Need advice on raising GT fry.....

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astrocreep

astrocreep

Piranha
MFK Member
May 30, 2018
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Tulsa, OK
Finally found a male (white saum) to spawn with my female (gold saum) and it didnt take them long.

This will be my first go at raising fry, and I've heard not to expect much from first spawn. Looks to be a good patch of eggs, I would estimate a few hundred, with only a few that turned white. I believe those are the unfertilized eggs?

The pair are alone in a 120 gallon.

Just need any pointers that anyone may have as far as feeding and whether i should seperate from parents or not.

The eggs aren't to the wiggler stage yet as of last night, but i will check again after work and i can post pics.

There were two other juvenile terrors and a juvenile salvini in the tank but i removed them due to the females aggression. They were having to hide up by my heater and water mover. There are hides in the tank but the salvini runs them out of them.

Any advice would be appreciated
 
MrsE88 MrsE88

Pretty similar to most other cichlid fry, you can either tank raise fry or raise outdoors in the warmer months (my preferred method), number one priority: make sure they are fed!
 
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Letting the parents raise them is the easiest. Right now I have about 9 being raised in a tank with some older koi/goldie fry. And a bunch more in with the adults. The ones with the parents are doing just as well as the ones separated. So it really is up to you. Some parents may take a while to get the hang of raising their young, but they’ll get there.

Just keep up on water changes. No need to feed fry in with parents. When small they eat the pulverized bits that come out of their parents gills. Then they will move on to pellets when big enough.

If you raise them separately you can buy fry food, raise it, or crush up pellets. Or a mix of those. I just crush up pellets to feed fry.
 
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Oh, I forgot to add... show some pictures! I’d love to see your male.
I’m still kicking myself for not scooping up on a male silver saum when I had the chance.
 
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This is the female, and second pic is them getting to know each other.

I almost lost her about a week ago....forgot to put the lid back on and she jumped out at some point. I found her in the floor and had to put her back in and open her mouth and force water through her gills. I felt so dumb and wouldve really been bummed had i lost her, she's really a pretty female. No telling how long she was out, but perfectly normal after a day or so, and then laid eggs two days ago. Learn from my mistake.

20180731_222046.jpg 20180801_210027.jpg
 
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I’m a proponent of pulling the fry once they start free swimming, but if it’s just the Terrors they should be ok if left in the main tank. Also you might want to get some sort of brine shrimp hatchery going. Worked wonders on the batch I’m growing out now as they fed aggressively right from the start.
 
you should have filter sponges on your intakes if not already, ones they become free swimmers they will get sucked up. I personally use an old electric coffee grinder and and ground up the pellets to feed the fry. as a FYI this will clog up the sponge pre filter some but the fry will eat right off the sponge as they get older.
 
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They are a good looking pair. His seam has thickened up some from when you got him.
 
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