Can an aged and seasoned tank have enough food to raise fry?

[newFish]

I have a 7 gallon planted neocaridina shrimp tank (and 1 snail).  It's 10 months old, and has lots of little creatures that came with the live plants.  Things like these pill shaped bugs that I think are commonly called seed shrimp, and little worm/slug things that I think are called well worms.  Here's what they look like.  These other creatures have been thriving in my tank because I feed the shrimps and snail a mix of boiled veggies and fish flakes and leafs.

I recently tried adding a few zebra danios and decided they were not a good fit for such a small tank, and ended up giving them back to the LFS.  In the two weeks the danios were in my aquarium, they managed to have some babies.  It would be a really cool experience to raise the fry up in the aquarium and give them back to the LFS when they're big enough.

I was wondering if the various life stages of the worms and copepod creatures currently thriving in my aquarium is enough to raise three zebra danio fry until the danios are big enough to eat flake food? 

Do I need to do any special feeding for the fry to grow big enough for regular flake food?  Or can my little ecosystem sustain them?  The fry are currently still in the stage of growth where they are attaching to the glass.  Not free swimming yet, and I can just make out the eyes.

I also have baby brine shrimp that I can hatch.  But brine shrimp would die pretty quickly in freshwater, so it's not a very sustainable food.

 

Microscope view of the pill shaped bugs:

Here's what the fish fry look like:

[Guppysnail]

Yes possibly but the mortality rate does go up a bit and growth rate slows a bit. I’ve had CPD fry survive I did not know I had for a few weeks. If you crush the flakes into powder with mortar and pestle/grinder or your fingers it will help them receive great nutrition and thrive. Congratulations on the fry. I love raising baby fish. It’s so fun and enjoyable 

[Atitagain]

On 11/2/2021 at 9:18 AM, Guppysnail said:

Yes possibly but the mortality rate does go up a bit and growth rate slows a bit. I’ve had CPD fry survive I did not know I had for a few weeks. If you crush the flakes into powder with mortar and pestle/grinder or your fingers it will help them receive great nutrition and thrive. Congratulations on the fry. I love raising baby fish. It’s so fun and enjoyable 

I agree with this %100. I’ve had two batches of blue leopard danios fry (6 each). Survive with no special treatment. And both batches were in similar environments as yours shrimp and snails. Although the parents stayed with one group 2nd group I found when removing the parents and left the fry with the shrimp and snails. They are 3/4-1” now, I would add a pic but I’m not even gonna try to get a diano to stay still so I can take his picture.

[Odd Duck]

Start adding powdered food.  You’ll be using such a tiny quantity there is minimal risk of polluting the tank since you already have shrimp in there.  They will clean up any leftovers as long as you don’t go completely crazy.

[Opal Rae]

Not sure if this is helpful. I currently have unexpected CPD fry in my species only heavily planted 10 gallon tank. I spotted them about 3 weeks ago when they began free swimming. They do not seem to eat any of the food I add. I feed the adults live baby brine shrimp, white worms, and crushed pellets and flakes. After doing some research, I found that infusoria is a common fry food. 

Sounds harsh, but I opted to just let nature take its course as breeding fish is not on my newbie radar. I can only assume that the tank is able to provide them with their required nutrition at this point and removing them to a temporary fry tank may take away their food source. I also cannot trust that my adults won't try to eat them as they are total hunters and revel in live food. 

 

 

 

[lefty o]

a seasoned tank can support fry, but the best thing with a mature tank and fry is the tank, and its biofilm can really help to supplement the feeding of fry. with a good biofilm you dont have to worry about feeding 4,5, or more times a day. fry will likely survive on just the biofilm, but they probably wont thrive.