Triple Reds

[fatpuffer]

I have triple red wigglers...do I feed them anything or wait until they are free swimming. The wigglers were separated from mom because she and they were originally in the 33 gallon community tank.

Please and Thank you for all of your help. Pls be specific as I am a noobie.


THANKS!
Js

 

[apistobob]

Do not feed until the fry are free swimming. This is usually 4-5 days after the eggs hatch. You will be able to tellwhen they are swimming and not just laying on the bottom.

If you keep live plants, I would add some fine leaved plants now. I especially like to use java moss. As soon as the fry are ready to eat they will find food items hidden in the plants.

When the fry begin to feed try to get some live food into them. Newly hatched brine shrimp or micro worms are readily taken. It is a lot tougher toraise fry on prepared foods only.

Be careful not to overfeed. Fry don't eat much! Consider adding a few snails to the tank to help with clean up.

Good luck with a great fish.

Bob

 

[nightowl1350]

Congrats on the wigglers!

I would add that you need a sponge filter in your fry tank, a hang on the back will suck them up once they hatch. Start it now to cycle the filter or get a sponge and cover the intake of an existing filter (even a media bag or panty hose to cover the intake will work)

Apisto fry seem to hover along the bottom when not with Mom, but you will notice them swimming in a tight group (for protection) If you don't have any real plants, place some plastic ones for them to hide around.

New hatched brine shrimp is great (takes 24 hours for you to hatch them) but micro worms if you can get a culture are great as they are ready all the time once your culture is going and then you can add some brine shrimp. Bonus for microworms is they don't die for about 24 hours in tank water.

If possible try to get some tiny bristle nose plecos (about 1") as they do a great job cleaning up un eaten food in fry tanks. I breed BN and rmas, apisto and angels....they don't harm the fry (even free swimmers) and the bottom never has to be wiped down.

 

[Corie Dora]

Interesting use of a bn pleco...

Do you think you could do this with otocinclus? I really like the idea, but don't like the idea of constantly having to replace the ever-growing bn's with new ones and finding homes for the resulting adults.