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I was curious to know what is everyones method of catching fry after they have used up their yolk sack... and when they have reached 1 inch or 2.5cm. ie a fine net, by hand, a siphon????

I have tried to catch malawi fry with a net, jam jar and I had a pair of Neolamprologus brichardi spawn 100 or so i got them out with a syphon but they are ten a penny and not as precious as zebras. I would try scooping them up with a net but taking some of the substrate up woth them and then separating them from there. - Just an idea, everyone else will have differing opinions.

Last time I did as followed:

My male breeds in a PVC tube that is sealed at one end with a cap.

1. I lift up the tube vertically from the water with the opening on top, so that the male, the fry and the water stay inside it.

2. I let my wife hold the net in a way that the edges stay above the water, but the net itself stays underwater.

3. Inside the net, I take of the cap, so that the male and fry fall into the net.

4. I remove the male by hand from the net (the net is rather large).

5. I lift up the net with the fry and empty it in the fry container.

This worked fine for me.

I moved the breeding cave into the breeding trap after I persuaded the male to vecate the building After lights out the fry ventured out and I could remove the cave and add it back to the main tank.

Thanks for all the info. I was concerned about damaging the fry when I move them from a floating container into a 10gal fry tank.

Ken

Ah

If you already have them in a fry trap, then place a larger container udner the fry trap to prevent the water from escaping, then move the container, now containing one fry trap with babies, over to the fry tank

I'm not so sure I would recomend changing enviroment for them this early though, I regret not leaving them for at least another month. I did loose 3 or 4 when I moved the last batch. I think they're just too young to cope with the change, even when all the parameters are the same. Maybe somebody else has some advice concerning moving fry?

I think it is wise to leave them in the same tank (inside the fry trap) until they are much bigger. Fry don't cope very well with change of water. Beside this, it is much more difficult to have a constant water quality in a 10 gallon tank than in a bigger tank.
I would even recommend to change less water at a time then you are used to. I cut down the water change to 10% instead of 20%.

Even with the resistant bristlenose pleco I experienced that lots of fry died after a waterchange that was a little too much (and this in a 90 liter tank!)

You don't have to worry about the space. They aren't enormous swimmers, the tend to hide at the same space during most of the day.
You should provide a shelter though. I use a plastic coffee scoop as a hiding place for the fry.

Again thanks for the info.

I currently have 14 babies in the floating fry basket in the parent's tank. These babies are from 4 spawns, 8, 2, 1, 3. The youngest ones are 8 weeks old. I have a hiding spot for them under a piece of slate tile in the floating basket. The ten gallon is an establish tank with 6 of their siblings from the first spawn. The first 6 were easy to catch because they stayed in the cave in the basket until I moved them into the 10gal. They were around 3 months when I moved them.

The reason I would like to move the 14 is so I can start simulating rainy season with cooler water. With the fry basket I have not been able to try this method.

Thanks for the info. Barbie. What was the temperature changes when you simulate the rainy season. Was it about 8 F difference or more.

A bit tangental, but do you do 'rainy season' often? Waht's teh schedule?

the best way to collect the fry while theyare still in the cave is to move the entire cave to the new tank or in the container and lean the cave in a 45 deg. angle open side down its a lot faster if you have the male inverted upside down he tends to always right himself and disslodge the eggs and or babies, also the fry would start to crowl down and out faster, and if they get dislodge and in the main tank I use some larger size corrugated pastic tubing close one end with your thumb and dip the other end in the tank, you will trap air in the tube as you release your thumb water flows in the tube sucking the wrigglers in the tube then close it with both thumb and lift out of the water, once you get the hong of it, it wont be so complicated, but when you are catching larger fry I prefer to use small brine shrimp nets they wont get trap in the mesh of the net.