Glowlight tetra spawn-when and what to feed fry??

[comet]

Hi, Well, I was lucky enough to move a pair of glowlight tetras into a 2 1/2 gallon tank that was already holding some molly fry that I removed for the spawn. I threw in a huge mass of java moss that I was keeping in a tray for later use.

I now have eggs as of yesterday afternoon and they are hatching. Look like little tadpoles! Parents have been moved back to the main tank.

My question is on when and what to feed any fry.

I did some reading, and, please correct me if I am wrong, but I think they should be ok on their own until they are free swimming in about 3-4 days. ?? Or should they be getting something prior to free swimming??
Will the java moss that had been sitting in a tray for quite awhile contain any nutrients they can utilize?

This morning I put a piece of boiled collard green in a quart jar and will keep it in the sun for a few days to obtain some infusoria-if that's the right term. And plan to feed this to them in small amounts, about 1/4 cup once a week???

I do have on hand some Hikari "first bites" powdered fry food. Can I give them this and when would I start this food?

As you can tell by now, I could really use some advice. This all happened unexpectedly.

[lauraleellbp]

Congrats on your spawning!

Yes, the moss should already contain some infusoria that the fry will be able to catch and feed on. You will need to supplement that, however. You will be able to see the fry swimming around once their yolk sacs are absorbed. How quickly that happens can vary, temperature has a lot to do with it.

Good work on starting the green water culture. You could also take a little bit of mulm (gunk from your filter or bottom of the tank) from one of your established tanks (like a teaspoonful) and add it to the water, that would also help the culture along. (Squeezing out a little water from a filter pad over the jar would work fine too.)

I wouldn't pour water straight from the green water jar into your tank. This water is somewhat polluted. I used to harvest infusoria by leaving the jar underneath a light bulb for a few minutes. The infusoria will all be attracted to the light and come to the surface of the water. Then I scooped a fine net (I used a brine shrimp net) across the surface of the water, then I guesstimated how much of the infusoria I collected to add to the fry tank - easy to just invert and dip the net into the tank. You'll want to start a new culture every week or so.

You can start feeding the Hikari food as soon as the fry are swimming as well. If you mix a little with water and then use a syringe to squirt it in front of the fry you should be able to see them eating. It's easy to overfeed this kind of food, so having some snails in with the fry will help keep the tank from getting polluted.

Once you see them eating, I'd feed about 3x/day. Make sure you do small daily water changes, I"d say about 10-15%. Be super-careful about matching the water parameters, especially temperature.

Good luck and keep us posted!