# frymania!!!!



## hrprvilla (Apr 22, 2004)

I left the first batch I ever had in my main tank and never saw them again. Since that first batch they have laid eggs another 4 times and all have been transfered into the 10 Gallon. 
They all seem to be very happy and swimming freely getting fed twice a day on newly hatched Brime Shrimp and grounded fish flakes which they scoff up.

We noticed that there were, what looked like a carpet of dead fry on the base of the tank. But with close inspection (with a magnifing glass) these fry wiggle every now and again. Now we find they are NOT dead at all, every day these fry are getting stronger and after a few days they start to swim around the tank and feed.

We now have over 400 swimming freely and double that resting at the bottom, and more eggs ready to hatch soon


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## CraigStables (Oct 5, 2003)

excellent! And nice pic









Whats your set-up?


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## hrprvilla (Apr 22, 2004)

10 Gallon Tank

Sponge Filter

Air Bubbler

Heater, Plant, Rock & Gravel


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## CraigStables (Oct 5, 2003)

hrprvilla said:


> 10 Gallon Tank
> 
> Songe Filter
> 
> ...


 what about the parent tank?


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## hrprvilla (Apr 22, 2004)

56 Gallons

6 Red Bellied Piranha's

2 at 5 1/2"

4 at 4 1/2"

And one Catfish at about 7 1/2 "

Fluval 404 External Filter


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## xt12ap5peedx17x (Oct 20, 2003)

Nice frys


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## NIKE (Jan 27, 2003)

congrats on the fry







and thanks for sharing pics with us


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## watermonst3rs (Feb 15, 2004)

Congrads!! If my Reds ever have babies what do you guys do with all the fry?


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## hrprvilla (Apr 22, 2004)

You syphon the eggs into a holding tank, that seems to work the best. Read Nike's review on raising Fry's it's excellent gives you all the information you need.

I also have a question myself, Some of my fry are starting to die and also there is alot of crap building up inside the tank. How can I sort this out without scooping up alot of the living fry.

Thanks


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## NIKE (Jan 27, 2003)

> I also have a question myself, Some of my fry are starting to die and also there is alot of crap building up inside the tank. How can I sort this out without scooping up alot of the living fry.


in this picture with the turkey bayster, there is a airline tube with a larger tubing over top it, i find that this works very well for cleaning the bottoms of the fry holding tanks. just create a syphon and aim it at debris and dead fry holding on the larger solid tube for support. The suction will be quite slow and allow you to see what gets syphoned up







be aware that you still could suck up the odd fry here and there during this cleaning and use a turkey bayster or fine net to replace any unwanted passengers back to the holding tanks.







good luck


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## hrprvilla (Apr 22, 2004)

15 Days in now, Fry tank is going very well. Some of the first batch are about 1cm long now and very active. Also the last eggs I moved over are starting to hatch now and there is a nice carpet of black eyes at the bottom of the tank.
Well even more good news, after taking out the eggs of my main tank I added a Catfish which I was getting off a mate. For 1 week no more Piranha loving then bam tonight 2 pairs are at it again







.
Will the Catfish eat the eggs ?


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## watermonst3rs (Feb 15, 2004)

No, I meant what do you do with the new P's once they start to grow? Just buy new tanks?


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## illnino (Mar 6, 2004)

i would take the catfish out cause he might eat the eggs, but knowing piranhas, they would kill the catfish before it gets near the eggs. also, how did you have 5 and 6" reds have babies, that is a little small.:rock:


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## hrprvilla (Apr 22, 2004)

how did you have 5 and 6" reds have babies, that is a little small.

How indeed like it was stated before I have had these P's for just over a month now and let me tell you it was a huge surprise for me also. Reading other people's reviews I was never expecting the P's to breed.
Now that it has happened I am happy









No, I meant what do you do with the new P's once they start to grow? Just buy new tanks?

That's the idea, As soon as these get bigger I will be investing in a new tank. These are my babies now and I hope they all survive. I have a big garage which another tank will go. First I want the fry's to grow, I was wondering myself what size would it be good for them to have a bigger tank.

Also noticed tonight that there is still more Fry in the main tank and have been feeding them crushed up flakes which they and the P's have been eating.


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## illnino (Mar 6, 2004)

wow, you are one lucky basturd. first of all, there is a small chance that they will breed, and at 4.5 and 5.5" WOW


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## nubsmoke (Feb 4, 2004)

In my 150 gal w/9 adult reds, I have 4 pairs that just recently spawned together,
and 3 of the fish are about 5-6inches. They are all males, because they are
usually gaurding nests. I just thought they were "runts", because they are 5 yrs.
old and have'nt grown much! I feel fish can be small and be mature, you just 
won't get a spawn of 1000 eggs out of little females.


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## hrprvilla (Apr 22, 2004)

Wow I love this Breeding, It seems to be every day that the Piranha's are mating.

The Fry from the first batch's are now getting along nicely feeding on Daphnia thanks to nubsmoke's info









We have tried other method's with the other batch's of eggs with no affect, and recently on the new batch's (3 in total) we have gone back to the way what worked first. 10 Gallon Tank, Sponge Filter and a Gravel filter with limited amount of Gravel. On Monday we syphoned the eggs from the Tank (3 seperate nests), one from one day another the next and one fresh from the day we syphoned.

Now being Thursday, The fry have started to wiggle free from the eggs it's amazing. Bringing in a new life and me and my wife are fascinated watching them wiggle free.

We have now got 6 tanks set-up and will proberly need more as the P's will not stop mating, as I speak now they are up to it again. With another batch of eggs being guarded closly which came Tuesday. Proberly tomorrow another batch









Basically this is a amazing experience I wish that I could share more photos, but my camera is naff. I have ordered a new one so I can capture these amazing experiences for everybody.

Finally can the newer eggs be joined with the other batch's which I have transferred over to the other tank's, Or would this cause problems. As at the moment we are getting 4 nests a week









Another question we tried putting the video of the P's mating without any luck, kept saying it was the wrong type of file. Any help would be helpful.

thanks hrprvilla


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## master_of_puppets (Aug 29, 2003)

congrats!!


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## T-L-N-E (Dec 24, 2003)

congrats
and for more of them


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## nubsmoke (Feb 4, 2004)

At first I was really nervous about mixing batches, but like you have experienced, when they lay eggs every week it is hard not too! I have 6 - 20 gal longs, and this is not enough at times. I started mixing hatchlings (1-2 days hatched) with eggs out of necessity, and have had good sucess. The only problem with mixing is when the older fry are ready to start eating, and the younger are not. I try to wait an extra day , but it seems that when the fry don't feed at the right time they weaken and don't free swim very much. And feeding fry before thier yolk sac is absorped is a no-no. So as long as they are only a couple of days difference, you won't have much of a problem. Any longer(more than a week) and your survival rate with both batches will probably go down.


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## jmcrabb (Oct 3, 2003)

why do you say it's a no-no to feed them before their eggsacs are gone? I have been mixing spawns that are a week or more apart and feed them baby brine shrimp as normal, and haven't had any problems... just the other day, I had to net out 3 fry that were large enough to go into my 29 with a powerfilter on it, and even they were fine with the newly hatched fry... I only once saw one of them eating a dead fry... I also find it a lot easier for maintenance with a bare-bottom tank... for cleaning, I use a turkey baster to just suck up the waste... if I tap the bottom gently with the tip of the turkey baster as I slowly suck stuff up, the fry tend to get out of the way... if they don't, I just suck them up out of the bucket and put them back in... that airline idea sounds pretty good, I'll have to give it a try...

I wish I had another male, I think I have 2 females and a male, because 2 eat like pigs and a third pairs up with the larger of those two... the other just tries to make a nest, but never lays any eggs... it would be nice to have 2 nests going at a time...


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## nubsmoke (Feb 4, 2004)

I have been told (by Pedro and Ash) that when fry eat before their yolk sac is absorped there is a chance for "constipation". I have also researched other egg layers and there are other fish that experience the same thing. I am just pointing out the difficulties of raising large batches of fry. I have also had a mixed tank of two different aged fry , one group would only eat brine shrimp, and the other would eat both brine shrimp and daphnia, and the SMALLER FRY! Remember cannibalism runs rampant when they are small too.







I also am talking about raising thousands of fry in 6 separate tanks, and trying to get the best possible sucess ratio. I find it easier to deal with only one age of fry per tank. So there is a difference between raising a few fry for fun, which I started 3 years ago, and trying to get the most fish to local pet stores. I'll borrow my sisters camera and post some pics of my fry rearing tanks.


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## hrprvilla (Apr 22, 2004)

These are my newest photo's of my first batch of fry. They are now about 6 weeks old, there is a mix as when I first syphoned there were swimming fry and eggs. Probably only a few days apart in age.


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## illnino (Mar 6, 2004)

lookin good


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## nubsmoke (Feb 4, 2004)

When you say a few days apart, exactly how many? The fish I see look to be at least a week or two different in age. And a size difference like this WILL be bad for the smaller fry if you have a large mixed group, say 2-300 large and 500-1000 smaller fry combined. I have also had two batches(1000-2000 eggs) that were only 3-4 days apart combined , and before you knew it the older fry were swimming around with the younger fry's heads hanging out of their mouths! So you can mix batches on a hobby scale, and some of the smaller will live. IMO multiple small tanks are better than mixing fry of different ages, especially when you have 6 breeding pairs.


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## hrprvilla (Apr 22, 2004)

I'm not sure how much the age difference is as we didn't know they were breeding at first until we were cleaning the tank and found we were syphoning fry.

We then syphoned the whole tank and got fry and eggs out.

There are now around 20 fry left.


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## NaTuReBoYz A_TROX (Jul 28, 2004)

i have a 10g housing tank just like hrprvilla and sold many of my fry, but i chose to keep two in the tank and they have grown to about 5". is it alright to keep these in here for the rest of their lives? there haven't been many problems inside that tank. anybody got suggestions?


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## jmcrabb (Oct 3, 2003)

they're 5" and you have them in a 10g?! there's no way they will be ok in there for the rest of their lives. I would suggest putting them in a larger tank right away, in fact.


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## sublime03 (Aug 4, 2004)

i have just removed some frys from my main tank to a holding tank. some of the frys still have there sack. when should i start doing water changes and how do i know if my water is any good? when should i start feeding? and is frozen baby brime shrimp good?


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## Death in #'s (Apr 29, 2003)

congrats


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## sublime03 (Aug 4, 2004)

any tips on keeping these fry alive. ever other time i have not had any luck


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## nubsmoke (Feb 4, 2004)

If the fry have eyes forming, they are old enough for 50% daily water changes. As long as the water has been de-chlorinated, and aerated overnight it should be OK. If the tap water is good enough for your fish to breed, should be good enough for fry. I always have an extra sponge filter ready to add to fry tank, this helps with ammonia spikes, and water changes take care of excess nitrates. I am a firm believer of live brine babies over frozen when speed of growth is important. The little fry seem to respond faster to movement of live babies. The difference in growth is amazing. The frozen baby brine is OK to have in case of a hatching failure though. I hate to say it but with so many fry you push the maintenance envelope constantly, and I have had some decent sized failures too. But with 6 pairs I have eggs constantly, sometimes it's hard to keep up.


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## jmcrabb (Oct 3, 2003)

I do water changes with water from the parent tank... I just syphon it into the fry tank, then fill the parent tank with water from the tap... that way I know it's been cycled and it will have that little bit of extra bacteria already in the water so it doesn't have to rebuild itself...


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## hrprvilla (Apr 22, 2004)

Well tanks our all going fine. We transfered our first batch over to a bigger tank 25 gallons and they are growing rapidly now. We have 12 left of original batch and they are so beautiful to watch now, all with there own charcters. Recent transfers have not gone so well and the best I have managed is another tank with 6 Fry in it, all from the same egg batch.

Since I installed a Fluval 304 External filter to the main tank, I have never had the same success rate as when I had a Fluval 4 filter set-up.

With the recent batches only yesterday and the day before that. We turned the Filter system off, and have transfered 3 nests to a holding tank. Today we can see then wiggling free. I think turning the filter off worked well.

We now have 10 tanks set-up with 2 more ready if needed, the fish have taken over mine and my wife's time. It's a hobby gone wild but we LOVE IT!!!.









Below is one of the latest pictures of the first batch now eating - Beef Heart, Bloodworms and flakes 3 times aday. Hungary fish.


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## Mr. redbelly (Aug 4, 2004)

nice looking fry














but no fair i want some


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## Chedder (Aug 14, 2004)

What are you guys doing with all of your fish? Anyone selling them?


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## 351winsor (Aug 3, 2004)

congratulations.I wish I had that many piranhas.


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## hrprvilla (Apr 22, 2004)

It's been along time since my last post, so I thought I would update you all.

My first batch are now 4 months old, I only have 10 left. I have moved them into a 4 ft tank about 56 gallons for now. I have got attached to them already naming 3 (Half Belly, Jumbo & Hunchback). The biggest is proberly about 2 1/2" long.

My main tank is still going fine with the 2 mating pairs still at it, making 2 nests a week. I have lost alot of these nests due to massive spikes. I have saved some, with 2 more tanks holding fry.

My first tank with the fry in is about 10 gallons and the fry are about 4mm long containing about 30 and growing fast. I need to sell my baby blood parrot's (over 150) in another tank so I can get them in a bigger tank so they can grow. Another 10 gallon tank did contain 6 fry from my 2nd batch, Now I am left with 1. I am uncertain what happened to them but I am sure the 1 that is left ate them, He also has a name now The Lone Ranger and is about 1" long.

I have posted some pictures still not very good, I am still learning with my new camera, but hope you like them.


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## hrprvilla (Apr 22, 2004)

Here is another picture.


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## mantis (May 16, 2003)

keep up the good work


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