how to feed fry in a community tank

[venzi]

I have yet to begin breeding fish, but was curious about how to approach feeding fry if they are just part of the community tank (no breeder box or dedicated tank for the fry).  Currently, I'm feeding micro pellets (0.5mm), but would I need to crush the pellets so they dissolve into the water?  Or get some flakes and crush that up?

[Kurt Brutting]

I like Aquarium Co Op Easy Fry. It’s the perfect size. 

[Fish Folk]

Answer depends upon (1) the species of fish you're breeding, (2) your desired outcomes, and (3) if / how densely planted your aquarium is.

Some species will raise their own fry in a healthy, mature aquarium. Certain Cichlid egg layers are great parents. Kribensis (West Africa), Convict Cichlid (Central / South America) both come to mind here. You can feed them life baby brine shrimp within a few days of them being free-swimming. Many livebearers -- e.g. Guppies, Platys, Mollys, Swordtails -- will allow fry to live with them. The fry are live-born, and will take finely crush flake for, fry food, or fry powder almost immediately in small quantities. Now, once you get into breeding Bettas... Killifish... Tetras... you'll find that the parents will eat fry. the only way to generally keep fry alive is to massively, densely plant that aquarium. Give those fry LOADS of hiding spots.

Now, if you are breeding for rewards (e.g. BAP) or for profit, you'll want to do everything possible to keep your fish alive. Mixed Community tanks are very hard places for fry to thrive in. I tend to pull my egg scatterers containers, egg layers rocks, or spawning mops in order to preserve as many as possible. Of course . . . sometimes I just let things go . . . and get surprised by fry. Almost invariably this works only in a very well-planted tank.

For fry to thrive, an area of the tank dedicated to low-laying Java Moss is very helpful. I also like areas with Guppy Grass for mid-high level fry to hide. Some people find success with Coontail (Hornwort). Fast growing hardy Hygrophilia are favorites of mine for producing leaf cover quickly too. 

[Kurt Brutting]

[Theplatymaster]

id feed live baby shrimp if you could. It drifts all over the tank, so fry and adults can get some.

[Guppysnail]

Crush flakes fine or use fry food. I release fry food below the water surface so it does not float on top where adults gobble it up. It spreads throughout the tank in all the nooks and crannies for the fry hiding in community tanks. 

[JettsPapa]

The only fry I feed are guppy fry.  All the guppy tanks have a healthy amount of floating plants, so I feed the adults and juveniles in one corner of the tank and put the fry food toward the center.  It floats into all the nooks and crannies in and between the floating plants where the fry can find it and eat it in relative safety.

[venzi]

Oh i c.  So the fry tend to stay hidden.  So I need to ensure the foods reaches them.  The fry will likely not move out of the safety of their cover to grab food.

[JettsPapa]

On 11/29/2022 at 12:51 PM, venzi said:

Oh i c.  So the fry tend to stay hidden.  So I need to ensure the foods reaches them.  The fry will likely not move out of the safety of their cover to grab food.

It depends on the species, and sometimes the strain within the species.  My dumbo mosaic guppies don't seem to bother fry at all, and it's not unusual to see fry feeding right beside adults.

On the other hand, albino koi guppies are relentless fry hunters.  I had three females and one male in the 5.5 gallon tank on my desk at work for quite a while.  The females would periodically be pregnant, and then not so much, but the whole time I kept them I only saw one fry, and I only saw it once.  The guy who owns the LFS where I got them told me they'd do that, but I did expect a few to survive.  I was wrong.