I'm looking for any suggestions on taking care of fry.
my electric blue fryeri just released her fry, 28 if I counted right. I have them in a floating nursery tank inside the 75 gallon tank and the mother is back in the main tank. they ate some crushed flake food. I'm looking for any suggestions on taking care of them. plan is to raise them for a bit then sell most if not all of them once they are larger. I have 2 that are about 5 months old in the tank currently and doing well. their mother died and those 2 were the only survivors or her fry as she held them way too long and I have to strip them from her. found those 2 in the canister filter when cleaning it which was a nice surprise. kept them in a mesh breeder on top of tank for a few weeks til they got out, feeding them flake food and small sinking pellets. they were about 2 months old when swimming around in the tank and no one bothered them. I'm wondering how long I should keep the new ones separate because of that. I've got a bricardi, demasoni, afra, exasperatus and the livingstoni eyeballing them currently but the fry are quite small now (quite a bit smaller than the previous 2 when we found those) and they may just be curious. my rainbow sharks have shown interest in them also and have been close to the 2 older fry since we found them. the sharks would stay near them as if hovering over protecting them both when they were in the mesh breeder and once they got out and are often sharing caves and such with them still. yesterday the larger shark chased off one of the cichlids that was chasing the mother cichlid before she released the fry. interesting behavior on those. they seem particularly fond of that kind of cichlid and no problems getting along with the rest. the big male fryeri shares his territory with them and only a few other fish (the female fryeri, the 2 young fryeri, 1 particular yellow lab and the 2 johani). when the other 2 got out in the tank, my other fish showed some curiosity toward them but zero hostility. they have even been immune to the usual chasing in the tank until just recently now that they are older.
ended up with way too many fish we liked when setting up the tank. now I need to downsize the number due to overcrowding but haven't decided on which ones yet. only a handful are nearing full size and most are about half size or less so its not bad right now (a bit overcrowded but not too much yet due to them not being full size fish yet) but I know once they are full size it would make it too many for sure. I already removed 10 that I took of this list (just fyi for anyone reading this that saw a previous post I had) and had another one died leaving 47 fish in tank right now not including the new fry. I'm thinking taking out another 10 at least would be good but too many favorites to choose from so I'm watching all their behaviors to see which ones could be a problem so I can go from there. after removing the last 10, I have fish now that want territory that had no interest in it before which has led to some competition where their wasn't before and I don't have enough caves and such for all the ones that suddenly want them now.
current tank mates are:
all males unless specified otherwise.
electric blue fryeri x 4. (1 adult male that is the tank boss. 1 adult female. 2 fry about 5 months old now which I think are 1 male and 1 female.
yellow lab x 4 (3 male and 1 female)
acei x 4 (pretty sure 3 male and 1 female
electric blue johani x 2
kenyi x 2 (1 male and 1 female)
socolofi x 1
rainbow shark x 2 (not sure how to tell male or female on these)
bumblebee x 2 (1 definite big male and I think the other is female but not sure)
demasoni x5 (4 that I'm pretty sure are male and 1 definite female as it was carrying eggs at one point)
ob peacock x 1
sunshine peacock x 1
blue peacock with red behind the head x 1
green peacock with a blue head x 1
yellow head with silver/white body (sometimes the body is blue) and black line running horizontal down the middle peacock x 1
rusty x 1
exasperatus x 3 (hard to find info on these but I'm pretty sure 2 male and 1 female due the blue coloring on 2 of them)
synodontus lace catfish x 2 (1 is twice the size of the other and got them at the same time so I'm assuming that one is male. its also a very dominant fish. doesn't try to hurt anyone but will shove anyone out of its spot and out of his way when feeding and has the size to do so. my big electric blue hap and it always want the same territory. the hap was usually shoving him around or biting him to get him out of the cave they both want. now they have seperate spots next to each other and the hap had built a wall of rocks about 3 inches high between their territories. they have since starting getting along better and even sharing some space. the only fish the catfish freely allows in his territory are the 2 bricardi)
synodontus multipunctatus catfish x 1
bricardi x 2
livingstoni x 1 (white and brown with red on the fins top and bottom) pretty sure its a male
red fin borleyii x 1 (too young to tell of male or female)
jacobfreibergi peacock x 1
afra x 1
deep water hap x 1
ice blue zebra x 1
my electric blue fryeri just released her fry, 28 if I counted right. I have them in a floating nursery tank inside the 75 gallon tank and the mother is back in the main tank. they ate some crushed flake food. I'm looking for any suggestions on taking care of them. plan is to raise them for a bit then sell most if not all of them once they are larger. I have 2 that are about 5 months old in the tank currently and doing well. their mother died and those 2 were the only survivors or her fry as she held them way too long and I have to strip them from her. found those 2 in the canister filter when cleaning it which was a nice surprise. kept them in a mesh breeder on top of tank for a few weeks til they got out, feeding them flake food and small sinking pellets. they were about 2 months old when swimming around in the tank and no one bothered them. I'm wondering how long I should keep the new ones separate because of that. I've got a bricardi, demasoni, afra, exasperatus and the livingstoni eyeballing them currently but the fry are quite small now (quite a bit smaller than the previous 2 when we found those) and they may just be curious. my rainbow sharks have shown interest in them also and have been close to the 2 older fry since we found them. the sharks would stay near them as if hovering over protecting them both when they were in the mesh breeder and once they got out and are often sharing caves and such with them still. yesterday the larger shark chased off one of the cichlids that was chasing the mother cichlid before she released the fry. interesting behavior on those. they seem particularly fond of that kind of cichlid and no problems getting along with the rest. the big male fryeri shares his territory with them and only a few other fish (the female fryeri, the 2 young fryeri, 1 particular yellow lab and the 2 johani). when the other 2 got out in the tank, my other fish showed some curiosity toward them but zero hostility. they have even been immune to the usual chasing in the tank until just recently now that they are older.
ended up with way too many fish we liked when setting up the tank. now I need to downsize the number due to overcrowding but haven't decided on which ones yet. only a handful are nearing full size and most are about half size or less so its not bad right now (a bit overcrowded but not too much yet due to them not being full size fish yet) but I know once they are full size it would make it too many for sure. I already removed 10 that I took of this list (just fyi for anyone reading this that saw a previous post I had) and had another one died leaving 47 fish in tank right now not including the new fry. I'm thinking taking out another 10 at least would be good but too many favorites to choose from so I'm watching all their behaviors to see which ones could be a problem so I can go from there. after removing the last 10, I have fish now that want territory that had no interest in it before which has led to some competition where their wasn't before and I don't have enough caves and such for all the ones that suddenly want them now.
current tank mates are:
all males unless specified otherwise.
electric blue fryeri x 4. (1 adult male that is the tank boss. 1 adult female. 2 fry about 5 months old now which I think are 1 male and 1 female.
yellow lab x 4 (3 male and 1 female)
acei x 4 (pretty sure 3 male and 1 female
electric blue johani x 2
kenyi x 2 (1 male and 1 female)
socolofi x 1
rainbow shark x 2 (not sure how to tell male or female on these)
bumblebee x 2 (1 definite big male and I think the other is female but not sure)
demasoni x5 (4 that I'm pretty sure are male and 1 definite female as it was carrying eggs at one point)
ob peacock x 1
sunshine peacock x 1
blue peacock with red behind the head x 1
green peacock with a blue head x 1
yellow head with silver/white body (sometimes the body is blue) and black line running horizontal down the middle peacock x 1
rusty x 1
exasperatus x 3 (hard to find info on these but I'm pretty sure 2 male and 1 female due the blue coloring on 2 of them)
synodontus lace catfish x 2 (1 is twice the size of the other and got them at the same time so I'm assuming that one is male. its also a very dominant fish. doesn't try to hurt anyone but will shove anyone out of its spot and out of his way when feeding and has the size to do so. my big electric blue hap and it always want the same territory. the hap was usually shoving him around or biting him to get him out of the cave they both want. now they have seperate spots next to each other and the hap had built a wall of rocks about 3 inches high between their territories. they have since starting getting along better and even sharing some space. the only fish the catfish freely allows in his territory are the 2 bricardi)
synodontus multipunctatus catfish x 1
bricardi x 2
livingstoni x 1 (white and brown with red on the fins top and bottom) pretty sure its a male
red fin borleyii x 1 (too young to tell of male or female)
jacobfreibergi peacock x 1
afra x 1
deep water hap x 1
ice blue zebra x 1