Fry food, the natural way

[Hybridfish7]

Well I'll start off by saying the tank my pair of convicts is in is covered in cyano. The pair has fry, and has had those fry for the last 2 months. They're about 3/4 of an inch. I have not fed the fry specifically. Is that just a matter of convicts being fast growing fish or is it the cyano that the fry have been grazing on? Same goes for my nanolutea fry, they're about 3 weeks old and are growing VERY fast. The thing with them is I don't know what they're eating. There's some fungus growing off the wood, that's about it, I wonder if there's just a decent amount of infusoria in the tank.
And speaking of infusoria I forgot I left a culture on the window about a week ago, I should probably check on that.
In the case of the convicts, if it is the cyano, since spirulina is cyanobacteria, I may try and do a little project off to the side to see if fry grow faster on spirulina or whatever fry food I've been giving them. Either spirulina or just pure cyano scraped off the glass of the convict tank.

 

[tlindsey]

Well I'll start off by saying the tank my pair of convicts is in is covered in cyano. The pair has fry, and has had those fry for the last 2 months. They're about 3/4 of an inch. I have not fed the fry specifically. Is that just a matter of convicts being fast growing fish or is it the cyano that the fry have been grazing on? Same goes for my nanolutea fry, they're about 3 weeks old and are growing VERY fast. The thing with them is I don't know what they're eating. There's some fungus growing off the wood, that's about it, I wonder if there's just a decent amount of infusoria in the tank.
And speaking of infusoria I forgot I left a culture on the window about a week ago, I should probably check on that.
In the case of the convicts, if it is the cyano, since spirulina is cyanobacteria, I may try and do a little project off to the side to see if fry grow faster on spirulina or whatever fry food I've been giving them. Either spirulina or just pure cyano scraped off the glass of the convict tank.

Yes microorganisms from the algae and food you are feeding the adults the tiny particles.

 

[jjohnwm]

It's not just algae/cyanobacteria, but all the micro-organisms living within it that they are eating. I like to have a large sponge filter in any tank I am using for spawning or rearing fry, because you will often see them grazing on the sponge surface extensively for that reason.

I still prefer to add food specifically for fry as well, to maximize growth and health. If you have a large spawn hatch out, they can probably pare down the available microfauna pretty quickly.

 

[Hybridfish7]

It's not just algae/cyanobacteria, but all the micro-organisms living within it that they are eating. I like to have a large sponge filter in any tank I am using for spawning or rearing fry, because you will often see them grazing on the sponge surface extensively for that reason.

I still prefer to add food specifically for fry as well, to maximize growth and health. If you have a large spawn hatch out, they can probably pare down the available microfauna pretty quickly.

This is probably why my nanolutea fry are growing so fast, because there's alot to go around.
My female is small, she only laid about 30 eggs, most of which are still alive now.