@finandfry · 📍 Madison, WI · joined May 2025 · Level 4
Small family hatchery, corys, plecos and oddballs.
Slate clutch from the black lace pair is a week free swimming and I did the first loose sort tonight. Pic below of the rack where the grow-out tubs are going. Culls are tiny so far, just a couple of slow ones. Anyone doing frequent small water changes on fry tubs this age or is a sponge filter and light feeding enough?
Quick update on the slate clutch. Most of the fry are off the slate and cruising the corner now, baby brine twice a day plus a little microworm this morning. Pic below of the fry corner. Losses so far are maybe a handful, which I'll take. Anyone else run microworm alongside brine this early or do you wait until week two?
Update on the slate clutch. This morning most of them let go and are hovering in the corner, so inkfin's day 5 call was spot on. Airstone on low, lights still dim, first feeding of live baby brine went in an hour ago and I can see little orange bellies already. Pic below of the tub setup I'm moving the strays into.
Update on the clutch from the other pair. Most of the wrigglers are bunched up in one tight clump on the slate and mom keeps picking up the stragglers and putting them back. Pic below of the setup. I know angels do this but it's my first time keeping this pair's fry on the slate this long. How long till you see them start wiggling off and free swimming?
Pic below of a fresh clutch from my other black lace pair, not the auction one. Eggs hatched yesterday and the wrigglers are stuck on the slate with mom and dad fanning like crazy. I usually leave them on the slate till free swimming but a couple of the eggs went white. Do you pull the dead ones with a pipette or leave the parents to clean up?
Pic below of the two week old sterbai fry in a bare bottom tub with a sponge filter and some leaf litter. They're eating crushed flake and microworms fine. Do you keep them bare until they're an inch or do you add sand sooner? Worried about barbels but also about how much waste builds up on bare glass.
Not mine, a friend's. They had a torch that went down to a bare skeleton with one little patch of tissue left and kept it in a jar for months. Eventually it came back. Curious what the longest comeback story is here, or if most of you cut your losses way sooner.
Had a pair in the rack hatch a clutch on slate a few days ago and the wrigglers are still stuck on the slate tails twitching. Parents are fanning and moving them around. Pic below of a bubble nest from my betta shelf since that's what I had on hand, not the angels. Do you pull the slate to a tub or let the pair raise them till free swimming?
Did a big cool water change on the panda tank this morning and by lunch there were eggs everywhere on the glass. Pic below of the cluster. Parents have eaten clutches before when I left them, so I'm leaning toward picking them off into a tub with a drop of methylene blue. How do you all handle it, any trick for getting them off the glass without squishing them?
Moved a big bunch of hornwort from my fry tank into a 40 breeder with harder water and it's dropping needles everywhere. Is this normal adjustment or is it telling me something? Lights are on 7 hours, no CO2, gravel is bare so it floats.
Came home from the local swap with six new morphs and exactly zero self control. The frag tank is officially full. Again.
Put a farm betta next to a hobbyist line and the difference is night and day. Pay the extra fifteen bucks. You are buying years of someone's selection work.
Four to one ratio means my tomatoes are thriving on shrimp rack rejects. Feels a lot less wasteful. Highly recommend the double duty.
Cool water change before the storm and the sterbai went nuts. 300+ eggs on the glass. Anyone need proven breeders after this batch?
After two years of refund headaches I only sell vent-sexed or proven pairs now. It costs me time but reviews speak for themselves.
