New Born Fries!!!

[Cacatuoides]

Hi folks,

great news!!! my newly bought Apisto Trifasciata has given birth this morning!!! have watched e female dig out gravel from her cave for e past few days.....this morning when e light was turned on, i had a nice surprise of seeing e newly hatched fries hanging on a piece of driftwood....

have taken out the internal filter and replaced it with a sponge filter, added some liquidfry too....any other matters that i need to take note of?

will try post some pics later...

[Fei Miao]

congrats!

[lukeskwr]

good news!!! congrats being a 'daddy'....think the parents willl take care of them well. may need to feed the fries water flea.....

[Cacatuoides]

water flea? where can i get them?

[lukeskwr]

water flea? where can i get them?

aka daphnias...live ones hard to find but got frozen ones. they are tiny and can fit into the fries mouth.go nature in yishun blk 932 usually have for sale, live ones.

[Cacatuoides]

oh daphnias....okok got it bro! thanks....

btw any other readily available alternatives ma? hehe

[Cacatuoides]

Cant get a shot of e fries, mother has been bringing them on a tour around e thick covers.....

[Simon]

congrats, nice looking male you got there!

[Fei Miao]

Good looking male, Try feeding about 3 times a day if possible...other than daphina you can feed baby brine shrimp one they reach the size of about 4mm.

[Emg]

Ah..with all those live plants in there they probably can find enough to eat. Infusoria thrives around live plants. You probably wouldnt need to feed them until they're big enough for bbs

Oh, what a pretty ram too !

[Cacatuoides]

mother has been actively bringing e fries all over e tank for a tour.... very good mother as she will bring back e fries that stray away...at first i tot she's "eating" e fries, but she's putting them in her mouth and bringing them back to e rest..... very interesting to watch them.....

[Big Eyes]

Hi
In my experience, BBS for the 1st 2weeks. I think daphinia is too big for Apisto fries.

[Cacatuoides]

oh ok....where can i get BS eggs in e east area? any brands i can look out for? oh ya...which place can i get frozen dahnia by Hikari? seldom lfs got this...

[Big Eyes]

Hi
BBS Eggs can be purchased in most LFS.

To feed only a small brood, you DO NOT need one of those areated system. That is usually to hatch larger amount of BBS eggs. I used a small translucent container filled with salt solution then sprinkle some BBS eggs. The amount is probably like what you would sprinkle pepper in your soup or half boiled egg. BBS eggs of relatively good hatch rate will give you suffcient for each feed. I do not have brands as I bought only small loose packs about 20-30ml good enough to grow the fries to a size for alternate feed.

for salt solution, I used 1 litre of water with 3 table spoons of aqurium salt. The table spoon is chinese soup spoon. Just level the salt to the brim of the spoon will be OK. I was told that salinity is key the better hatch rate. I have not experimented with other ratios; just followed the instructions of some Discus breeders. This yielded good hatch for me so I did not change.

After the leaving the eggs in the salt solution overnight, you will see BBS. I mentioned translucent container because you can then shine a light source at the bottom. The shells are light so they float. by shinning the light light at the bottom, BBS will swim and group towards the light source at the bottom. You can use a dopper to suck out the BBS. You can buy dopper from Pharmacy or some LFS.

Set up a routine to sprinkle BBS eggs in the container after each feed and you can do 2 collections a day; once in the morining and once at night.

I just upgraded my BBS Hatchery to a "Black Dish" one sold commercially. I said upgraded because this has proved helpful. I bought a used one as I felt a brand new one was rather expensive.

Have fun....

[Cacatuoides]

thanks for e wonderful advice dude!! experimenting it now.....still happy seeing e fries surviving n swimming with their mother....

[Cacatuoides]

had baby brine shrimps hatched overnite...just fed e babies, they are happily eating till their stomachs are pinkish!!! quite fun leh....

[jtean]

just be careful not to frighten the parents. they might eat their fries up if they are frighten or provoked.

[wadzzup]

How big are they now and how fast do they grow?

[stormhawk]

The locally available daphnia is actually Moina micrura, a smaller cousin of the regular Daphnia species. You'd be surprised at how different their sizes are.

These Moina/Daphnia are suitable for apisto fry and I know the trifasciata fry are capable of handling daphnia and newly hatched bbs at least 2 to 3 days after they are free-swimming.

Since your tank is a planted setup, the fry will find enough microfoods to nourish them for the first 2 days or so and then introduce in the daphnia and bbs. They'll love it. If you have a large brood it is better to feed with daphnia. Make sure you rinse the daphnia well and feed in moderation. The daphnia are capable of surviving in freshwater for a long time since they're a freshwater species. BBS however will die within 6 to 8 hours in freshwater. In all cases it is good to have scavengers like snails in the tank to take care of uneaten food.

Good luck with the fry. The trifasciata is a beautiful species.

[Cacatuoides]

They are about 1.5mths old now, about half cm big.....been feeding them newly hatched bbs....slow growth as they are considered e smaller size amonf the dwarf apistos....about 20 odd fries have survived from e initial 40-50 fries....male has jumped out of e tank n died while i wasnt home...sadz....female is together with the fries.....