First attempt and raising baby snowflakes.

This is what I do and it has been pretty successful for me once I figured out the details.

On hatch night I do a five gallon water change on the broodstock tank and put the water in a ten gallon with three sides painted black and white on the bottom and the front covered with black paper. While keeping the eggs under water I transfor them over to the 10g. I use a finnex 150w HMO heater and keep the temp at 81-82. I use a small air stone and have the bubbles directly hitting the eggs. Once it's time to shut off the lights I add rots and tint the water (how much to tint is trial and error, at first I wasn't tinting enough and I was losing fry). I usually hatch just about all the eggs but a couple of times there have been a few left. I usually pull the pot either way so as not to fowl the water if the remaining eggs go bad, unless there were a lot of eggs left then I might leave them in and try one more day. As Gresham mentioned the rots only have nutritional value as long as they are feeding. The tinted water also help to shield the fry from the light. The light should be dim, I use a 40w led bulb and filter it with a sheet of paper or two. Better yet use a light dimmer. If it's too bright for the fry they'll stay at the bottom where they'll die. Depending on how many fry I have I have yo keep adding rots. Rots can degrade the water quality if there are too many so be careful not to over feed. On smaller clutches I usually don't have to add more rots after a couple of day as they become self sustaining, I just add rotigrow about twice a day to keep the water tinted. I also start doing water changes (about 1/2 a gallon twice a day) the day after they hatch. Some people say to wait until day 3 but I experienced losses that way. I just remove all at once and slow drip back in. I vacuum out the bottom as soon as I start seeing debris at the bottom. I think that's it in a nut shell, hope it helps.
 
Thanks for the detailed info from everyone. It's greatly appreciated. She laid quite a few this time so I'm hoping with all the info you guys supplied me with I can get a good turn out this time around.
0a6661507ede7cf99521fbaf40c3bdb7.jpg
 
Ok. So I'm on day 3. At first I had about 125 babies on hatch night. Second day I lost quite a few and now I'm on day 3. I'm have about 40-50 fry remaining. On hatch night I moved the pot to my fry tank and made very sure not to let any air get to the eggs. Once I had the pot in my 5 gallon tank I put an airstone inside the pot and put it on low so that there wasn't too much air flow that would harm the fry. I also tinted my water and added my rotifers to the fry tank. I run my temp at 80 degrees as well. I know on day 3 I should do roughly a half gallon water change with a slow drip back into the tank. Why am I losing so many fry? I did a water change on my main tank on hatch night as well so I was guaranteed to have the same perimeters in my water in the fry tank. Any suggestions?
 
what was the salanity on day 3
on day 2 I start dripping fresh water to get 1.020 ,I find the larva like the lower salinity. I keep the broadstock tank at 1.025
 
I'm using a 5 gallon tank for my fry. Should I use a 10 gallon or is 5 enough for now? Also what kind of time frame do you use for the lights? I had mine on all day for the first 2 days. Today is the first time I turned them off for about 4 hrs. And for food I have the otohime so what day would be suitable to start mixing that in with the rotifers?
 
I am tagging along as I have a breeding pair of snowflakes as well. Aj, keep it up and I bet your going to have success. :thumbs:
 
I'm tagging along....although I know ur a hands on person but the breeders guide book is an easy read and really answers so e of the small questions u have.....I'm starting a breeding setup and am def intrested in ur thread....
 
Today is day 8 and all 16 are still going strong. I mixed in the otohime with the rotifers this morning so I'm gonna try at start to switch out the live food. I'm also doing 1/2 gallon water changes daily and feeding 3 times a day.
 
for some reason I cant see the images
I would try and keep the rotifiers in till atleast day 10. maybe 14
if you have the oto b1 then you can start feeding them from day 4 till day 15,
are you doin any brineshrimp.
I usaually do it for 3 days day 7 -10
 
I'm going to pick up the brine eggs now. I am feeding rotifers still and I started mixing otohime b1 on day 9.
 
You should be using oto A after rots and then the B1. I start feeding oto A at about day 3. If you don't have the A then go with newly hatched BS then then the B1. You should overlap foods since sometimes it take the fry a day or two to take to the new food. I feed like this and I usually get head stripes by day7-8 and I'm completely off rots by day 9-10.
 
Back
Top