Hi - i have a few questions about my Swordtails and their babies. The first couple of "batches" mostly got eaten by my hungry severums because i didnt know what the signs were for the mother giving birth - I've managed to save 2 babies but they seem to be growing really slowly - i think they are about 2 months now and only marginly bigger than were when they were born - is this normal growth rate? im currently feeding them luiqifry about 3 times a day - is this enough ? if not how often should i feed them and also whats the best food to feed them ?

i know theres a few questions in there and im sure i will have more shortly...

cheers

Skip

Freshly Hatched Baby Brine Shrimp, or Microworms.

Lots of feeds during the Day and lots of Small water changes.

What size Tank do you have them in??

They should be alot bigger than that by now

I haven't had any experince with swordtails but they are closely related to platies, right?

I fed my 5 surviving wagtail fry microworms for the first few weeks but then move on to crushed flake and crushed pellets. Now they are eating big fish food with their mother. I think they are two months old also. Much bigger than when they were first born.

Try feeding crushed up flakes.

Yeah they pretty much look the same as platies

ive been doing 30% water changes bi weekly - is this enough or should it be less than that daily or every 2 days ?

* are freshly hatched brine shrimp the same as decaps brine shrimp ? are either ok ?

* where do you get microworms from and how to you keep them ?

* i think the tank is a 50L i must measure it again to confirm

* do they need to be a certain size before they start eating crushed pellets or flake ?

i will take a photo of the little buggers tonight when i get home and post a link

cheers

Skip

You will need to Hatch some BBS, easy enough to do Decpasulated Drine Shrimp Eggs are abit easier to Hatch.

Microworms: you will need to get a culture off somebody, then you can continue to grow your own.

They will pick away at Pellets, Flake etc...

But always a good idea to give them a good start by feeding them up on BBS.

Crushed flake food is fine from birth. They are too big to bother with microworms, brine shrimp, liquifry etc. They are not getting enough food. Liquifry is not enough.

Skippy, what part of the country are you in, it would help to know as people may have a microworm culture to offer to you, as I do, but dont know where you are...

Crushed flake food is fine from birth. They are too big to bother with microworms, brine shrimp, liquifry etc. They are not getting enough food. Liquifry is not enough.

that could explain why they are stunted i better start feeding them more...

Skippy, what part of the country are you in, it would help to know as people may have a microworm culture to offer to you, as I do, but dont know where you are...

just updated my profile so the location is shown in there - cheers

You will need to Hatch some BBS, easy enough to do Decpasulated Drine Shrimp Eggs are abit easier to Hatch.

You dont hatch decap :-?

Im guessing you justworded it wrong?

you can hatch decap. its done alot in aquaculture facilities, whereby the decap-eggs give a better hatch ratio.

Oh :oops: :lol:

you can also take your normal brine shrimp eggs and expose them to chlorine for up to 8 mins to remove the shell, then use sodium thiosulphate to stop the reaction, then hatch as normal. ive got the exact concentrations to use in my aquaculture book somewhere if people are interested.

The commercially bought decap cant be hatched as the chemical process produces heat which kills the egg. Apparently if you decap them yourself before hatching it increases the hatch rate and the nutritional value as less energy is expended by the embryo in getting out.

Personally I cant be bothered :roll:

same chemical process, which is why you usually do it in small batches when you want to hatch them. i suppose the comercial guys dont have the time/space to do it properly without over-heating.

heres a picture of my massive 2 month old baby

http://tinyurl.com/pw77tb

If there is no one locally in welly with microworm culture then PM me and I will post you some...

You can Buy Smallish Granules for Smaller Fish, I would just crush some Flakes, and feed those.

I remember when I was breeding Swordtails I never bothered with all the other stuff, I just used fine flakes.

You can Buy Smallish Granules for Smaller Fish, I would just crush some Flakes, and feed those.

I remember when I was breeding Swordtails I never bothered with all the other stuff, I just used fine flakes.

do you mean the micro granuals ?

When I had guppies I just used finely ground flakes.

I have only used mircoworms because I had them, if I didn't have them then I'd use flakes.

You could use those, or Mini Bits.

Crushed Flake will be fine too though.

i think im going to try a little bit of everything - these little guys just aint growing and i feel mean now knowing they should be bigger.

so my list of things to try now is

• daily water changes - approx 10%
  more feeds during the day - currently doing 2 or 3
  giving them different food - crushed micro granuals / crushed flake / microworms or Decapsulated Brine Shrimp
  

is there anything i have missed ?

Don't feel bad, we all make mistakes. Just keep the water clean and the feedings regular and they should be okay. They prolly won't be as big as the could have been but size doens't always matter.

If my fighters ever spawn, I'd be terrified of making a mistake. They're so sensitive. :-?

I find they usually grow pretty rapidly on the decap brineshrimp eggs. I have one that must be close to 3 months old now and since putting it into a grown up tank it seems to have stopped growing. I know its eating because it rivals some of my plecos for crapping in the tank. I figure now its up to him. Either he grows or he can just get eaten when I put it in the big fish tank.