Babies and babies.. and more!

[mistah]

Welp, in the past 2 months my green severums have laid a cr*p load of eggs =]

The past 2 incidents, the babies were lost to

1) dad doing a 80% water change in the baby tank, lost all the fish!

2) babies in a floating tank in the main tank (keeping the same water), same person knocks over the baby tank into the large tank and OUPS.. all eaten! haha. Oh well.. happens..doh!

Now, I've got the parents in the 40 gal with about 50-100 babies swimming amongst the parents.

1) will the parents eventually eat the babies?

And in the 80 gallon (2 floating tanks) have the other 300+ babies split.

What I'm noticing now is that about 15-20 babies die / day. What can I do to keep 'em alive?? I feed brine baby ship twice a day (maybe 3).. I remove the excess food that collects at the bottom, and well..

help! =]

[Darkangel]

Way to go mistah. That is a great succes spawning those big guys. You have not given enough info about your set up, but I think I can guess a few things. Your floating tanks are likely way to small for the number of fish you have in them. In an 80 I figure you might be floating a pair of tens but likely 5's. Far to small for that number of young healthy growing fry. I would be tempted to use the 80 to grow out that many fry. Will the parents eat the fry? I do not know for sure but again I doubt you will have to worry about that. It sounds like they too will start to die once the bioload in the tank gets too high.
Now at the risk of sounding crude, do you really want to raise that many fry? I am not sure where you are but where I am the market would not support that many fish. Perhaps you should feed off all but a dozen or two of the ones you wish to keep. If you have a market for all the fry, and no more tank space, perhaps you can buy some large rubbermaid type containers and use those to grow out the fry. Much cheaper then new tanks. I do not know if I helped you but I tried. Post more info if you want more input, Frank.

[mistah]

Hey Frank, thanks for the reply.. here's some more info's for ya.

In the 40 gallon includes the 2 parts, sand bottom, running on a fuval 404 filter (sponge on the intake.. works great).

There's roughly 200 babies swimming among the parents, without any problems for the moment. But the parents have begun to move sand (amazing to watch).. when they do this, it's a sign that they will lay eggs again.

What I hope to do is sell them to the local LFS's here, since its VERY rare to see severums in the shops!

As for the 80 gallon. I had split the babies ( as a test ) into the 40gal and 80 gal.

Since the 80 gallon is a community tank, I couldn't put the babies alone in there (eaten!) =]

So, there are 2x5 gal (I presume) floating baby hatcheries, 1 holding 2 larger babies (since the slits in one of the hatcheries are too large, and the smaller babies get stuck).

The other smaller hatchery has smaller slits, keeps the babies from getting stuck. In that one, is roughly.. 200 babies (but loosing about 10 a day).. I was thinkign about putting them all into the 40 gallon with the others, but worried that one day I'll wake up and find them all eaten (if they lay new eggs).

I do have a extra 10 gallon (empty) laying around and I'd be able to start it with some aquarium water from the other 2 tanks) I just hate that one because it uses an aquaclear mini filter. I'd rather connect the 10 gal to the 80 gallon with some kind of overflow / pump setup to filter the water from the 80 to the 10, and from the 10 back to the 80 =]

haha.

Hope this is a little more clear. They're really nice fish and MAN do they eat & grow. I had 1 small baby severum (about the size of a 2$ coin), and 2 months later, it's 6" long x 4" high.. but he's a PIG! He'll go up to the lobster and steal his food! lol.

thanks for the reply.
jess.

[Darkangel]

Well Mistah short of buying new tanks or getting rid of the fish in your community tank, I think you will need to buy more tanks. As you say they are pigs and what goes in must come out. While selling them may sound reasonable, have you wondered why you do not see them in stores very often? They are not real good or fast sellers. That is what fish shops want. In and out, next batch please. Perhaps you could do some phoning around and find out just how many you will be able to move at a price that makes it worth your while. Hardly worth it to raise 100 babies on 50 cents of food each to only get 75 cents each. Thats a lot of work for $25. And you likely spend way more then that on food for them using live baby brine. These are just my own thoughts on the matter. I however do believe that your loses are due to overcrowding and the resultant poor water quality.
It is possible to use your fluval to do the 10 gallon tank but you will either need to drill a hole in the tank or buy or rig a syphon overflow. You would also need splitters to take a small percentage of the output and put it through the ten. Then let it drain into the larger tank. The easier way to use the 10 would be to get a sponge filter and a small air pump. You can not beat sponge filters for filtration, especially for fry. I use sponge filters in all 50 of my tanks even if they have a power filter on them.
That about says it all I guess. I will try to help further if you need it. Frank

[mistah]

Yeh, I know what you mean. I'm close with my local LFS's and told them I had hundreds of babies.. they were all interested in getting some (if the price is right tho!) but I'm looking at about 2$ a piece for a batch of 50 fish, 50+ I'll do it at 1.50$ or so each.

But in reality, I don't think I'll end up with more than 50 that will survive by then.. =]

so it'll be interesting. I did have a breeding pair of angel fish, but the eggs never kept (turned white) and lately the mother passed away (most of her mouth had been ripped off from frighting with the father!).. father is quite lonely now =(

The joy's of fish keepign & breeding. =)

I did just take the time to empty 1 of the baby tanks to clean it out and I split up the batch into both baby tanks (in the 80 gal).. they look better now. I put about 50 or so into the 40gal with the others.. (why not) =]

I'll have to take a look into that 80 gal into 10 overflow thing. Would be something interesting to do. Yeh, I'd have to get the 10 gal drilled (bottom) or just simply modify a aquaclear 300 (laying around) cut a hole in the bottom and put a bulkhead fitting! =]

thanks again for the insight.. mind me asking what you do with 50 tanks!?? =]

[Darkangel]

Keep fish of course. It started with 1 tank, I liked it and bought more. More led to more and voila 50 tanks. Just a hobby. I like fish.

[mistah]

wow! 50 tanks! =] I thought I was bad with 5.. ahha! we're all in the same boat.. =]


I'd love to see a pic of all the tanks sometime! =]

[Darkangel]

Here are some pictures of some of my fish and my fish room. It is not pretty but it gets the work done. Frank.
http://photos.yahoo.com/bc/tippmann_dad/lst?&.dir=/My+Fish&.src=ph&.view=t

[mistah]

Wow! Nice setup!! Must take alot of time to maintain them all..! Thumbs up, got some beauties in there..!

[Darkangel]

Thanks for the kind words, mistah. If you ever come to Toront let me know and we can talk fish. Frank.