Sash Posted December 4, 2004 Share Posted December 4, 2004 hello people. I currently have about 15 ellectric yellows and 15 red empress babies in a 30 litre tank. their about 1.5 months old. they are just dying for no reason, like everyday about 3 of them just die for some reason. anyone got any ideas? their diet was microworms, sera micropan fry food and frieze dry brine shrimp, but i have cut out the microworms for abouta week now. the ph is 7.4 and temp is 28. anyone got any ideas? iam really desprete as i have never like gone past this stage in fry rearing. so this is my first experience. Thanks in advance Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ben Posted December 4, 2004 Share Posted December 4, 2004 What type of filter are you using on the tank? Have you go an air line in the tank? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sash Posted December 4, 2004 Author Share Posted December 4, 2004 it is a spong filter so its not hurting the fry, this i thought would also be a sufficient oxygen source Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fishfreak Posted December 4, 2004 Share Posted December 4, 2004 It seems like water quality. do you do small water changes in this tank or is it the same water . What are you using as a filter. ( i fined small sponge filters to work best in my fry tanks) and also do frequent small water changes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ben Posted December 4, 2004 Share Posted December 4, 2004 Try doing half tank water changes from your main tank every day. I think it is a water quality problem. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sash Posted December 4, 2004 Author Share Posted December 4, 2004 well i do 10 litre water change every second day atm, so you think i should get 10 litre everyday from my main tank? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeWs Fish Posted December 4, 2004 Share Posted December 4, 2004 I'd agree that its a water quality problem. 30 litlers is half a standard 2 fter. Smaller tanks are harder to maintain. I have a similar tank that i dont really use any more and i had to change 50 percent of the water each week. 50 percent can be harsh on little fish. So if i did smaller water changes, more frequently. Donin water changes from an established tank is a grat idea, because in such a small tank, you want to try and avoid changes to the water chemisrty. Also when your doing the water change do a good gravel clean, as there could be alot of poo in the water, for such a small tank. It could also be all the meaty food, i think yellows are mainly vegetarains. I dunno about red empress. Also, any overfeeding will have disasterous effects on such a small tank, so feed sparingly. also you might want to go and buy an ammonium locking product. Ive never had any experince with this, so it would be could if someone who has could confirm this? Thats all i can rattle off of the top of my head at themoment with a nasty hangover and 3 hours of sleep HTH Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mbuna Posted December 4, 2004 Share Posted December 4, 2004 also smaller tanks tend to have large temperature fluctuations and with the past few hot days, small tanks can get quite hot and fry dont tend to handle heat very well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sash Posted December 4, 2004 Author Share Posted December 4, 2004 thanks guys. so ill be doing 10 water water change from my 4 foot tank every day. that raises another question; do i still do the 20% weekly watwer change on my 200 litre tank or no. plus what vegetarian foods should i feed the fry anf how much. oh and the tank does not have any gravel or sand or anything at the bottom, its bare. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeWs Fish Posted December 4, 2004 Share Posted December 4, 2004 Yes Sash, you still need to do your 20 percent water change on your big tank. It shouldn't matter toooooooo much whether its b4 or after you do your 10L water change on your 30L. Spiurlina flake is great food for vegetarian fish. Note: I really dont know about Red empress so go to google and look up what food they should eat. im pretty sure yellows are pretty much vegos. IF Red empress is a meat eater (which im not sure about) you'll have to get a seperate tank for the fry. This is so you do not mix n match the dietry supplimnets for both the fish. If you dont have one, get a sera gravel cleaner. thatllsuck up all the waste at the bottom of the tank, gravel or no gravel. For about 30 fry take about 7 spirulina flakes, crush them up and and put them in the tank to feed, maybe even less than 7. (the gravel cleaner also helps suck up any excess food that sits and rots in the tank) HTH - sorry to hear about your losses. Hope you dont lose any more... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sash Posted December 4, 2004 Author Share Posted December 4, 2004 hehe its a part of my learning curve i guess, i reacounted and have only 5 yellows and 12 empress left. oh well, hehe i better get to that water change Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeWs Fish Posted December 4, 2004 Share Posted December 4, 2004 There'll be plenty more where they came from - dont worry. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ducksta Posted December 4, 2004 Share Posted December 4, 2004 Red Empress aren't vegetarians; either are electric yellows Have you watched the temp daily fluctuations on the tank? I try to do all my water changes on fry tanks from established tanks. This acts as a mini water change on the larger tank. SO if your current regime is 20% of a 200L tank weekly (thats ~40L), and you remove 10-15 litres for your fry tank every second day (thats ~30-40ish litres a week) you are essentially even with the old water change regime and you dont need to continue doing a major one weekly (though it never hurts) as you are just doing more frequent smaller water changes. I also find that by doing my water changes from the parent tank, I can successfully do LARGE water changes daily with no losses when the fry tanks are really full (like now ) I find this also increases my number of spawnings as fresh cool water introduced to my adult tanks is a big trigger Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeWs Fish Posted December 4, 2004 Share Posted December 4, 2004 I must've been feeding too many pseudos for too long. Was almost 100 percent sure yellows were primarily vegos . Thanks for the correction Ducksta! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ducksta Posted December 4, 2004 Share Posted December 4, 2004 Like most fish they are opportunistic feeders, high protein diet has never had any ill effects on any of mine. Then again my Pseudotropheus seem to love their protein too Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sab Posted December 4, 2004 Share Posted December 4, 2004 Just reading this thread and want some clarification... if you take the water for the fry tank from the main 200 litre tank (that has been "circulated" for the week in there), won't that already have a higher nitrate concentration than if you use freshly conditioned tap water AND correctly mixed rift lake powders to increase the GH and KH?? My thought would be to use "fresh" water(?) from either aged water or conditioned from the tap - am I not correct in assuming this? Assuming that the fry tank is fully cycled (and the same with the larger tank), I would have thought fry are more sensitive (than the parents) to nitrate spikes if using "unclean" water?? thoughts? steve Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ducksta Posted December 5, 2004 Share Posted December 5, 2004 Your right Steve, but when you have fry tanks plenty of water from your adult tanks, the nitrate in the swapped water is very little.And if you do lots of water changes on the fry tank, the chance of the nitrate hitting a problem level (even using old water) is pretty small. This is the way I do things, and I'm not suggesting it is infallible, but it works for me. It allows you to do big changes on small fry tanks without worrying to much about shocking the fry with quickly changing conditions. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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