# its a boy! and girls! and more boys!



## tmwhite (Jul 13, 2004)

so we had guests over this evening and the young man asks me what we feed the p's, so i said other fish and algae and shrimp. so he says, ' oh like those shrimp' so i figured they had leftovers in the tank and meanwhile hes pointing to the several dozen little itty bitty shrimp lookin things swimmin around and i look closer and theyre fry i think. theyre super small and clear with tiny dots for eyes and brains. there were several dozen originally but by the time we got the 20 gallon set up i could only find about 2 dozen to scoop out. i hadnt noticed any eggs, but we have had 1/2 of the 125gallon covered with a towel since the big guys don't like to be scared. they are about 3 years old, roughly hand sized- about 5 or 6 of them. any advice on raising the fry? most of these ones im thinking are too small and ill provided for to make it, and i think the parents may have eaten quite a few (or they got sucked up in the filtration). definitely not what i expected to come home to today. any words of wisdom are appreciated.


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## Handikapped (Nov 5, 2004)

keep them to see see and if you decide not to keep them you can use them as feeders or sell them (meaner suggestion put them all in a tank let them get a little big bigger about 1 inch then dont feed them and wait till there is but 1 super pissed off p) but i like the first suggestion


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## waspride (Jun 13, 2004)

Maybe you should try the breeding forum.


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## RhomZilla (Feb 12, 2003)

Moved to Breeding


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## HOLLYWOOD (Feb 6, 2003)

If they are piranha fry then your bound to get another spawn. I recommend transferring the shrimp to another tank as they are likely to eat some of the eggs. Im amazed at how long the shrimp have survived with P tankmates. And if you can post a pic of your setup.


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## tmwhite (Jul 13, 2004)

well, ive only got one fry left alive in the new tank i set up- not sure what the problem is- maybe i need filtration. i was worried they would get sucked up so i just put in a heater and a bubbler. or maybe i didnt get them the 'liqui-fry' in time and they starved? i didnt start putting that in until about day 5 in the new tank..... think i'm gonna scoop the little guy out while i vacuum the 20gal- there are minute amounts of food waste on the bottom plus some of his less fortunate buddies. hopefully i will do better next time around. the big female in the 125gal is turning black and rubbin up on any fish that comes close.


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## moeplz (Feb 21, 2005)

Dang thats awesome, I want my p's to breed.


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## tmwhite (Jul 13, 2004)

Unfortunately my fry tank did not cycle properly and i lost the last little fry. other day i checked the tank immediately after a vacuuming of the tank and they were at it again. checked this morning, and it looks like most of the eggs are gone and the remaining are white (unfertilized i'm assuming). Should I do another vacuum to get these eggs out and stimulate breeding again or just wait until my next scheduled cleaning?


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## tmwhite (Jul 13, 2004)

Not that anyone reads this thread, but i was noticing some suggestions for pH in the 6.5-7ish range listed elsewhere. My tank has never been so healthy (0 nitrite/nitrate, 0 ammonia!) however my pH always indicates on the lowest reading for my kit (6.0) i'm not sure if it is reading 6 but is actually lower because the test doesn't go down that for, or if it is a true reading. Is this too acidic? what would be the cause of over-acidic water? how would one go about changing it? the pH has read 6.0 ever since i have been testing now (about 3 years) and has remained the same even with previous tank conditions of 4 ppm nitrite and 8+ off the charts ammonia. seems like everyone's doing ok, kinda stressed i think from the breeding. one fish has had a spot on his eye for several years which i am fairly certain makes that eye blind, and he has got some pretty decent wounds i think from bashing into the faux-tree stump i put in the tank to give better sense of security for the parents.


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## mashunter18 (Jan 2, 2004)

If the ph has been fine for 3 years I wouldnt try and change it.My ph in all tanks is always a low 6, that can vary from different home to different home etc..Consistant is much more important. You could try a different brand test kit and it may read 6.3 or something different.I truthfully never check my perimeters unless something doesnt look right or the fish act funny.Of course I check them when first cycling a tank.JUst keep doing the same water change mainetnence you have always done for 3 years.

Also if you want them to keep breeding, and they have a couple times, they must like what your doing, so i wouldnt go changing it.Also if that ammonia was that high, I would be worried about that, but since it's at zero now, that is where it should be.You definitely want to keep your ammonia at 0, i would increase water changes to keep it down, but leave the ph alone.


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## mashunter18 (Jan 2, 2004)

o.k more on the ph,I reread that post.

If you do want to mess with it, be careful not to change it to much, crushed coral in a media cartridge can help buffer the ph higher naturally.Id be weary to go changing it though.Iv found piranha like ph more on the acidy side.


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## mantis (May 16, 2003)

I suggest doing some searching here on P-fury, you'll find alot of good info on rasing fry. There is alot of trial and error involved, and it is a bit of work. They will spawn again, so don't make any drastic changes to the tank, if you want them to do so.

Keep us posted


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## tmwhite (Jul 13, 2004)

quote myself " i dont think the eggs were fertilized"
doh!
last nite directly before retiring to bed, i check on the rbs and what to my wondering eyes do appear but like 200 little fry! what do i see when i check the tank this morning? no fry! so i sighed, thinking it just makes it easy on me the adults ate the babies so i dont have to worry about raising them right? well i started cleaning the house, tried to organize all the aquarium-related products under the 125 gallon, and i just happen to glance at the canister filter as im moving it over, and there are hundreds of little eyes staring back at me between the sponges in the filter. hmpf, so much for the mechanical filtration of that sucker, the fry were wedged in between the middle of it all. so i panic, set up my 20 gallon which i just tore down using 100% water from the adult tank, then very carefully try to dismantle the filter and collect the fry into a bucket. alas, they do not pour well, and some of them spilled into the sink. i picked up as many as i could, then realized there were several dozen wriggling stuck to my arm, so basically i took the whole thing and submersed it in the 20 gallon. (i had hoped to just get the fishies and leave the contents of the filter, but there was no separating thhem. i shook out the canister as much as possible aaand put it back together, and upon filling it up again saw dozens more babies which i had missed or were already dead. i tossed one of the main sponges into the adult tank, because every time i moved it, DOZENS of fry swam out, so i figure it can't hurt to leave it in there a few days. what a freakin nightmare. i was thinking in the future to prevent this problem, would it be ok to put some netting or pantyhose or something over the filter intakes? will the fry survive in the filter until they are big enough to get out? im exhausted. i feel terrible for these little guys, and i know a lot of the fry i got out of the filter are already floaters from all the shock. gosh i feel like a bad mom. Not that its my tank or my fish, and their owner certainly doesn't give a sh*t.


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## tmwhite (Jul 13, 2004)

well after cleaning the tank tuesday night, surprise surprise another nest has been laid and chocked full of eggs. i had no idea how many were in there, looked like only about a hundred, but i think most had sunk down into the rather large rock substrate. i got a small siphon wand and sucked thousands into my 20 gallon fry tank, which only has 2 survivors from the last batch who had not grown very well. (poor water conditions, brand new set up tank with no time to cycle. tank chemistry seems better now, and this will be the first time eggs have hatched in the fry tank rather than trying to catch the little bastards once they've flown the coop. 3 times the charm i hope. will post pictures and update as soon as the little buggers hatch.


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## tmwhite (Jul 13, 2004)

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wow i just looked at the pics and some of them make me see eggs where i couldnt see them with my own eyes. mmmmmm technology. the color is a little brighter than what seems normal i think due to flash, but the eggs really show up nice with the light colored substrate.


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## tmwhite (Jul 13, 2004)

i guess this was sooner rather than later. excited. got a good feeling about this batch. i think in one of the pictures you can see the older fry feeding on the eggs. actually looks like there's a few older fry that i didnt know about, more like 4 in the tank.


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## tmwhite (Jul 13, 2004)

fishies started to hatch on 5/19, eyes appeared 5/23. most are swimming as of today (5/25).
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## mantis (May 16, 2003)

wow, that was quick

Can you tell us some of the methods you've been using, feeding, cleaning, filtration etc.

btw, great pics!


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## tmwhite (Jul 13, 2004)

HOLY sh*t.

there are an AWFUL LOT of fry swimmin round today. looks like several hundred more little guys gained their swimming abilies whilst i was at work today. i was worried over the weekend, because after the initial explosion of spastic activity while hatching, the fry seemed to rest in the gravel for the next two days. i was worried they might be starving, or bad water conditions, however this morning and certainly tonight my fears have been put to rest. seems they just needed time to grow ( eyesight?, fins? strength?). they seem to cluster near the top corners all around the tank, though there appear to be several HUNDRED more still in the gravel. not sure how i will clean the tank with all these little buggers floating around- and that liqui-fry seems to cloud the water. here are some pics of the fry, and also a few of the proud parents, their 125 gallon tank (check out the sweeeeeeet stand i built) (note the privacy for the happy couple provided by the towel). will post details on filtration and all that jazz as soon as i remember to check and write that stuff down. enjoy all. this sure is cool stuff to watch happen.


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## killerbee (Aug 18, 2004)

holy sh*t thats a lot of fry...awesome work on the breeding and on the stand


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## frankyo (Oct 20, 2004)

GOOD JOB


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## tmwhite (Jul 13, 2004)

It appears all fry have been consumed by Smallfry, Mediumfry, and Largefry, the only 3 survivors of the first 2 matings. guess i'll have to set up a 3rd tank so i can keep the juveniles separate from the new fry. i guess it comes as some relief seeing a i dont think i would be able to feed an extra 500 mouths or so.


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