gar732
New member
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.
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.