[cliner]

I put about 50-60 week-old angel fry into a 20L growout tank on Monday. I added 6 cory pygmeus to the tank to eat excess bbs. Yesterday there was about 8 dead fry and only 11 live ones? What happened to the others? The cories are tiny, there's no way they could have eaten any live fry. Maybe the fry died and were eaten by the cories? Confused to say the least.

 

[joejoeg]

:| uhmmm jumpers? ... what kind of filter? did they get sucked up?........thats a small grow out. i wouldint have added corys.

 

[puddle_inc]

check the filter and around the tank. look real hard all around the tank, unless it's covered well. most likely if any did get out there dead.

if you could get a pic of your cories and fry we can say if they could eat them. sometimes small mouths can eat large food. it can be deceaving to the eye to see a small fish, but then it goes and eats something large.

 

[puddle_inc]

:| uhmmm jumpers? ... what kind of filter? did they get sucked up?........thats a small grow out. i wouldint have added corys.

agreed. it is kind of a small grow out. it's not really a grow out if there isn't much room to grow...

 

[cliner]

Ok. only a sponge filter in the tank. Never thought about fry being able to jump?

In the articles I've read on spawning angels almost everyone adds a cory , such as a small panda cory. I thought I'd be safe with pygmeus. And is a 20L too small for 50 1/8 inch fry? I was going to split the fry into another 20L in a few weeks, and split ago, etc. I don't think the size of the tank has anything to do with the die off/disappearing act, do you?

 

[Lil Pun]

So cool that you got angels to spawn successfully. I wish I could.

 

[KevinC]

Ok. only a sponge filter in the tank. Never thought about fry being able to jump?

In the articles I've read on spawning angels almost everyone adds a cory , such as a small panda cory. I thought I'd be safe with pygmeus. And is a 20L too small for 50 1/8 inch fry? I was going to split the fry into another 20L in a few weeks, and split ago, etc. I don't think the size of the tank has anything to do with the die off/disappearing act, do you?

I kept my fry in a 5-gallon for quite a while (no cories). Basically once they were able to swim well (about 3 weeks old?), I transferred them to a larger container (a plastic rubbermaid container). The 5 gallon was much easier for doing water changes (daily) and for cleaning up excess food at that stage. My survival rate was fine - I'm still selling out the 9-month-old fish and after selling 60 I probably still have 50 left! Maybe the transfer had something to do with the survival?

 

[cliner]

OK, I just re-read my spawning articles and I discovered one of the breeders introduce the cory at four weeks not one! Ooops. Mystery solved.

KevinC- I had them in a five(maybe 100+) and I was going to keep them in there for a couple of weeks, then my heater was going up and down so I transfered them to the 20L long and made a fatal mistake by adding the pygmy cories. I'll know better next time. As far as the transfer, I siphoned them out with a gravel vac. They seemed fine but I found a few corpses over the next couple of days. Maybe the siphon was to much for them. Or maybe I just moved them too soon.

Many lessons learned,

Cliner

 

[rmc]

If you're looking for something to help keep things clean in your fry tank then try a pond snail or small mystery snail. :icon_wink

 

[puddle_inc]

cliner, i am about to pm you about things you could add to help keep the tank clean.

siphoning them may have been a little too much for a few of them but it shouldn't of killed many. just a few. i think the panda cories were entered too soon like the article said.

good luck with the ones still alive! roud:

 

[Suzie Q]

Don't know if this will help any, but when I moved my 1 week old fry, I used a bbs net...you have to be VERY patient though! I don't know how big Angle fry are, but betta fry are tiny! All survived until I had the amonia spike at 10 weeks.

 

[joejoeg]

you shouldint have gravel in a fry tank , its easier to clean the tank clean without it.

 

[cliner]

you shouldint have gravel in a fry tank , its easier to clean the tank clean without it.

I used a gravel vac but the tank itself has no gravel.

 

[joejoeg]

oh yea ok. lol sorry.

 

[TAF CAF]

First... if you have raised a lot of angel fish, you will be used to the term '9th Day Syndrom'. For some still unknown reason (or more than likely a million small reasons) MANY batches of angelfish will sudenly have a huge die off on or right near the 9th day of free-swim. Very experienced breeders still sometimes see this. I personally think a lot of it has to do with the fact that some batches of eggs will be less developed in-fish before they are layed, leading to extra small fry that simply can't eat food even the size of fresh hatched brine shrimp... on or about the 9th day they run out of their fat stores from the egg sack and boom... 95% or more die at once.

With that in mind, I don't really think your corries ate the live ones, but maybe munched up all the ones as they died.

Second... I have vacumed many-many angel babies in lots of different stages and never had a problem with it damaging more than a couple.

Also, as long as you keep good water params, a ton of water changes really arn't nessesary as long as you have a good bit of plants and some snails. Snails eat up leftovers... make poo... infusoria thrives on snail poo... baby fish (especially ones as small as angels) need to eat infusoria for the first few days of eating... plants clean the water and give infusoria and bacteria a place to grow.

I also move my babies from small tanks (2.5g) up gradually in tank size when they start to need a bigger tank. It is especially usefull to have a small tank for the babies to start with, since the food is concentraited all around the babies while they are too young to hunt all over a bigger tank for it.

I have about 200 babies in one 2.5 going on 3 weeks now, and they will be moving up to a bigger tank this week.... lots of plants.... about 10 snails... sponge filter powered with bubbles.

Of course, I am a stay at home fish-parent, so I feed them micro worms many times a day and have only lost a few babies from this batch (took maybe 225 or so from the parents just before free-swim).

For a good regulating heater for a tiny tank, I get the ones sold at Wal-Mart. They are (Tetra) Whisper Heater, submirsible (great since you don't have to mess with them during a water change) for 2-15 gallons, Pre-set (to 78). They are really small and have done a great job keeping a tiny tank spot on temp even though our house fluctuates from 73 during the day to 63 at night.

Well, I have blabed on long enough... LOL I get so long winded when it comes to fish. :icon_lol: