[Easiest fry to raise??]

On 9/25/2021 at 5:37 PM, William Lynch said:

But I am curious to know what fish is actually the easiest to raise from conception to its adult stage. It is my understanding that a lot of species will eat their eggs or young fry before they have a great chance at survival. Also do some fry have very specific care requirements as they are being raised? 

Personal experience: guppies, platies, endlers.

Easiest from conception to adult is probably the hardier livebearers. That includes the question about specific care requirements. They all just need typical parameters: temp in the 70's, pH 7+, GH that's maybe 12+ (easily achieved with some Equilibrium)... nothing odd or laborious. They're even pretty tolerant of a slight ammonia oops. I have found guppies to be much more prone to infection than endlers and platies.

Many livebearers do eat their young. From personal experience, guppies and platies pig them down, but endlers don't even think about it. 

Meeting all the asks you've mentioned: Endlers. (Not cross-bred with guppies.) Personal experience: Though most endlers feature a lot of orange, there's also a variety called El Silverado, which is so shiny they look like little lightbulbs.

If you can protect platy fry, they're the second-best option of those 3 species. Personal experience: If you buy a color you like, they may develop a lot of black later. So check into that, if you care about it.

Full disclosure: I did also have 1 female molly, who got pregnant before I bought her. Though my experience is only the one mom, I don't think she ever ate fry. She also turned entirely black, though bought mature and mostly white.

Anyway, my vote is endlers of some color. If you go for it, aim for "N class" or "P class." "K class" is cross-bred with guppies, so just for this conversation, K don't really qualify as endlers.

ETA: Livebearer fry also don't need special fry food. (Yay!) I've always ground adults' shelf-stable food (high in protein and fat) into a fine powder with a simple pill crusher. So easy.

[Hello! Greetings from Wisconsin.]

Welcome!

I love the look of the 10 gallon. I can't figure out what, but something about it is so peaceful. Maybe it's that gentle slope on the right half. 

[Tank for 7 year old's birthday - take 2]

I'm having great success with endlers, but they don't eat their fry, so that could become a minor problem. 

I recently got dwarf red platies. They make fry as fast as guppies, but are hardier, brighter colored, and eat the fry. Might be worth a few minutes to research bright colors of platies. 

[Signs of MTS and the affect it has on our loved ones.]

In case someone clueless reads this thread: If MTS contributes to you not paying your utility bills on time, or not buying whatever prescriptions you need, that ain't funny. Never will be. Cut it out.

Back to the thread... My arms have more duckweed than freckles!

ETA: If a tank gets some kind of weakness on the top half, I'll use it half full as a "pond." 

[Duckweed]

On 9/22/2021 at 12:25 PM, ARMYVET said:

YOU OWE ME A KEYBOARD!!!  I just spit my coffee all over it when I read that!!!🤣

I wrote that 7 weeks ago! 

I'll consider buying you a keyboard in another 7 weeks. 😛 

 

[Platy Fry]

On 9/21/2021 at 5:56 PM, PineSong said:

I felt bad removing the newly turned male to the boys' tank and leaving just the smallest in the tank all alone 😞. 

At the rate they're going, that one won't be alone long. 😜

[Seed Shrimp with Actual Shrimp?]

I think I heard that seed shrimp will compete with neocaridina in a species-only tank, making it harder for shrimplets to survive. I can't seem to find info now. Anyone know?

 

[Timing in-between Fry Feedings]

I do 3 times per day for livebearer fry. It's easier with a bare bottom tank, just so you can see whether you're putting in too much. 

I'm pretty sure that in a video of @Zenzo's that I watched the other day, he said he does 3 times per day for his youngest fry. Can't swear to it.

Similar question: Anybody know how long livebearer fry can go between feedings and survive? At some point soon, I'll be moving cross-country with gravid females. 

[Fish Identification]

The black on the front one makes me think of a "black bar" endler. Maybe google for images of black bar endlers... but yeah, they've definitely got endler of some kind in them. 

[Shrimp Tank Questions]

On 9/18/2021 at 10:32 PM, Bunnywinkles said:

Do you guys use backgrounds? I really just want a black background, but not sure what to use. AC and Flip didn't sell anything that I saw.

If it's to help you see the shrimp, rather than to impress the neighborhood, you could tape paper to the back of the tank. The trick is to get it flush against the tank wall, and use many tiny pieces of clear tape on the edges so the tape doesn't show. Looking from the front, it looks like a legit background.

[Not a live fish but...]

I love it! It does look like an eel, and seems like a perfect level of creepy for an 8 year old. 😂

[Do livebearers always have the whole drop at once?]

On 9/18/2021 at 7:34 PM, Tihshho said:

I'm pretty sure they would have to provide oxygen

I guess even bird eggs need access to air, now that I think about it. 

[Do livebearers always have the whole drop at once?]

On 9/18/2021 at 6:42 PM, Tihshho said:

 lack of oxygen

I thought that by carrying their eggs, livebearers were just providing shelter. They provide more than that?

[Betta fish died what to do with his tank]

On 9/18/2021 at 5:58 PM, Lauren A said:

I'm sure you can all relate but it really is painful when you try so hard to do everything the perfect way and a mistake happens that ruins everything.  It feels like failure.  

I could put the snails in too of course but it has no algae in it yet and my nerites won’t eat anything else.  

Thank you again for all of your support and kindness.  

Unfortunately, yeah, a lot of us have been there. I wish we could be superhuman in our abilities, but we're all kinda stuck in this Humanity Boat together, so we might as well be empathetic. You're not alone.

For what it's worth, my ramshorns started dying off as soon as they ate all the live algae in the tank. I started giving them pieces of Chlorella tablets (the kind intended for human consumption). It worked! If you try that, read the ingredients carefully to make sure the ones you buy include nothing besides the algae. 

[Do livebearers always have the whole drop at once?]

On 9/18/2021 at 4:49 PM, Tihshho said:

If a female had passed in shipment and was gravid he'd extract the babies/eggs and artificially raise them in a DIY tumbler.

That makes me wonder how long the eggs can stay alive after the female dies. The topic is kinda disturbing, but from a medical angle, intriguing. 

[Betta fish died what to do with his tank]

I think the idea of just keeping it running with plants is good. Maybe you could even cycle it and keep it cycled with your snails - if you want.

I'm guessing that time will give clarity about what to do next. It's okay to focus on feelings right now, instead of actions. ❤️ 

[Astronomically dumb question...]

Just a maybe, but I assume it would take a long time before the new swords start sending out babies. So I guess you could replace the mother plant with the babies. 

[20 Gallon Dirted / No Filter Tank]

I love how natural it's looking. Like a little piece of river.

[What are your everyday joys in aquarium keeping?]

What a delightful thread!

I love my angelfish's attitude. Particularly when I get my face close to the tank, and he lunges at it like he's trying to be the Alpha. I burst into laughter every time! Like c'mon, man. You don't even have teef. Gimme a break.

And fry! Those disproportionately huge eyeballs on a tiny fish are ridiculously cute, besides the fact that fish "appearing out of nowhere" is practically magical. They thrill me every time. I netted 35 new fry into a baby net yesterday, but when I found 1 more today, I still gasped with excitement. 😂

[Neat Guppy Mix Videos]

On 9/17/2021 at 9:16 PM, Patrick_G said:

I’m partial to the short lyre tail look. I guess they’re K class right? 

I can't quite tell if you're asking, but yeah. The Japan blue endlers are K class, meaning an endler/guppy hybrid. 

Straight from Venezuela, with papers to prove it, are N class. (I remember it as Ve-N-ezuela.) I think their direct offspring are also N.

P is for Probably N. I think that also includes when different N classes breed with each other. 

Quote me on none of that.

[Do livebearers always have the whole drop at once?]

On 9/17/2021 at 6:57 PM, Guppysnail said:

dropped 4 fry and three days later dropped the rest all at once. 

That 3 day gap is particularly interesting.

It also occurred to me that perhaps some of the half-grown females are having drops of just a couple babies. That could be what I'm seeing... though I don't think so.

[Do livebearers always have the whole drop at once?]

I recently got platies. Two have given birth so far.

Guppies and endlers seem to have their whole drop in as long as 12 hours, start to finish.

But I'm pretty sure my platies will have a single one. Then a day or so later, give birth to the majority. Then another day or two later,  push out a straggler. 

I've heard that least killifish will have babies in slo-mo, but platies?

[What did you get done today?]

On 9/17/2021 at 6:55 AM, Picklepuppy said:

We had a cold snap a couple weeks ago and i lost about half of my tub fish.

Sorry about your guppies, Picklepuppy. Bummer! 

[Hi from the UK]

Welcome!

[75g outdoor endler tank]

I don't know about the goop.

Someone on here warned me, when one of my tanks turned green, to add an air stone. They said the algae uses the oxygen when it's dark, so the fish would need extra aeration. So maybe add some water movement.