Royal Whiptail fry swimming out of the water and drying up!!!! help

[Hypanheaven]

I have 15 royal whiptail fry 1 week old, all of them look strong and healthy and are eating courgette like its going out of fashion.

Today i found 1 of the smaller more paler guys had managed to suck his way up the fry saver until his head was out of the water where he stayed there and dried out. I went in to dunk the fry saver and noticed he was all dried up :cry:

Any body got any suggestions at WHY he did it?

tank has a air pump on it so water is well oxygenated, has 2 internal filters and 1 ehiem 2226 external filter, has 2 lots of wood.

Cheers

 

[macvsog23]

This fish can be a nightmare feeding seems to be the main problem and then once starved they display mad actions like swiming out of the water.

Regards

Bob

 

[Zebra Pleco]

Any fish that turn sucidal, the first thing I would check is your ammonia and nitrate levels. I had a l260 do that on me, my tank was 2 years old, but never really check the water coionditions, as I thought the tank was well cycled and its always been consistent, but with the introduction of a few fry, my levels changed quite a bit. It doesn't take much to upset the cycle in a tank, and fidh would rather try and find a better source or get out of the one they are in, if the conditions detoriate quickly.

 

[Hypanheaven]

Water change 40% was done on friday
Nitrate 10-15 and ammonia 0

 

[Hypanheaven]

its a 500L tank with 6 L333 juvies and 3 royal whiptails adults and there fry

 

[Hypanheaven]

should i let them out of the fry saver into main tank ????????

 

[KiwiBigD]

You should be right letting them out depending on the size of the L333s. Are they big enough to eat the fry? Generally they won't but I've a L333 adult that loved hunting the bristlenose fry if they were less than 2cm. The L333 was 8cm so a lot larger but something to bear in mind

- KiwiBigD

 

[Big-B]

Sorry for the loss. Have you only lost one? I'd keep them in the saver for a few more days to try and fatten them up a little and then let them out into the tank. Hopefully it was just one suicidal fry and the rest make it. Good Luck with them.:thumbup:

 

[Hypanheaven]

i have decided im going to let them out into the tank today, there is alot of algea in the tank and other 'crap' they can feed on so hopefully they just swim to a spot and start sucking. I am feeding them algea/spuirlina disc's aswell and with my fry saver arrangement its very hard to clean all the disc out before it goes off and i dont want to keep pulling them out of the water, easier to let them swim free i think....good luck to them all!

 

[Hypanheaven]

heres the fry, the algea wafer mess is cleaned out daily and new water flushed through twice daily

 

[Irene0100]

can you put an airstone in the fry saver?
can you put some small stones that have algae on them on there too? else small bit of wood or some shelter for light?
can you vary their diet more, some crushed flakes for example.

 

[Hypanheaven]

i can do all of the above, ill need to find a bit of wood to fit in there somewhere...ive released them into the tank with the parents......theres another 32 eggs being fanned will do it all with this batch.

cheers

 

[Mooo]

OH bummer, sorry to hear you had one try to escape...
Good luck with the remainder..

 

[Bigjohnnofish]

You should be right letting them out depending on the size of the L333s. Are they big enough to eat the fry? Generally they won't but I've a L333 adult that loved hunting the bristlenose fry if they were less than 2cm. The L333 was 8cm so a lot larger but something to bear in mind

- KiwiBigD

its funny you say that i had the same with a male 333 that i needed to give some time out as he started eating eggs... i put him in a 6 footer chocka full of common b/n.... became a good hunter

 

[Hypanheaven]

its funny you say that i had the same with a male 333 that i needed to give some time out as he started eating eggs... i put him in a 6 footer chocka full of common b/n.... became a good hunter

I should give them back to you johnno to grow them up quicker with that method....

 

[816johnv]

I dont feed my fry until 2 weeks old i just add 3 amazon sword plants to the fry trap and they graze on the leaves or the algea on the leaves then start feeding algea wafers and lettuce after that but i leave the amazon sword plants in the trap still i have had no deaths doing this