Danio fry in a 5 gallon?

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PumpkinPie

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Dec 27, 2008
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So, I just switched my four danios over into my 28 gallon tank and I now have a bunch (no idea how many) danio fry in my 5 gallon tank. I am wondering if they will create enough waste to keep my cycle going? I also am wondering how much to feed them? I am going to go tomorrow to buy some liquid fry food for them, and give them super crushed flakes for now. They are so tiny, but are swimming around pretty well, so I am assuming they have been eating something up until now.

My original plan was to move all of my filter media and all of my gravel over into my 28 in order to sort of instantly cycle it and just have the four danios that I had in the 5 in there. Well, now that I have found the babies, I really don't want to kill them, so I am going to try to raise them in the 5 and do a very carefully watched fishy cycle in the 28. I did move the filter media from the 5 into the 28, so there is some bacteria in there, but I want to keep the cycle going in the 5 as well.

Any advice?
 
So, I just got a good look at some of the fry in the tank now that the adults are out of there. It looks like there is easily 20 or so surviving babies in there, and some of them are definitely glo-fish! I am stunned! My two long fin blue danios were definitely acting like they were spawning the day after they came home from the lfs, but I got a really good look at one fry that is very clearly brilliant red already down the center of its body. I had wanted to get a few more for the 28, but was not looking forward to paying $10 a piece. Looks like I won't have to afterall! WaaHoo!!!

Now those little buggers better survive! I will be testing their water daily, and maybe doing daily water changes just for extra insurance.
 
I once found an unknown fry in a 20, siphoned it out with a straw (too small for a net) and placed it into a 2 gallon glass tank with a load of live plants. It eventually grew large enough to see that it was a zebra danio. I had a similar experience with a couple of rainbow fish eggs that came along on some plants. As long as there are plenty of live plants in the tank the tiny fry will eat micro-critters that live on/among the plants until they're large enough for crushed flakes, etc.
 
Verynice!The slime on the fish will add bacteria even if they are small.Also they have powdered fry food,either way use a toothpick so you can put a little in at a time.
 
What is the intake like on the fry tank? .Normally you would use a sponge filter in a fry tank or fry net.Need to protect them from being sucked up.Can use floss or aquarium sponge over the intake..
 
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The intake is a little grill over the bottom of a filter than hangs inside the tank. It is the filter that came with the tank, and the water pretty much just goes up into the filter and spits back out at the top. There is a carbon cartridge inside the filter that the water sort of flows through. Should I still cover the bottom of the filter, or will the fry be ok going up through it?

For food, I picked up some powdered food today, and just dumped a bit in and stirred the water to get it all over the tank. I checked the parameters today, and everything looks good. I think I will do a water change tomorrow just in case, but not tonight.

Some of the fry are free swimming tonight though! They are looking great!
 
I use Hikari "First Bites". I get some on the tip of my finger and then rub finger and thumb together just below the water surface so it will readily sink. I have found this to work very well. Until I started doing it this way I lost a lot of fry. Now I lose very few.
 
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