L397 Fry dying

[cca001]

Hi all well my L397 have finnally started breeding i got 18 in the first batch about 4 weeks ago and have 8 left.

Got the second batch out about 1 week ago and had 26 from that spawn now 20 left.

What is happening is they are all fine and dandy when i first take them out of the cave from the dad they have nearly absorbed the egg sack before i do this i wait untill egg sack is all gone before i start feeding then sera flora flakes about 3 flakes go in to the fry saver i also have a very small piece of wood in there for them.I have a air stone in there aswell now for more curculation.

Now the problem i am having is they are getting VERY big bellys like they have bloat and within 24hrs are dead

I thought i was feeding them to much so cut it back to 1 feed a day but still it is happening.

Do they maybe need to go into there own 80ltr tank instead of the fry saver

They are about 1cm in length now and still it is happening

The male is fanning another batch of eggs atm

Look foward to hearing your thoughts on this

 

[Doodles]

There's some good info in Brenguns breeding L397 log

I lost quite a few fry in those earlier days of breeding, either because the first couple of spawns were weak or likely I got overzealous with the feeding of them.
I have figured out it is a good thing to always leave a couple of fry from earlier spawns in the fry saver as they seem to show the new fry how to eat wood, cucumber, Hikari algae wafers and Sera Flora flake properly. Only when fry are almost 3cm do they score something a little meatier like Sera Vilforma and even then its only one tab to several dozen. When fry are present with traces of egg sacs still attached, I feed very sparingly to the saver and withhold even the Hikari algae wafers for a few days until everyone is eating the cucumber, wood and flake properly.
I now use a fry saver from "thefishcave" which has a full sponge at one end and an air pump pumping debris out of the fry saver into the main tank. I also have a small air stone and a tiny 4watt power filter which I rinse in the old water every week during water changes. Only when the fry are nearing 3cm do I move them to a grow out tank of their own. This means at times I have had over 100 fry on one 9" x 6" x 8" fry saver so you can see why the extra air stone and power filter comes in handy.

http://www.plecoplanet.com/forum/showthread.php?t=6351


It could be that you are just overfeeding a little but one thing I would do is pre soak any flake foods before feeding. Flake foods have been known to cause bloat due to the air that is still in the flake when being eaten.

 

[Irene0100]

why did you take them away from dad?

 

[Bigjohnnofish]

Hi all well my L397 have finnally started breeding i got 18 in the first batch about 4 weeks ago and have 8 left.

Got the second batch out about 1 week ago and had 26 from that spawn now 20 left.

What is happening is they are all fine and dandy when i first take them out of the cave from the dad they have nearly absorbed the egg sack before i do this i wait untill egg sack is all gone before i start feeding then sera flora flakes about 3 flakes go in to the fry saver i also have a very small piece of wood in there for them.I have a air stone in there aswell now for more curculation.

Now the problem i am having is they are getting VERY big bellys like they have bloat and within 24hrs are dead

I thought i was feeding them to much so cut it back to 1 feed a day but still it is happening.

Do they maybe need to go into there own 80ltr tank instead of the fry saver

They are about 1cm in length now and still it is happening

The male is fanning another batch of eggs atm

Look foward to hearing your thoughts on this

join the club mate lots of people in WA are having this problem....
i raised about a dozen fish from my first ten spawns....

some possible reasons include anerobic bacteria building up in the cave and bloats the younguns... parents are passing on some bacteria to the eggs which is damaging... or we have some bacteria entering through our tap water which is doing the same thing....

i have more success stealing the eggs about day 3 and tumbling them away from the parents tank... before the egg sacs are broken....

but brenda is definitely on to something keeping a few fry from previous spawns... i think it has something to do with the enzymes required to break down wood that they eat... the smaller fry will eat the bigger frys poo - if anyones noticed this... and im guessing the enzymes needed to digest wood are then consumed in this poo to make it into the frys stomach...

one more tip... boil the wood to make it softer for the fry to eat - every week or so... it also releases a few tannis from the wood also...

 

[Brengun]

I use a large frysaver with a pump and sponge up one end. It does seem to have a bit of a cycle within the parent tank and this can take some time to settle down and stop growing that slimey stuff that kills fry.

I now also have a cycled little tiny 4watt powerfilter in the saver which I rinse in wc water every week, and an airstone.

Wood? Loads of it. Half my saver is full of bits of wood. I feed one Hikari algae wafer between up to 50 fry, a pinch of sera flora flake and a slice of cucumber. Yes fry often look quite thin and hungry but I never lose one from starvation as they can just go gnaw on some wood.

Once they get a little bit older 2.5-3cm they get the same diet but a bit more quantity and maybe a Sera Vilforma occasionally in their own tank.