|
E-Mail Questions And Answers About Aqauriums And Fish Part 2
Clint,
My husband and I think that we have a pregnant Neon Tetra. We are new to the whole "fish scene" and don't know what to do. We think the fish is pregnant (or whatever you call it) because she has a huge rounded belly that none of the others have and she wasn't that way when we bought her a few months ago, in fact she was quite small. Is there anything we need to do? Any suggestions??
Hi mc,
Neons are egglayers, so she's "gravid" with eggs. If she's by herself with no males she should reabsorb the eggs, or if she has a male she will probably lay some eggs, but they will be very very small. Neons are a challange to raise, most longtime experienced aquarist haven't spawned Neons. So my advise is to just let it go.
I hate to bring this up, but a lot of people ask me about their pregnant fish, swollen belly etc and it turns out to be a disease called "dropsy". I hope this is not the case but I would be remiss not to mention it. If that is the case the fish should be isolated to protect your other fish. Dropsy can be treated with a medicine called "Maracyn II" , but it's not 100% successful. Dropsy is a bad character, if you have any evidence that it's present you should act now.
I hope I didn't alarm you too much.
Good Luck,
Clint
? how do you get rid of snails? -I have a 10 gallon tank with 15 small fish and two crabs in it.
thanx from dave.
One sure way to kill them all is to get a product called "Had-A-Snail" from your local petshop. Be sure to put your crabs in another tank while youre getting rid of the snails cause the Had-A-Snail stuff kills them too. After the snails are all gone you can change the water and put the crabs back in.
The crabs should be eating some the snails now. If theres just too many snails you can put an old clean bottle in the tank and place a piece of shrimp or meat in it, the snails will go in and you can remove them in the morning. If theres just a few snails I wouldn't worry. I like snails so if they are not overwhelming the tank I would let them stay.
Good Luck,
Clint
-------Corydoras Catfish Fry-----
I have several babies in my breeding tank now. I can't tell for sure how many there are because they are mainly hiding in the rocks right now. In another article I read the author says he moves the eggs to a plastic shoe box and keeps them there for about a week after hatching. This would make life much simpler as far as seeing how many you have and making sure they get enough food but I have questions on this. I can see running an air stone into the shoe box but how would you control the water temperature? I'm thinking I could set the shoe box on a heating pad but I'm afraid the temperature would go too high. Do you have any suggestions on this?
Sincerely,
D~~~~~
Hi D~~~~~,
I guess the author assumed you'd be keeping the fry at room temperature. Any temparound 70 - 80 would be fine. If the room you're keeping the fry in is colder than that I don't think the shoebox thing would work. You could get one of those "Breeding Nets", it's a plastic box frame covered with a very fine netting, perfect for rearing fry. That way you don't need another tank"or shoebox", just hang it in the tank. Also if you're planning on putting any future eggs in another container you need to know that most fish eggs (and especially albino types") need to be protected from light, you'll get a lot bigger hatch. Sounds like you've got one of those problems thats good to have, where to put the fry.
Hope this helps.
Clint
Hi Clint
Remember I told you that I had several babies in my breeding tank? Well they are getting a little bigger and a little more active now. I still can't get an exact count but so far I have been able to count 45. That is much better than I thought originally.
Let me tell you what I did. When the female looked about ready to lay her eggs I moved her and about four males into a 25 gallon tank with the small gravel on the bottom. After she was done laying her eggs I moved all of the adults back into my 65 gallon community tank. I added the methylene blue to the 25 gallon tank. I have kept the air velocity fairly high and have kept the temperature at 78'.
Now that the fry are free swimming I am doing about a 1/3 water change every third day. I still can't vacuum the rocks because the fry are too small so I am just dipping water off of the top and adding new water the same way. Is there anything else that I should be doing?
I have another female that looks as though she is about ready to start laying eggs. I am going to move her and four males into a ten gallon tank and try the same method except for keeping the lights off on the tank and using indirect lighting.
Please let me know if you have any other suggestions for me. I am running out of tanks doing it this way but why mess with success? I am planning on getting two more 20 gallon tanks in the future for this little venture.
After the fry have hatched are there any special lighting requirements? The 65 gallon community tank I have the adults in have mainly tetras that like subdued lighting so that tank is heavily planted and also has black water extract in it.
Should I put some black water extract in with the fry now too?
Thank for all your help.
Sincerely,
D~~~~~~
Hi D~~~~~,
Here's some more suggestions as you requested. But it seems you are doing just fine. I would turn the air velocity down a little, don't want to knock em around. You can decrease the water changes, 45 cory fry aren't causing all that much pollution, you can increase it again after they get bigger. They will be eating alot of the micro-organism in the water meanwhile. If you feel the need to vacuum the gravel in some spots you can use an old airline tubing, it's a lot more gentle vacuum and more precise. You can gradually turn up the lighting as the fry grow, up to full strengh in a week or so. Don't worry about the black water extract, it's not that important. You'll find that corys are a good seller at the petshop, so breed all you want, they'll take more.
Continued good luck,
Clint
Do black mollys deliver live babies? I think ours did. Please reply
Yes they do, you can expect some new ones about every 4 to 6 weeks.
Clint
How much salt is added or what is the salinity for Mollies tanks.
B~~`
Up to a tablespoon of salt per gallon. Mollies are brackish water fish. I catch them down here on the Gulf, in almost pure seawater.
Clint
Clint, How do I know when to put female guppies into trap? Ours seems full constantly. She also ate a male's tail. Any message in that? We lost several fry to her last time round. Should we remove her from the trap immediately after birth or delay it at the risk of her eating the fry?
Thanks so much
Kind regards,K~~~~
Hi K~~~~~,
Guppies drop fry in interval close to a month, so you can time it from the last time she had fry. About the tail eating, I'm never truely surprised about fish behavior, but that is unusual. If your goal is to obtain as any fry as possible then you should move the female as soon as she's through dropping fry. But there are some people who say that moving the female soon after giving birth is stressful to her. I would move her myself, but the decision is yours.
Clint
NEW! Design your aquarium layout with our new Aquarium Designer
© 1996 - 2009, PetFish.Net and sLoMoInc Productions All Rights Reserved
All content is copyright by petfish.net and/or the named author and may not be used without written permission.
Privacy Statement - PetFish.Net Index - PetFish Forum
|
|
