# why are they still soo small?



## TheTyeMan (Aug 9, 2004)

my babys are 3 weeks old now and I cant notice any growth over the past week and a half. I ffed them brine shrimp 3 or 4 days a week and first bites and no 1 the rest of the week. I do water changed ever day or 2 is there anything else I can do?


----------



## mashunter18 (Jan 2, 2004)

Are you feeding them several times a day?????????
When you feed them do you see there bellies changeing color???

they eat lots of brine shrimp.Look at the tails do you have the little black strip yet??


----------



## TheTyeMan (Aug 9, 2004)

I feed them atleast 2 times a day but when I do they dont eat. or atleast it doesn't look like it. but they are still alive so I'm guessing they do. as for the black stripe no not that I can see and I look at them all the time.


----------



## mashunter18 (Jan 2, 2004)

thetyeman said:


> I feed them atleast 2 times a day but when I do they dont eat. or atleast it doesn't look like it. but they are still alive so I'm guessing they do. as for the black stripe no not that I can see and I look at them all the time.
> [snapback]1135028[/snapback]​


Have you watched them??I always see mine eating.I dont like first bites for fry at all.I can tell a big difference when i feed live baby brine shrimp as compared to first bites, typically I get a dust pile on the bottem from first bites.

o.k I went out and take some pictures of some of my fry for you.

2 week old fry after being fed about 1 hour ago, notice their insides how orange colored, they are full for now, look how full, when you look in you should be able to tell a difference from before you feed compared to after, this is on live baby brine shrimp
View attachment 71011


Now here is 4-5 week old fry, same deal look at the bellies, nice and full
these guys will eat frozen blood worm at this size, but you can still tell they have eatin.
View attachment 71010


now here is one week old fry, today they will start brine live baby brine shrimp, and if I go back out after i feed them they will have orange bellies and it will be obvious, right now look it is all grey and clear, after I feed there will be orange spots all over the tank.

View attachment 71012


Sounds like maybe they are not getting enough food, or fry tank is to large and they all cant find the food.


----------



## TheTyeMan (Aug 9, 2004)

yeah i have a big 72 gal tank. I was taken by suprise byt them breeding. so I guess next time I will have a 30 gal for them.

And now that I have seen the pics yeah I notice on mine that they do turn ornage. but they look like they are the same size as your 2 week old and nto even close to the 4 to 5 week old.


----------



## mashunter18 (Jan 2, 2004)

thetyeman said:


> yeah i have a big 72 gal tank. I was taken by suprise byt them breeding. so I guess next time I will have a 30 gal for them.
> 
> And now that I have seen the pics yeah I notice on mine that they do turn ornage. but they look like they are the same size as your 2 week old and nto even close to the 4 to 5 week old.
> [snapback]1135692[/snapback]​


oh wow, I remember you did syphon them out into a different tank, so if you have them in a big old 72 gallon I think the problem may be geared towards the baby brine and first bites just getting spread out all over the place making it harder for the fry to find them.I wouldnt try and move them at this point, also some batches of fry will grow real fast and some dont grow as quickly.

I think you outta try and use like between a 20 gallon and 40 gallon for your next batch.


----------



## TheTyeMan (Aug 9, 2004)

so moving them would be a bad idea or what? I would use the water from the 72 gal


----------



## mashunter18 (Jan 2, 2004)

thetyeman said:


> so moving them would be a bad idea or what? I would use the water from the 72 gal
> [snapback]1136172[/snapback]​


You can if you want, i would feed them first and wait about 1 hour, then move them.

just a warning, you can potentially wipe them all out doing that.I prefer not to mess with them for aboout 1 month....


----------



## TheTyeMan (Aug 9, 2004)

alright I'll wait then for another week till they are a month. hopefully the adults wont breed until then.


----------



## vinniegambini (Feb 28, 2003)

I fed mine 4 times a day on the brine shrimp. Just used the frozen cubes. They will grow fast. Just sold a batch to the lfs. Make sure they have an airstone in there as well. They will not all grow big a the same time. I had to separate some of the bigger baby p's so they wouldn't eat the smaller ones. Good luck!!!!


----------



## AKSkirmish (Jun 24, 2005)

well i know when i was breeding my reds i would feed them live bloodworms and that made them grow really fast might want to give this a try maybe.


----------



## TheTyeMan (Aug 9, 2004)

I was thinking about the blood worms but they are still too small for them. I have some waiting for me at the lfs I sold them to but that is still another week or 2 away.


----------



## HOLLYWOOD (Feb 6, 2003)

Temperature (Warmer), good water quality(keep up on ammonia levels), and numerous brine feeding are factors that affect fry growth rate.


----------



## TheTyeMan (Aug 9, 2004)

well whats a good temp I have it at 26C right now should it be higher? I put my automatic brineshrimp hatchery in the tank lastnight and they have started hatching. Anything else?


----------



## mashunter18 (Jan 2, 2004)

Thats not bad, you may want tp up 2-3 degrees to 28,29c, thats about 80-81f


----------



## TheTyeMan (Aug 9, 2004)

ok its on its way up. question now is are live brine shrimp better then freeze dryed or what? cause I;m having a hell of a time keeping the brine alive.


----------



## nubsmoke (Feb 4, 2004)

thetyeman said:


> ok its on its way up. question now is are live brine shrimp better then freeze dryed or what? cause I;m having a hell of a time keeping the brine alive.
> [snapback]1138596[/snapback]​


If you want the best sucess have PLENTY of live baby brine. I swear they go after movement at this small size! I have'nt had sucess with first bites until the fry were bigger.And be careful about feeding bloodworms too early, I've had fry choke on them before! What are you using to hatch brine shrimp?


----------



## HOLLYWOOD (Feb 6, 2003)

Excellent advice!

I too only feed live brine until they are large enough to transition to blood worm.



nubsmoke said:


> thetyeman said:
> 
> 
> > ok its on its way up. question now is are live brine shrimp better then freeze dryed or what? cause I;m having a hell of a time keeping the brine alive.
> ...


----------



## TheTyeMan (Aug 9, 2004)

I use a brine shrimp hatchery(a black box with a clear container on top. I tried the automatic feeder/hatchery but I didn't have any hatch and the eggs just floatedinto the tank and sank to the bottom.

what about liquifry no 1? they seem to like that quite a bit and its less expensive then the brine shrimp.

is there somewhere onlone I can buy the brine shrimp for less then 12 bucks for 3 grams??


----------



## mashunter18 (Jan 2, 2004)

thetyeman said:


> I use a brine shrimp hatchery(a black box with a clear container on top. I tried the automatic feeder/hatchery but I didn't have any hatch and the eggs just floatedinto the tank and sank to the bottom.
> 
> what about liquifry no 1? they seem to like that quite a bit and its less expensive then the brine shrimp.
> 
> ...


You should try the 2 liter hatcher, your fry hatch will be really nice, you will get lots of baby brine.Does the auto hatchr use aeriation, like an air pump???You really need that air and agitation to get a good hatch of brine.

I know from big als online you can get 3.5 ounce can for like 20$ of eggs, of those little 6 gram tubes are like 2$ or 3$, I think the 3 pack of eggs and salt mixed is like $1.80.

Defenitely try the cone man, sounds like maybe your not getting enough brine hatched........


----------



## nubsmoke (Feb 4, 2004)

Pet Solutions offers a 15 oz. can of brine shrimp eggs ! You definately would'nt run out of baby brine! They don't offer a price , it says call . One day I'll order one and see what's up. A side note about the importance of brine shrimp. About 3 weeks ago I went to a LFS and needed brine eggs. They did'nt have the 3.75 oz can so I bought 2 of those 6 gram vials of eggs. The packaging was the old style but I tried hatching them anyway. I needed them because I had a tank of fry that were ready to eat. HARDLY ANY hatched! I've never had this happen before, and did'nt have any backup. I had to work and could'nt get any more for 4 days. I fed First Bites , but the babies never seem to go for it. I lost the whole tank! The best bet is to buy the largest can you can find/buy/order!


----------



## TheTyeMan (Aug 9, 2004)

well I am going to go to my lfs to get the biggest one I can. I use the one litre hatchery and it works well but they all die after the second day.


----------



## TheTyeMan (Aug 9, 2004)

yes my automatic feeder has a pump hooked up to it but all it does is push the unhatched eggs into the tank.

and yes I am following the steps to set it up right.


----------



## Slim (Jan 9, 2005)

I use strictly first bites and tertramin tropical flakes which I crumble in between my fingers to make almost a powder. Thats all I feed them till about 3 or 4 weeks and then I use just tetramin tropical flakes but I dont crumble them up as much. I usually sell my fry after on the 6th week. In my area I do not have the luxury of brine shrimp or brine shrimp eggs becuase the midwest sucks so I use just the 2 food sources.


----------

