Vallisneria Posted December 2, 2005 Report Share Posted December 2, 2005 Ok, a couple days ago i moved my holding female Ps. acei into a 10g. I'm unsure of how long she was holding for but its been more then 1 week. So today i noticed she spit out a bunch of her fry but still had a mouthful. The fry she spat looked fine, no more yolk sacs, all huddling in the corner. I only found 1 dead. So i decided to strip the rest of the fry and take out the female before she decided she might want to eat her babies. Stripping was easy, took about 1 minute and i didn't even have her out of the water. Man, did she have tons of fry. They just kept coming out but i got them all. I put the mom back in the main tank and took a look at the babies. I've never stripped fry this small before. Usually i let them spit naturally. These babies are really small( I believe their egg sacs are all gone, their tummies aren't big or yellowy). They fry are also swimming weird. Some are laying on their sides and kind of flopping around(not upright like the others). They are breathing though, just not looking so good. Is there anything i can do to help them? Right now they are in a 10g barebottom with AC mini and temp 80*. Is it normal that this many are weird? why do you think some are sideways and sickly looking and the rest are good? I"d say maybe 1/3 to 1/2 are sideways, flopping around and just laying there. Are they just stressed from being stripped? Or is this normal behaviour of really young fry? MAybe they jsut can't swim right. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dunl Posted December 2, 2005 Report Share Posted December 2, 2005 Val, they flop on their sides usually only when they have sac left. It might be a genetic thing from oo much inbreeding in the past if you don't know their history. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vallisneria Posted December 2, 2005 Author Report Share Posted December 2, 2005 Thanks for answering Well i dont' see any yolk sacs, atleast nothing that resembles what i've seen in pics. The fry are looking a bit better. I could only see a couple that were still sideways or flopping around. The rest are looking much more normal, upright and "swimming". Maybe they just needed a few hours to get used to not being inside their mom Hopefully, they continue to return to normal. But man, I cant get over how many there are. The female was only about 2"! MY rusties and yellow labs only gave around 15fry, not 50! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dunl Posted December 2, 2005 Report Share Posted December 2, 2005 Yeah, aceis can be pretty prolific. Great food breeding machines. I would think it was egg sac issues, or getting used to swimming. Any I have seen with side-laying due to egg sac lose it pretty quickly. Good luck with them, Dunl Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vallisneria Posted December 2, 2005 Author Report Share Posted December 2, 2005 I would think it was egg sac issues, or getting used to swimming. Any I have seen with side-laying due to egg sac lose it pretty quickly. Loose it within 3 hours? I stripped her at 7pm tonight and its now 10pm. I still dont' think it was egg sacs. Their stomachs are/were flat, nothing like what i've seen in pics of fry stripped early. But who knows :boxed: Hopefully they will be better tomorrow. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nevchewy Posted December 2, 2005 Report Share Posted December 2, 2005 congrats on the new babies! I tried stripping too this past time with my afra and i was suprised how easy it was too. 50 fry!! :w00t: looks like you'll need that 180 gallon tank from j-roc for grow out! congrats again! nev Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dunl Posted December 2, 2005 Report Share Posted December 2, 2005 Well, no, 3 hours is a little soon. Probably just getting used to swimming. I think mine would lay on their side due to it being more comfortable than laying on the egg sac. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
African_Fever Posted December 2, 2005 Report Share Posted December 2, 2005 Like dunl said, it could just be them getting used to swimming. But it may also be like in nev's instance where the fry never had room to develop properly b/c there were so many crammed in a small mouth. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vallisneria Posted December 2, 2005 Author Report Share Posted December 2, 2005 Well i found some dead this morning Maybe it was from being crammed inside the female. She was pretty small and there were a lot of babies. Because as soon as they left her mouth they kind of just floated down to the bottom of the tank(looked like they were dead) Right from the start they were acting different then the normal ones. Oh well, hopefully they all won't die Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
syno321 Posted December 3, 2005 Report Share Posted December 3, 2005 Are they eating yet? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vallisneria Posted December 3, 2005 Author Report Share Posted December 3, 2005 no more have died today, one looks a bit weak but is still hanging in. Yes they are eating. I fed them some cyclops today and as soon as i did they perked right up and they appeared to be eating it. So now i have about half as many as i started out with yesterday Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ace99 Posted December 3, 2005 Report Share Posted December 3, 2005 Likely, the original eggs were smaller. I usually strip the eggs early and hatch them in an egg tumbler. I find that sometimes, there are many eggs but smaller. Sometimes, there are fewer eggs but larger. The fry are correspondingly larger or smaller. The smaller fry are always more fragile. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vallisneria Posted December 3, 2005 Author Report Share Posted December 3, 2005 Interesting, i didn't know that egg size could vary. I always thought they were all the same. Well no more fry have died. The rest seems normal and are quite active today. So i think whatever happened only affected those perticular fry. I guess its survival of the fittest. Seems all the small ones died and now all thats left are the bigger ones. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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