together just to be on the safe side.

khblock · Post by **khblock** » Tue Apr 04, 2006 4:46 am

Hey guys,
Does Zm stand for Zoo Med? I thought Zoo Med was pumps, filters & powerheads and aquarium lights in their fish line.

Adam · Post by **Adam** » Tue Apr 04, 2006 4:53 am

Hi Khblock,

Zoo med is a different company, here's a link to the ZM ltd website. I noticed that they stopped shipping to the US a while back, I'm not sure what happened but it looks like they will start taking orders from the US again soon if they haven't already.

http://www.zmsystems.demon.co.uk/

Congrats on the fry by the way.

Adam

khblock · Post by **khblock** » Tue Apr 04, 2006 4:56 am

Thanks Adam.

I didn't recognize the reference to ZM

Adam · Post by **Adam** » Tue Apr 04, 2006 5:27 am

You're welcome,

I forgot to mention, start off with ZM 200 as the first feed for the fry, ZM 100 is far too fine and just seems to remain in suspension.

Adam

Raul-7 · Post by **Raul-7** » Tue Apr 04, 2006 5:44 am

The equivalent in the US would be New Life Spectrum or Omega One, but I haven't tried the latter. NLS has always worked for me, never have I seen my fish more healthier and willing to breed.

Hikari makes high quality foods as well, especially the carnivore pellets and their new line of freeze-dried foods.

Another great supplier is www.kensfish.com - definatley worth looking at, although I'm unsure of what foods to try. He offers a lot of variety.

khblock · Post by **khblock** » Tue Apr 04, 2006 6:27 am

Raul-7, you read my mind...that was my next quetion. What would be the US equivalent?

I mostly use Hikari foods, baby brine shrimp and microworms and from time to time make my own.

Adam · Post by **Adam** » Tue Apr 04, 2006 6:33 am

I agree with Raul, some good alternatives to consider there if you are unable to get hold of the ZM food. Hikari do indeed do some good foods, my adult zebras were almost exclusively fed on their carnivore tabs until I couldn't get hold of it anymore. There seems to be some sort of distribution problem to the UK.

I have also used Hikari first bites as a feed and its good but I prefer the ZM feed as it has a protein content of 60% versus hikari's 48%. Cyclopeeze is another good fry food with a high protein content of 57%, the problem though is its a bit too fine and has a tendency to remain in suspension.

I'm pretty sure that I had some earthworm flakes that were originally supplied by kensfish a while back via a seller on Aquarist Classifieds. A great conditioning food for adult fish although I never tried it on the zebras, feed sparingly though as it has a very high fat content.

Adam

grettonman · Post by **grettonman** » Tue Apr 04, 2006 1:04 pm

Some of the German breeders are feeding their fish amonst other things on tablets they produce themselves.
70% Spirulina powder + 30% decapsulated Artemia eggs + Water , then freezing it.

andyj · Post by **andyj** » Tue Apr 04, 2006 1:05 pm

With regards Hikari:

Speaking to the guy at my LFS on Saturday about Hikari (smithrc was with me to) he was saying that Hikari were told several months ago to provide the correct documentation (something to do with the ingredients etc) to allow their stuff to be imported into Europe.

The first 2 shipments didn't have the paperwork, but were let in under concession. But the 3rd shipment (most recent) was declined entry into Europe and was returned to Japan. It was about 5 shipping containers full, so hence the shortage of Hikari feeds in the UK !!!

jerms55555 · Post by **jerms55555** » Tue Apr 04, 2006 6:46 pm

I feed my fry this powder that a member from here sells! It works great!! I will ask if he wants other members to know who is and what he makes it out of. My fry actually come out of their shelter to feed on this during the day. its great!

khblock · Post by **khblock** » Tue Apr 04, 2006 10:11 pm

I feed my fry this powder that a member from here sells! It works great!! I will ask if he wants other members to know who is and what he makes it out of. My fry actually come out of their shelter to feed on this during the day. its great!

Yes, ask if he would share please.
Thanks!!!

Feeding and Raising Zebra Fry

Feeding and Raising Zebra Fry

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