How to feed fry when on Vacation

[Judobadger]

I am new to fish breeding but have had some success and have multiple tanks with fry and or eggs.  With new fry I have been feeding BBS every few hours during the day.  I am thinking ahead to this summer when we will go camping and adult fish can easily weather the time without feeding I wonder how long young fry can be left (hours, days, etc) and how I can feed them as needed when I cant be there.  I didn't see a Dean video on this so I am hoping to lean on the communities experience here.

[Fish Folk]

On 3/8/2022 at 11:16 AM, Judobadger said:

I am new to fish breeding but have had some success and have multiple tanks with fry and or eggs.  With new fry I have been feeding BBS every few hours during the day.  I am thinking ahead to this summer when we will go camping and adult fish can easily weather the time without feeding I wonder how long young fry can be left (hours, days, etc) and how I can feed them as needed when I cant be there.  I didn't see a Dean video on this so I am hoping to lean on the communities experience here.

I’m in a similar situation. I hire a friend to feed once per day for two weeks. I set out food in measured daily containers to keep it easy. It works for adult fish, but for some tiny fry, you may well lose them unfortunately. Fry could do better in a safe, seasoned / mature planted tank with loads of micro-life to nibble at. But where feeding is essential, it’s a burden.

A thought has gone through my mind to unobtrusively take some fry and BBS hatchery along on vacation… (my wife is not in love with this idea…)

[xXInkedPhoenixX]

Awwe @Fish Folk, taking them on vacation with you. Cute. You'd think wifey would be used to the fish obsession by now lol. 

Edited March 8, 2022 by xXInkedPhoenixX

[Fish Folk]

On 3/8/2022 at 1:09 PM, xXInkedPhoenixX said:

Awwe @Fish Folk, taking them on vacation with you. Cute. You'd think wifey would be used to the fish obsession by now lol. 

I think as long as it stays in the basement, we’re at a truce. Squirreling away a fry tank or two amongst the luggage en route to the beach... 😬

[Judobadger]

My tanks are far from mature, but the hornwort is growing fast.  Most of the fish I am breeding are good parents and the fry stay in with them so at some point I will have a seasoned mature planted setup.  

In the meantime I am half thinking about using an auto-feeder and fry food.  It won't target the fry and I will have to play with it to limit the output, but that is my best idea so far. 

My worst idea is some sort of BBS hatchery with an auto-feeder to add eggs and a dosing pump to deliver the BBS.  Sometimes a propensity for DIY is a bad thing.

[WhitecloudDynasty]

Depending on what kind of fry and how old they are..if they are like guppies..give them large size pellets like 5mm and they will slowly work them down. Algae wafer are also good for my baby rosy barb.

 

[Judobadger]

On 3/8/2022 at 1:41 PM, WhitecloudDynasty said:

Depending on what kind of fry and how old they are..if they are like guppies..give them large size pellets like 5mm and they will slowly work them down. Algae wafer are also good for my baby rosy barb.

 

Right now I have electric blue acara, angelfish, and a few varieties of corydoras (melini, metae, and sterbai).  The EBA are prolific, the rest I am still trying to breed.

[B1gJ4k3]

At some point in my travels while buying used equipment, I acquired one of these things. It's basically an in-tank brine shrimp hatchery. As near as I can tell, you load it up like you would any brine shrimp hatchery and as the shrimp hatch, they slowly make their way out into the tank. I have two of the Ziss hatcheries, so I have have yet to use it and I'm highly skeptical as to its effectiveness, but it claims its for fresh and saltwater tanks and seems to be fairly well-reviewed. My number one concern would be the brine mixing with the existing tank water, but from some of the reviews, it doesn't sound like a huge problem, but you'd probably want to make sure your fish are at least somewhat salt-tolerant.

[Judobadger]

On 3/8/2022 at 3:52 PM, B1gJ4k3 said:

At some point in my travels while buying used equipment, I acquired one of these things. It's basically an in-tank brine shrimp hatchery. As near as I can tell, you load it up like you would any brine shrimp hatchery and as the shrimp hatch, they slowly make their way out into the tank. I have two of the Ziss hatcheries, so I have have yet to use it and I'm highly skeptical as to its effectiveness, but it claims its for fresh and saltwater tanks and seems to be fairly well-reviewed. My number one concern would be the brine mixing with the existing tank water, but from some of the reviews, it doesn't sound like a huge problem, but you'd probably want to make sure your fish are at least somewhat salt-tolerant.

That is interesting.  I was thinking about using my Ziss, but wasn't sure how to keep it full if I used a dosing pump.