Soothing Shrimp Posted June 12, 2014 Report Share Posted June 12, 2014 I figured I'd document the successes or failures of my experience of raising N. Guentheri Killifish eggs all the way to selectively breeding them if I'm successful. In all reality I expect to fail several times while getting through the learning curve of this. heh Expect the worst and hope for the best and you'll never be surprised. I just ordered 40+ Nothobranchius Guentheri Zanzibar eggs from Spain, and they are to be mailed next week to me. The web says to feed newborn fry Infusoria. Seems they go after live food more than static. Any suggestions on what infusoria or where to get it? Would APR work? I hate growing live food. Did I mention I hate it? I'm never any good at it. Worse than terrible, in fact. I always seem to kill any culture I get my hand on. In addition though, I'm hoping if I put some java moss in with new fry it will help harboring tiny critters for food...? I need your experience folks. And away we go! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snowpetals Posted June 12, 2014 Report Share Posted June 12, 2014 Good luck. I love those fish. But I've never raised them so I am of no help there Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Soothing Shrimp Posted June 12, 2014 Author Report Share Posted June 12, 2014 LOL Well, I'll learn as I go. Anyone know anything about foolproof methods of raising baby brine shrimp? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Soothing Shrimp Posted June 15, 2014 Author Report Share Posted June 15, 2014 Guess not. LOL Well, I'll have to learn that too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shrimpo Posted June 15, 2014 Report Share Posted June 15, 2014 Any suggestions on what infusoria or where to get it? Would APR work? I hate growing live food. Did I mention I hate it? I'm never any good at it. Worse than terrible, in fact. I always seem to kill any culture I get my hand on. In addition though, I'm hoping if I put some java moss in with new fry it will help harboring tiny critters for food...? How about setting up a tank with moss, plants, substrate, rocks & driftwood. keep feeding the tank with fish flakes and algae poweder once in a while, keep it running untill you have good population of tiny critters then introduce the newly hatched fish in there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Soothing Shrimp Posted June 15, 2014 Author Report Share Posted June 15, 2014 Good idea. I don't want too much in there, as I want to be able to keep an eye on the fish and make sure everything is going okay. These fish once they hatch out are so small, you can move them with an eye dropper. But substrate and moss with critters is an excellent idea. I'll set up a 2.5g and move some moss over within the next day or two. I just want to make sure I don't have ramshorns because teh fry tend to stay still for the first few days and I don't want them eaten. heh Hmmmm...do you think shrimp would eat these little fry? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shrimpo Posted June 15, 2014 Report Share Posted June 15, 2014 Hmmmm...do you think shrimp would eat these little fry? Shrimp will eat the micro organisms that the fry need, not sure if they can eat the fry directly. either way, I wouldn't add shrimp. Long time ago I had pair of betta fish in a 20 gallon long with small schooling fish (add for experiment purpose only here). the tank was planted and has hiding places, after a while some betta fish fry pop up, I let them be in there untill they grow up more. The natural set up is the way to go if you don't want to spend time on raising live food. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Soothing Shrimp Posted June 15, 2014 Author Report Share Posted June 15, 2014 I'll give that some serious consideration. Thanks Shrimpo. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shrimpo Posted June 15, 2014 Report Share Posted June 15, 2014 I'll give that some serious consideration. Thanks Shrimpo. You are very welcome my friend. If I can remember in my experiment above I had only about 3 or 5 fry survived and grow among other fish. in your case don't add any shrimp, snail or fish to get the maximum fry survival rate. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Soothing Shrimp Posted June 16, 2014 Author Report Share Posted June 16, 2014 I emptied and cleaned (3) 2.5g tanks for this purpose now, and bought a shallow plastic container to place the eggs into. I was just notified that the eggs were sent out today and are ready to hatch. Guess it is time for me to buy some brine shrimp eggs now, too... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Soothing Shrimp Posted June 16, 2014 Author Report Share Posted June 16, 2014 I just bought a bunch of supplies from brineshrimpdirect.com Let's hope this works! heh Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
countryboy12484 Posted June 16, 2014 Report Share Posted June 16, 2014 Look on YouTube there are some great videos Derek Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Soothing Shrimp Posted June 23, 2014 Author Report Share Posted June 23, 2014 Just got my fish eggs in today. So naturally, chomping on the bit, I had to get things underway. I *did* take some pics, but you'll have to wait until I can get to the good computer to upload them. Started the brine shrimp first. Bought one of those hockey puck things to screw a 2 liter into for doing the brine shrimp. It's bubblin' now. Made a water of SS gh/kh about 200TDS , and used a CD stack cover to put the eggs/substrate/water into. I have to be honest with ya. I poured out the teeny bag of substrate and saw no eggs. I was asking myself if this guy ripped me off or not, but I kept comforting myself that he had good reviews from AB One of the highest for eggs in fact. I had to reassure myself pretty constantly. Then I noticed through the side of the container (thank God for clear sides), some tiny clear beads- about the size of a pin point. They swelled up some over the next half hour and I saw movement. Little teeny tiny movement. On closer examination, baby fry were moving on the inside of two eggs! I went to the store to buy eye droppers for transport to another tank, but I wondered if teh eye dropper was too small. I have a turkey baster of course, but I bought the eye droppers anyway. When I cam back I have seen flashes of at least three fish hatched out. These guys are FAST! Have no idea yet how to suck them up without them zooming away, but I've not tried yet. I have to say, everyone said they were small, but I mean these guys are SMALL! How small? About the size of an eyelash. Yep. THAT small! Gonna give until morning perhaps before any transfers. I'm thinking about slowly lowering the whole CD cover into my 2.5g tank and then with drawing it later, but still unsure... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shrimpo Posted June 24, 2014 Report Share Posted June 24, 2014 Congrats on the new fry, how long it took before they hatched? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Soothing Shrimp Posted June 24, 2014 Author Report Share Posted June 24, 2014 The first ones hatched in ~20 minutes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Soothing Shrimp Posted June 24, 2014 Author Report Share Posted June 24, 2014 Just moved 21 small fry over. They are so tiny, one can fit in a drop of water. So an eyedropper was no problem. You have to have very very good eyes for this apparently. I'll check tomorrow to see if any more hatched out. He packaged them up in February. There has to be an easier way, but I'm still figuring out the basics. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wicca32 Posted June 24, 2014 Report Share Posted June 24, 2014 bryce i would go with micro worms to be honest. bbs was a pain in the but and they grow fast so its like have several going and hatichng every day or every other day. micro worms will last a while. i even had one culture that lasted 4 months with out dividing. they are my go to food for tiny fishes and you all you have to worry about is keeping them cool. im not talking in the fridge just under 80 if possible Louie 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Soothing Shrimp Posted June 24, 2014 Author Report Share Posted June 24, 2014 It probably would be a better option...but to be honest, I suck at keeping cultures alive. I may have to go that route though. I did buy some rotifiers to culture. I'm also going to try to nab some from my shrimp tanks. I also had thought about setting up a shrimp tank just for new fry to eat until they get bigger. Those icky teeny bugs in the tank would make really good feed for them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LunarValkyrie Posted June 24, 2014 Report Share Posted June 24, 2014 LOL Well, I'll learn as I go. Anyone know anything about foolproof methods of raising baby brine shrimp? Can you use the decapsulated baby brine eggs?? you just place them in the water and they are ready to eat. You can buy them in a can/jar. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Soothing Shrimp Posted June 24, 2014 Author Report Share Posted June 24, 2014 I have a jar of about a pound of them here. I had them from before and I've been occasionally using them for my guppies/leasts. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Louie Posted June 24, 2014 Report Share Posted June 24, 2014 The good thing about micro worms is that tiny fish grow faster and they have greater nutrition but the plus with brine shrimp is that they will swim in the water column. Granted it is freshwater so they will die but they last long enough for mid water swimming fish to grab them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Soothing Shrimp Posted June 24, 2014 Author Report Share Posted June 24, 2014 Well, I bought 40 eggs... 55 hatched out that I found thus far!!! Not the seller's fault if I don't rear these successfully! LOL What is that...a hundred and something percent? Yeah, I may be buying from this guy again! Going to net some rotifiers from the shrimp tanks later. Tried to get a picture of these buggers, but did you ever try to get a picture of a tiny splinter in a two year old's finger? Yeah. It's like that. Smaller than staples. Hopefully out of 55, I can get 3 to survive. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LunarValkyrie Posted June 24, 2014 Report Share Posted June 24, 2014 You can do it! Nice hatch rate there. Keep us posted and we want pix. Pix or it didn't happen. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Soothing Shrimp Posted June 24, 2014 Author Report Share Posted June 24, 2014 So apparently I need to learn how to feed better. I just added a teaspoon of newly hatch brine shrimp to the tank with the new fry and it's WAAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYY too much. Out of necessity I'm filling the rest of the tank up with water to dilute any bad decay that will inevitably happen. *sigh* Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LunarValkyrie Posted June 24, 2014 Report Share Posted June 24, 2014 when they hit the floor uneaten after an hour...use an airline hose to do a sweep and add fresh water back. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.