Feeding GBR Fry

man i feel left out of all this ram fever.i guess there are still the electric blues and the golds.i have heard of a long fin variety as well.although i am really hopeing this all works out for you eyeballer as i will be there when you want to thin out the crowd so to speak.and as far as foods go you are using baby brine shrimps and first bites???

That's awesome that mzsunshine grabbed a GBR! Hopefully they will pair up when you get your male.

I'm mixing a block of frozen BBS with a couple pinches of first bites in a little cup with some filtered water. Then I put it in the fridge. I'm feeding them 4-5 times per day. I have a 10mL syringe that use to suck up the mixture. I then inject it right into the school of fry. It has seemed to keep most of them alive to this point at least.

I'm somewhat worried that they aren't schooling any more. They are free roving all over the bottom of the tank. It makes them impossible to count. It will also make it impossible to use a gravel filter to clean the bottom of the tank. All of my water parameters are OK for now. I'm continuing to do 10-20% water changes every few days. Does anyone have advice about how to get the waste off of the bottom without sucking out the fry?

Eyeballer wrote:

That's awesome that mzsunshine grabbed a GBR! Hopefully they will pair up when you get your male.

I'm mixing a block of frozen BBS with a couple pinches of first bites in a little cup with some filtered water. Then I put it in the fridge. I'm feeding them 4-5 times per day. I have a 10mL syringe that use to suck up the mixture. I then inject it right into the school of fry. It has seemed to keep most of them alive to this point at least.

I'm somewhat worried that they aren't schooling any more. They are free roving all over the bottom of the tank. It makes them impossible to count. It will also make it impossible to use a gravel filter to clean the bottom of the tank. All of my water parameters are OK for now. I'm continuing to do 10-20% water changes every few days. Does anyone have advice about how to get the waste off of the bottom without sucking out the fry?

Might be best not to gravel vac, but if you do then you could use a stocking over the intake. Although I don't know how much mulm that will allow sucked up. Just be sure to swoosh over the gravel before plunging in to hopefully shoo the fry away

Just had to remove the mom. She started getting aggressive and began taking bites out of the school. I put her in a net breeder. She seemed fine there for a while. I then watched her eat 3 little frys who swam up to the net. She rammed the net, jerked them right through the fabric, and gulped them down. The perp is now in solitary confinement. Glad I got that "just in case" 10G going.

Still going strong. They are 2 weeks old and about 15 surviving. I did end up intervening and pulling mom to a different tank around day 7 or 8. I just couldn't watch the numbers continue to drop. After I saw her swallow a mouth full of the school I put her in a breeder net and fired up a new 10 gal. I used water out of the original aquarium and an established filter out of another aquarium. It was fully functional within a day. Not the best idea but I decided to pull her the following day after I saw her yank 3 separate fry through the net and swallow them. Next spawning I'm going to let nature take it's own course. In the meantime, I'm working hard to keep these 15 little gems alive. I'll be glad to share when it's time to thin out... if I can keep them alive until then.

i will give you some daphnia to help you along with the fry and you should pick up another ram and try again.

Thanks! I'm looking forward to trying to grow out the culture. I think I've been noticing occasional BBS darting around. Is it possible that eggs are coming in with the frozen BBS and hatching in my tank?

that would be interesting seeing as they can survive desication dry periods with no water for many years.then hatch out.i have never heard of this through the freezeing process but weirder things have happened.they are more likely fresh water crustaceans like cyclops or a type of water flea or mite.since ther are no larger predators with the baby rams they have yet to be consumed.all in good time.

Eyeballer wrote:

Thanks! I'm looking forward to trying to grow out the culture. I think I've been noticing occasional BBS darting around. Is it possible that eggs are coming in with the frozen BBS and hatching in my tank?

stranger things have happened...

Updated pictures. They are beginning to look like GBRs. In the bottom pic you can see the faint outline of the classic GBR dorsal fin on the fish hovering above the rock.

Hey man that is really awesome! My pair had just laid another batch which hatched right before I took off for a week. Needless to say the 6 day fast resulted in no fry being there when I returned... What can ya do though? Anyway, god job!

I kind of feel like I cheated by not letting the parents raise them. I'm definitely going the natural route next time.

can i reserve one or two.PLEASE

Definitely.

I want some too!!!

Definitely.

The fry are about 7 weeks old now. Growing and eating well. There are 8 surviving as of last count.

your tank and plants look pretty clean what is your algae control?they are so cool.i bet it is gonna be hard to give up any.i hope you can get another batch soon.

Those arent fry! Them is fish! Haha awesome! Congrats!