young fish

Hi all.
I have two questions I hope you can help with.
How long do I keep the fry and parents together before separating them
and what method do you use to get the fry into the smaller tank.
I tried raising the fry in the large tank with a gravel bottom but had only four survivors.
Thanks for your time
And a happy new year to you all
Jim.

I usually leave the parents with the babies for about 2 weeks after they go free swimming.
I prefer to leave the babies where they are and move the parents, rather than the other way round.
Once they're about 1 month old, if I need to move them, I use a soft net & plastic bag.

Hi Jim,

I follow a similar approach to Rob in that I remove the parents between 2 and 4 weeks after free swimming, generally depends on tank space available. Moving fry is a lot more problematic than adults. Fry are a lot more affected by changes in water chemistry than adults.

You say that you tried rearing fry in a tank with gravel on the bottom. If you have any choice bare bottom tanks are preferable. You can see and remove debris from a bare bottom tank easily which you can't if you're using gravel. Uneaten food can quickly send the ammonia level up to dangerous levels if not cleaned out regularly. I syphon off the bottom of my fry tanks daily or every other day if I'm busy.

To avoid moving fry as they grow I now set my pairs up in a 3ft tank I've had made specially that has a removable glass divider in the middle. Water can just squeeze past the partition when it's in place but not the fry. I set the pair up in one half of the tank with my breeding cone.

After spawning and 2 - 4 weeks post free swimming stage I move the parents to the empty half of the tank. Once the fry get to about 1/4" in size I move the parents back to a community tank or another spare tank and remove the partition in the fry tank.

In the early stages when the partition is in place I siphon off the bottom of the fry half and top water back up in the other half. This mixes the new water in with the fry water slowly and seems to work well with little or no fry mortality. It might seem like overkill but I have occassionally experienced heavy losses in the past when maintaining my fry tanks.

Good luck with your future spawnings.

Trevor