How to raise fry?

If a fry appeared in the aquarium

Often aquarists learn about the appearance of offspring in aquarium inhabitants when they see fry in a secluded corner of the aquarium. How to raise a fry, how to feed it? Is it possible to grow fry in an aquarium and not endanger them? What needs to be done first?

In an aquarium with adult fish, the fry runs the risk of becoming someone’s food, especially if there are no plants or scenery where the fry could hide. Carefully catch it with a net with a fine mesh or saucer and transplant it into another container. Fill it with water from the community tank. For fry, a small aquarium is best. A growing organism needs oxygen and clean water. Therefore, do not forget about filtration and aeration. But do not create a strong current, it is dangerous for the baby. Provide the filter with a sponge so that the fry are not sucked into the equipment. While he is still learning to move his fins, many things around him threaten him with death.

Be sure to check if there are any other fry in the community tank. Where one hides, there are probably several more. Transplant the entire brood into a separate container.

If it is not possible to urgently equip a separate house for juveniles, divide the common aquarium with a net. Make sure that all the babies swim through the net into the free part of the aquarium. Live-bearing fish in nature do not care about offspring – newly-born parents are immediately carried away by the current. So in the aquarium they can take their own children for a snack.

Growing fry should have sufficient lighting. Provide them with normal daylight hours. Only in the light can fry hunt for their first food. What should be a competent diet when we grow fish fry?

What do babies eat

The first day or two, the fry feed on the yolk sac, in an embrace with which they developed inside the eggs. This is a natural starting supply of nutrients.

Balanced special dry food for fry will be the best solution. If there is no special food for fry in a pet store near you, you can take ordinary flakes and carefully grind them into dust yourself. Ideally, the crumbs should completely eat each serving of food. Excess can cloud the water.

The fry are instinctively convinced that they must hunt for moving food. If you want to pamper them and bring them closer to their natural habitat, then live food is ideal as food.

Infusoria shoe will be a good first food for fry. Experienced breeders assure that after a couple of days of feeding with infusoria, you can switch to rotifers, and after a couple of days – to brine shrimp. But you can stop at the infusoria shoe. There are many recipes for growing ciliates for fry at home. Microorganisms that can be fed to fish are called live dust.

When the fish have grown to about one centimeter in length, try feeding them larger live food. Suitable microworm, bloodworm. So that leftover food does not pollute the water, plant a couple of coil snails with the fry. They will clean up.

Another popular food for fry is well-ground boiled egg yolk. The main thing is that the yolk is fresh. Five modest servings of yolk per day is enough for fry. Please note that the yolk that is not eaten by the fish will adversely affect the quality of the water in the tank.

The more fry you have, the larger aquarium they will need. Separate the fry as they grow. If there are a lot of fry, but you don’t want to part with them, prepare a large aquarium for them in advance. They will be free to live there when they grow up.

Viviparous and spawning

Aquarium fish are divided into viviparous and spawning. The first produce already formed fry. They emerge from the eggs a few seconds after birth. The latter spawn, the fertilization of eggs occurs in the external environment. Many spawners protect eggs from the encroachment of the inhabitants of the aquarium and take care of the barely hatched offspring.

Viviparous fish are guppies, platies, mollies, formosa, black-striped limia and others. If the belly of a female viviparous fish grows within five to six weeks, catch the moment when the colored spot near the anal fin becomes especially prominent. The future mother begins to refuse food and tries to hide from the rest of the fish? Most likely, the fry are ready to be born. The female, just before giving birth, needs to be deposited in a spawning tank with a double mesh bottom. The juveniles will pass through the net and will definitely not be able to become a snack for the mother fish. A convenient option is a small spawning tank with a double bottom, which is mounted on suction cups inside a common aquarium. So the live-bearer can be quickly transplanted into the spawning ground and returned without problems after the birth of the last fry.

Spawning fish are neons, tetras, cichlids, thorns, cockerels, ancistrus and many others. You noticed that the fish laid their eggs on a stone or leaf. Transfer the stone with eggs to a separate container along with the future father, who, with a wave of his fins, drives oxygen over the eggs. Eggs need good aeration. When the juveniles begin to hatch, the happy father can be returned to the general aquarium. It will soon become clear that part of the eggs remained unfertilized. No one will come out of it. Several coil snails will be able to eat up this extra caviar and prevent clogging of the aquarium. How to raise a fry that has just hatched from an egg? Wait until it forms and uses up the supply of nutrients from the yolk sac. And you can start feeding.

Do not forget about water changes in the aquarium with fry. Use a sponge to keep the fry from being sucked into the hose when you drain some of the water.

Spawning is a sign of good care

Spawning, the appearance of fry is a good sign. This proves that the aquarist keeps his wards in excellent conditions. There are ways to push the fish to spawn – to increase the temperature by one or two degrees above the average comfortable for the fish. Change water more often. If the fish brought fry, they considered their living conditions suitable for procreation.

The question is how ready you are to nurse the offspring of fish every time, whether you want to become a breeder. When buying fish, find out their age. Find out when you can expect your fish to reach sexual maturity depending on their species. Decide if you have males or females. Not all fish are easily identified. So you can back up your position with facts so that the appearance of fry is not a surprise to you.

Basic knowledge on this subject will definitely come in handy. On thematic forums, novice aquarists sometimes complain about an unplanned debut as a nanny for fry – the only fish purchased at a pet store turned out to be pregnant. This also happens. We wish health to your fry!