Is there such thing as a tank that's too big for fry?

[B1gJ4k3]

I've recently set up a rack for tanks in the garage after deciding to really give some breeding a try (more on that one day...maybe...). After some trial and error, I finally got my first spawn of black rams. It was the first time the parents were able to raise them without eating them, so it's fairly small (about 20 or so). They're currently isolated in the rams' tank in the a breeder box.

At some point, I plan to move them to a growout 40 breeder on the rack, but I'm wondering when is a good time to do that? The 20 rams who are a month old would be the only fish in that tank and I would continue to add as more are (hopefully) produced.

But I'm wondering, is there a concern about the tank being two big for such small fry? I have a empty 20 high I could put them in, but the little buggers were hard enough to catch once, I kinda don't want to have to move them more than once. Would I run into problems with them not being able to find food? Any other things I should be thinking about?

[Ken Burke]

I think the concern is can the little guys find the food.  If they can find and eat all the food, larger is better in my humble opinion. 
 

I would stage them through the 20 tall.  Still plenty of water but less area for them to hunt down dinner.

 

 

[lefty o]

pretty much agree with the above. if they can get food, no worries, especially being the only ones in the tank.

[Minanora]

I agree with having a big grow out tank. You can keep small fry in a breeder box or net until they are bigger. For that number though, the 20 will be big enough.

I breed guppies. I keep the fry in the breeder nets for several weeks so they spend more energy on growing and they can get food easily. Then I set them loose in their 20 high grow out. I have it divided but the small fry go wherever. Still makes feeding easier though, since the bigger fry are split up by gender.

[Struggle]

You could start out with the water level low and/or put a divider in to create less space so the fry have ample opportunity to eat all of the food as well.

[B1gJ4k3]

On 2/8/2022 at 9:18 AM, Struggle said:

You could start out with the water level low and/or put a divider in to create less space so the fry have ample opportunity to eat all of the food as well.

You just blew my mind....

[gardenman]

I saw a video of a discus breeder that kept his fry in 150 gallon tanks, but had them partitioned off into a very small part of the tank. He liked the large water volume, but to get optimal growth, he had to keep them in a small section of the tank where they could be fed more intensively. As the fry grew, he'd move the partitions, giving them slightly more room. He kept them pretty crowded though. It was funny to see these huge tanks with all of the fish crowded together into one small corner of it. He swore that this gave him the best growth of the fry. It makes some sense.

[Struggle]

On 2/8/2022 at 11:29 AM, B1gJ4k3 said:

You just blew my mind....

Sorry if you were offended by my comment, best of luck to you.

[B1gJ4k3]

@StruggleOh, no. I wasn't offended at all. I meant that was a brilliant idea and one that I hadn't even considered! I've spent the last few days trying to figure out how to make a divider that's small enough for fry not to get through...

[Struggle]

On 2/9/2022 at 9:22 PM, B1gJ4k3 said:

@StruggleOh, no. I wasn't offended at all. I meant that was a brilliant idea and one that I hadn't even considered! I've spent the last few days trying to figure out how to make a divider that's small enough for fry not to get through...

You could use a HMF cut to the size of your tank, just make sure there’s water movement on both sides so the water doesn’t get stagnate. The side with the fry I’d cut down a sponge filter to fit whatever water level you want.