frozen bbs ??s

[johnsmith]

My first yellow lab has finally released her fry so now I'm going to start feeding frozen bbs. Is it best to thaw out a small piece in some aquarium water then use an eye dropper to get it as close to the fry as possible? My problem is that the four fry are under three different rocks so I'll basically be sending the bbs everywhere. Since that's the case should I just dump it in and let it get around to the fry naturally? Also, how much should I put in? Obviously four fry don't each much, but it spreads out so much I would think a lot would end up being sucked up by the filter.

Any advice on feeding frozen bbs would be appreciated. Thanks.

[African_Fever]

How large is your tank? I personally just drop a tiny frozen piece in (when I use it), and let it dissolve and spread around on its own. Smaller tanks work better for this b/c you need to add less food. Small numbers of fry are often more difficult to raise b/c you need to add more food to make sure that it gets right in front of the fish (and then you need to clean more b/c there's more uneaten food). I don't think I ever raised any mouthbrooder fry on BBS; I used to use powdered flake (until I found out what a huge difference cyclop-eeze and NLS makes in their colour!). I also use bare tanks for fry for the first few weeks, b/c it lets me keep an eye on them easier and they all hide in the same spot (I use Tetra Brilli sponge filters and they all hide in them - also pick food out of the sponge) - plus cleaning a bare tank is much easier as well.

Good luck with them!

[johnsmith]

The tank is a bare bottom 10g with an AC 200 (sponge covering the intake). Right now I have two caves in there b/c I had two holding females and I wanted them both to have their own space. Unfortunately I can't catch the other female so I'm going to take out one cave.

I was hoping to get cyclop-eeze but Golds doesn't carry it any more and I won't be raising enough fry to justify ordering it. Likewise, I plan on crushing up my NLS for them rather than getting the growth formula b/c these might be the only fry I try to raise.

I'll just have to be sure to do a lot of water changes I guess.

Hopefully these guys will do okay. I'm surprised at how yellow they are actually. I assumed they would be basically transparent but instead they're an opaque yellow.

[rahim101]

I'd take out all the caves and what not and keep it "bare"..I find it easier to raise fry that way and I also find that when fry mature, they are more outgoing and tend to hide less!!!!!

[johnsmith]

I assumed they needed a cave to give them a sense of security so they weren't stressed out. Are they too young to get stressed out over things like that?

[rahim101]

I've never had anything in any of my fry tanks!!

[RD.]

Bare tank, NLS Growth supplemented with freeze dried cyclops-eeze, and plenty of water changes. Great growth, and amazing color. The crushed Cichlid formula will work, I've raised fry on it in the past (in my main tank), the fry just take longer to develop. BBS are a hassle, and messy.

[FishBrain]

I agree with RD. I have been using NLS for my fry (just got 14 yellow 3 weeks ago) and they have fantastic colour and i feel they are growing very fast. 1 cave in my tank and a bubbler, oh and weekly water changes

Edited May 14, 2005 by Canadbis

[johnsmith]

It turns out I got 5 fry from the first female, then I took her out and put in the second holding female. After a couple of days she released 3 fry so I was up to 8. I thought I'd leave her in there for a couple of days to relax since the first female was with her fry for almost a week. A few days later and I'm now down to 4 fry. I took her out and opened her mouth and one dead, half gone fry came out. Needless to say, she's back with the group and I'm left with less fry than before. It obviously wasn't worth the effort to catch her.

So, although frozen bbs and crushed nls isn't the best diet, I'm not going to buy any extra food for the time being.