ZebraPleco.com • The complete Hypancistrus zebra resource

Hi to you all, great site.

Unfortunately, my first post is a cry for help.

I have a 6 foot tank housing discus, various plecs three of which are zebras, corys and tetras.
On Saturday whilst carrying out a partial water change I noticed a zebra plec fry on the side of the tank (about 1.2cms). Due to the number of large mouths in the tank felt it best to move it to the safety of a floating hatchery. Subsequntly found two more fry. None had sacks on them. Two of the three fry looked in good shape but one looked very thin.

The thin fish died two days later, now one of the others is on its back, also looking thin . I have been feeding them ground Tetra Prima and last night tried a bit of fresh trout in the hope they would suck on that.

Have put in a bit of coco nut shell for security.

Any ideas what has gone wrong? I felt I had no choice but to move them into the hatchery.
If I come across any more fry should I leave them to nature and hope there are enough hiding places in the tank.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Most people prefer to keep the fry with the parents. I know that doesn't always work, and I would say in your case that it would be risky, since it is a community tank, and most fry don't have much of a chance. I think what does make sense is getting the adults out to their own tank and trying to raise fry there. I don't know if that is what you want to do, but that is what I would recommend.

On the fry and what to feed them - you can probably put in pellet food, tetra min tabs, brine shrimp pellets, Hakari carnivore pellets. That is what mine have gotten lately. I don't about the type of hatchery, but again, it would be better to get another tank (like a 10 gallon), use water from the main tank and transfer the fry to it. It may be the floating hatchery doesn't allow water to flow thru well, or some other need for the little one.

That is the best I can think of, I'm sure others will be offering good advice.

My fry go absolutely nuts for frozen cyclops.

Don't feed Tetra Prima there has been alot of deaths with people feeding it to young fry. Try and get hold of some ZM fry foods, start with 200 for the first couple of weeks (100 is too small) then move onto 300 and 400 as they grow. Heres a link http://www.atlantisaquatics.co.uk/acata ... foods.html
Hope all goes well and keep us posted

Thankyou very much for your replies.

Unfortunately all the fry have now died. I have learnt something from this post - I will not do the same next time and will defintely get some other food.

Very sorry to hear that But the fact that they were breeding means you should have some more soon enougth

I used a slice of cucumber when I had fry. It isn't exactly a well balanced meal, but helped a lot with the survival rates.

I would like anyones input/opinion on this. But here is my own.

This gave the fry something to munch on 24 hours a day. They would then have enough "energy/desire" to find the lipids and proteins when it was time to feed. I fully believe fry need food every 2 hours at first.