js Posted July 21, 2010 Report Share Posted July 21, 2010 Just over 2 weeks ago my female guppy gave birth to about 30 fry. I have a little 15 gallon tank which I quickly set up with about 2/3 of water from my main tank and 1/3 of fresh water. Within about half an hour of me transferring her she started to give birth. We put a piece of pantyhose over the filter to stop the fry being sucked up. After about a week or so I could only count 10 fry. (they were starting to grow quite nicely). On Sunday morning I only had 3 left, then one and now none. I was doing partial water changes every 2 to 3 days. Have just checked my water last night and ammonia = 0, nitrates = 20, and nitrites were 5! This is obviously the reason my babies all disappeared. Can you tell me what might have caused this, when ammonia and nitrate levels are okay. We are wondering if it is because we covered over the filter with pantyhose? Any thoughts would be appreciated. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LYNDYLOO Posted July 21, 2010 Report Share Posted July 21, 2010 Don't think the Pantyhose over the Filter Intake will have anything to do with the High Nitrites. Is this a BB Tank?? How often are you feeding?? I would say your Tank is going through the Cycling process. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BikBok Posted July 21, 2010 Report Share Posted July 21, 2010 Nitrites follow ammonia so agree with Lyndyloo.. your tank must have been cycling. Transferring water helps with climatisation but you need to transfer some filter media or at the very least some gravel if you want to hasten the cycling process. The aim is to get good bacteria established quickly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
js Posted July 21, 2010 Author Report Share Posted July 21, 2010 Thanks for your replies. Not sure what model the tank is. Just bought it second hand and don't see any name on it. Perhaps I was overfeeding a bit too much. Liquid Fry 2 to 3 times a day and then some crumbled up flake food once a day. Microworms towards the end. My guppy is pregnant again, so I will empty the tank out tonight and put water from the main tank back into it and leave it going for a while and hopefully it will be cycled by the time she is ready to drop the next batch. I don't really want to have the little tank set up all the time, but is this the only way if you need to use it suddenly for babies? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caryl Posted July 21, 2010 Report Share Posted July 21, 2010 What sort of filter do you have? All you need do is hang the filter in the main tank. When you are ready to put the female in the little tank, use water from the main one (or 2/3 - 1/3 as you did before) and add the filter, which will have cycled. If you set up a tank with water and no fish it will not cycle if an ammonia food source is not being added. I suspect not enough water changes compared to the amount of food being fed. Daily water changes would be better. Food is a little, often. Remember how small fry are - their stomachs are even smaller! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LYNDYLOO Posted July 21, 2010 Report Share Posted July 21, 2010 Sorry when I said is it a BB Tank, I meant is it Bare Bottom or do you have gravel in it?? Much better to do daily Water Changes in a fry tank, especially if your feeding Liquidfry. Does get rather messy. If you do as Caryl says with the Filter you should be all good. Can be abit of a learning curve when it comes to raising fry, you win some you loose some, feed often, microworms are great, and alot less messy then Liquidfry, you can use abit of Boiled Egg Yolk as Fry Food, lots of water changes, you don't need to fill the Tank up either, 10cm should be enough for raising fry. Good Luck anyway. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stella Posted July 21, 2010 Report Share Posted July 21, 2010 A tank of water with no fish for several weeks will still go through a cycle when you add fish to it. The amount of bacteria in a tank is completely dependent on the amount of food in the tank. Food for the bacteria is ammonia waste from the fish. Every tank will go through a new cycle every time a new fish is added, because each new fish means more waste overall in the tank. The magnitude of the cycle is directly related to the change in bioload (many more fish = big cycle, one fish more = little cycle). Likewise removing fish will result in the bacteria starving. This may result in die-offs of the various bacteria, or slow their growth and replacement. (Of course a whole bunch of dead bacteria temporarily provide wastes and thus food for other bacteria!) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
js Posted July 21, 2010 Author Report Share Posted July 21, 2010 Sorry, still learning the fish lingo. I put a breeding grass in the bottom for the fry to hide in, although I'm not sure that they actually used it. No gravel. Do I need to put the whole filter into my big tank (which will look ugly) or can I just put the piece of black sponge from inside it in there? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BikBok Posted July 21, 2010 Report Share Posted July 21, 2010 the sponge would be a lot easier! When I upgraded my 34L tank to a 160L tank I just moved all the noodles and sponges over and never got any ammonia readings . added extra fish very slowly . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
js Posted July 21, 2010 Author Report Share Posted July 21, 2010 I currently have a hailea HL BT400 filter in the fry tank (with pantyhose covering it so as not suck the fish up). Saw a sponge filter at the pet shop tonight for around $11.00, do you think I would be better off buying one of those? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caryl Posted July 21, 2010 Report Share Posted July 21, 2010 Sponge filters are great for dry. Guppy fry tend to scoot about just under the water surface so you are better with floating plants than some sort of fake grass on the bottom. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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