Surprise baby fry

[pcc]

Six days ago I traveled to a LFS in Portland that said they had Amano shrimp in stock.  I wanted to try the shrimp out as tank cleaners.  I picked up six shrimp and a very young (small) Hillstream  Loach.  Unfortunately the loach did not even survive the 45 minute drive home.  The shrimp were ok, so I put them in my quarantine tank. That is when I noticed that I also received about 20 to 30 very tiny fry fish along with the shrimp! So I have been trying to feed them, they are too small for live brine shrimp.  I am also trying egg yolk forced through a fine cloth which I think they are eating.  I also purchased some Hikari First Bites and Aquarium Co-op baby fry food.  I think they are eating some of the Hikari which is smaller than AQ baby fry food.  I am going to try and change some water in the tank tomorrow (the yolk is a little messy)and hopefully not suck out the fry!  Any thoughts on what I should be feeding them?  They have survived six days now so maybe they are eating. The shrimp are still doing well too!

 

[CJs Aquatics]

In this situation I would probably go with whatever you feed your other fish crushed into a very fine powder, no idea what the fry are?

[nabokovfan87]

On 4/2/2023 at 8:35 PM, pcc said:

I think they are eating some of the Hikari which is smaller than AQ baby fry food.  I am going to try and change some water in the tank tomorrow (the yolk is a little messy)and hopefully not suck out the fry!  Any thoughts on what I should be feeding them? 

you can take basically any food and use a pepper mill and grind it into powder for them. You can also feed them repashy powder as well.  It would be a very small amount typically, think they end of a very fine paintbrush tip.

When I was cleaning a tank with fry, same as with neo shrimp, I would let things settle and then use a light to try to view them.  If there is any issues then just use a turkey baster or a small plastic dish or something to gently get the fry back into the tank.

[AllFishNoBrakes]

When I do water changes with fry I use an airline tube with a small piece of coarse sponge shoved in the end to remove water from the vessel. Takes time, for sure, but the fry don’t get sucked up so it’s worth it to me. 

[pcc]

I like the coarse foam in the tube idea to prevent sucking up fry, thanks

[BM3]

So curious about what kind of fish they are! What a fun surprise!

For my guppy fry I just grind with my fingers flakes and that makes it small enough.

[Guppysnail]

Congratulations. What a lovely surprise. For fry to tiny for first bites I use Sera micron. I have fantastic luck using it with all real tiny fry. A little goes a very long way.