Glofish tetra eggs and fry care

[Thorns]

I have a bit of a situation on my hands. I am pretty new to fish keeping and things are going well, maybe to well, my fish are dropping eggs and I'm not sure how to move forward. My glofish tetras (black skirt tetra) had a clutch of eggs a few weeks ago. I managed to save one single fry. I put the matting pair into hastily assembled 10g with bedding mops. They laid lots of eggs but because the tank was not mature (and premature feeding hicari first bites on my behalf) the tank got nasty quickly and I believe that killed most of the fry. I purchased a breeder box and moved the 6 fry I could collect into it and put it in my main tank. All but one died within a couple of days. There is one left and it is doing great. I feed first bites and use a turkey baster to vacuum the bottom of the box. 

2 days ago my female was swollen with eggs again and dropping random eggs. I placed her and the male into the redder box to save what I could. They laid a couple hundred eggs over night. I moved the fry to its own 2.5 (set up more properly). It is doing very good. 

So here is my issue, there is still leftover fry food in the breeder box with the eggs. I can't vacuum it out without sucking up eggs also. I fear this "fuzzy food" will kill the eggs and or new fry. I placed 8 small bladder snails inside to help clean, I'm not sure if this is a good idea. I have considered adding a ghost shrimp or neocaridina, but they aren't interested in the food and only hop around and try to get out of the box. 

How can I protect and preserve these eggs! Help please! 

[Cinnebuns]

There's a problem going forward. I'm pretty sure that its actually illegal to INTENTIONALLY breed glofish. If it happens accidentally there's no worries but intentionally is against the patent on them. It's definitely illegal to sell them so any fry you have you have to keep or give away for free. 

 

[Thorns]

Understood. But the problem still remains. 

[Andy's Fish Den]

For now, I would just let it ride and see if any of the eggs hatch, out of the large amount of eggs, you may get one or two fry that survive. If you intend to breed any egg scattering tetras again, whatever the species is, there are far better ways to do it, there are several videos on YouTube that have great details and instructions, and a lot of them will even go through what they would do to improve etc. After you see fry, I would pull the breeder box out and clean it good before using, if you want to use it to keep any of the fry in go ahead and use it like you have been, and use the turkey baster to suck out the uneaten food and waste. 

You are not the first person to accidentally spawn Glofish, nor will be the last, you just have to be careful in what you do with any fry, either giving them away or keeping them to expand your school of them.

[Thorns]

I think that is my only course of action at this point. I would still like to know more about how the decaying food could affect the eggs, and explore different tank mates that could possibly clean the eggs. Also how to care for a feed the new fry. I believe most of the first batch starved to death because I failed at culturing infusoria. Apparently my filter media doesn't have enough infusoria to isolate and cultivate. 

[Thorns]

Nice trick. I'll have to try that. Thanks 

[PineSong]

How long did you try a neocaridina shrimp in the breeder box before giving up? I'm wondering if putting two or three shrimp in, and a little bit of a plant like guppy grass or pogo octopus, might make the shrimp feel secure enough to settle down and start doing cleanup? I would dim the tank lights and give them at least several hours if not overnight to settle down before giving up. 

[Thorns]

On 3/10/2023 at 6:16 PM, PineSong said:

How long did you try a neocaridina shrimp in the breeder box before giving up? I'm wondering if putting two or three shrimp in, and a little bit of a plant like guppy grass or pogo octopus, might make the shrimp feel secure enough to settle down and start doing cleanup? I would dim the tank lights and give them at least several hours if not overnight to settle down before giving up. 

Not long... A couple of hours and your probably right on that strategy. Shrimp don't like a blank box with high light. But my options are limited. I'm just rolling the dice now! Lol

On 3/10/2023 at 6:34 PM, Pepere said:

I am curious… do the eggs fluoresce? Or just the hatched fry?

Only the fry after a couple weeks. The eggs are while and the new fry are almost clear... At the peak of the first batch I did have a few pink (maybe red) orange and green... The one that is still living is green.