My first time raising fry

[Reneenay]

Hi everyone,

So I have a 10 gallon planted tank which I stocked with Vietnamese white cloud minnows and nothing else except a horned nerite. Probably not a super great idea since these fish don't eat their babies. So once the plants grew in nice (thanks for the great plants Cory!) the minnows started breeding. And the first group hatched Jan 11. Now I have a bin full of something between 60 and 80 fry. Soon I need to move them to a tank till I can re-home them. What size should I get? These fish are 3/4" when mature. I'm thinking a 40 breeder with a dividing screen so I can have the bigger ones separate from the new borns but in the same bare bottom tank with plants and driftwood. What do you recommend? Any advice?

[TOtrees]

How much/how often will you be able to change water? If you're able to change water fairly regularly, you can likely manage with a 20 gallon. As a hobbyist breeder, I've been shocked at how many fish you can support in a 20 or even a 10 gallon tank, if all the fish are the same size, there is no breeding in the tank, and water changes are kept up with. Most of what I breed comes in smaller batches or numbers, but I did a cycle of furcata rainbows (not that much bigger than your minnows, in terms of average size at retail) and I think I had nearly a hundred in a 10 gallon. Like aquarium-store stocking. Though to be clear I have an auto-change system so nearly 100% weekly water change is easy (over a few separate days/changes). 

Definitely recommend setting up a fry/growout tank for function over form. Eg go with fake plants or rhizome plants on vertical structures, so that when it's time to net out fish (which may occur over time, as opposed to all at once), you can remove all the tank contents to make your live easier. 

Edited March 20, 2023 by TOtrees

[Reneenay]

Oh wow. Ok thank you 

[Reneenay]

Another question. The minnows are spawning again. I'm considering putting the females in with the fry to give them a break. There's only 3 females and 7 males. Or should I put them somewhere else in one of the other community tanks. I'd have to acclimate them as that tank is 78°. I could lower it. It has cardinals and pygmy corydoras. The minnows don't eat their own fry 

Edited March 21, 2023 by Reneenay

[Reneenay]

On 3/20/2023 at 4:28 AM, TOtrees said:

How much/how often will you be able to change water? If you're able to change water fairly regularly, you can likely manage with a 20 gallon. As a hobbyist breeder, I've been shocked at how many fish you can support in a 20 or even a 10 gallon tank, if all the fish are the same size, there is no breeding in the tank, and water changes are kept up with. Most of what I breed comes in smaller batches or numbers, but I did a cycle of furcata rainbows (not that much bigger than your minnows, in terms of average size at retail) and I think I had nearly a hundred in a 10 gallon. Like aquarium-store stocking. Though to be clear I have an auto-change system so nearly 100% weekly water change is easy (over a few separate days/changes). 

Definitely recommend setting up a fry/growout tank for function over form. Eg go with fake plants or rhizome plants on vertical structures, so that when it's time to net out fish (which may occur over time, as opposed to all at once), you can remove all the tank contents to make your live easier. 

I'm not sure Im doing this right. I find this format a bit confusing. Did you see my question about putting the mature females in with the fry? They need a break and so do I. Just temporarily.

Also would you recommend a 20 long? I do want a dividing screen so I can have two different sizes in the same tank.

[TOtrees]

On 3/21/2023 at 10:42 PM, Reneenay said:

I'm not sure Im doing this right. I find this format a bit confusing. Did you see my question about putting the mature females in with the fry? They need a break and so do I. Just temporarily.

Also would you recommend a 20 long? I do want a dividing screen so I can have two different sizes in the same tank.

I'm not sure what you're TRYING to do, so I don't know if you're doing it right or not. 😛

Any tank size will be fine, as long as the number of fry, feeding schedules, water changes etc all line up. Eg many folks will move a batch of fry like yours through successively larger tanks/containers/whatever as they age. I'm not experienced with this species, but they should tolerate a very basic setup with minimal filtration and no heater, so you have many many setup options available, and shouldn't be restricted to a traditional xx gallon tank. A plastic tub or bin with a small sponge filter, some fake decos and a clump of floating hornwort or a healthy chunk of java moss should be fine.

I think the biggest risk you have at this time is putting them into too big a tank. In something big like a 20 or 40, you would need to add a lot of food to ensure the tiny babies have enough food in the tank (think like density of food particles in the water - a pinch of fry food in a 3 gallon pail is very different from the same pinch in a 40 gallon).

Lots of food in a big tank with tiny babies = lots of uneaten food = lots of water changes to manage the water quality. 

Less food in a smaller tank with the same number of babies = less uneaten food = easier to manage. 

I don't have a good suggestion for your question about separating the males and females. You could put the males with the babies, or the females. I know there are some folks here who breed white clouds, and I assume they'd have a better idea. What about putting a divider in your 10 gallon? Then your adults all stay where they are, and you can deal with the fry as fry. Raising fry is harder (not hard, but harder) when you have big and small fish together.