caring for very small fry

Question
-------------------------
Followup To
Question -
Hi! I've had my tanks for about 3 years with mostly all the
same fish and without any problems. This morning one of
my fish, I think the "black skirt tetra" had babies, a lot of
them, and the angel fish were eating them up as fast as
they could. I mangaged to get a clean gallon jar and
siphoned out about 50 or so, put in an air line & small
plant, and a tiny bit of ground up flakes & worms, but I
really have no idea on how to raise small fry.
I turned off the lights tonite for a while & came back in &
they were on the bottom all stuck together. I managed to
separate them, and they are all swimming around again,
but I need some info on taking care of these little guys
properly. Thanks for your help!
Answer -
Hi Ria;

Just do plenty of water changes and get them their own tank.
They won't survive long in an
unheated and unfiltered jar. Whatever container you choose,
change 25% to 50% of the water
3 times a week. They need to be fed several times a day. I use
regular fish food crumbled up
really small. They will grow very fast with this cleaning and
feeding schedule. Don't put any
gravel in the tank until they get about 1/2 an inch long. With all
the food you will be
feeding, the gravel will just prevent the babies from seeing the
food and you will not be able
to see it to clean it out when it falls between the rocks. Just safer
to use a bare tank.

Are you sure the angels aren't the parents? They will look as if
they are eating the babies,
but actually are trying to get them back to the 'nest' for safety.
They spit them back out
there. It is usually a semi-vertical rock, plant, filter tube or the
side of the tank.

What other kinds of fish do you have? If there are livebearers like
platies, guppies, mollies or
swordtails, these would be the most likely parents. Tetras are
egglayers and the babies are
so tiny that we often never see them before they are eaten up.
They scatter their eggs and
don't protect them. Angels protect the eggs and babies and are
more likely to have
survivors.

Followups welcome

At Your Service;
Chris Robbins

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Aloha Chris!
Thanks for your very quick & helpful answer! I live in Hawaii, so
the tanks stay a very comfortable temp, but I didn't know about
how much to feed them, etc, and am happy to
say they survived the night.
I don't think they are the Angel Fish babies, because have a whole
production that I would of noticed, and I know what you mean
about them moving them by spitting them, as I've seen that.
This happened very quickly, while I was making coffee, I looked at
them and everything looked normal & then a few minutes later
there was a spray of little tiny fish, that were
being eaten like in a pac-man game!
The other fish in the tank are a couple of different bottom
feeders, I think called Cory's, and a couple of neons, and some
Kuuli loaches. I have been noticing the Black Skirt looking
pretty huge lately, and so I thought it was probably her. It will be
fun to watch and see what they turn into!
Thanks again for your help!   Aloha

Answer
Hi Ria;

Hawaii! That's great! It will be easier to keep the temperature good then. Sounds like they probably are black skirts, but it is indeed rare to see babies survive in a community tank. Usually the eggs are eaten before we get to see babies. Congratulations!

Followups welcome

At Your Service;
Chris Robbins