Food For Fry

[Davidiator]

So I am getting a 55 gallon tank.
It is going to hold this stocking:

Male Cockatoo Dwarf Cichlid x1
Female Cockatoo Dwarf Cichlid x3
Male Bristle-nose Pleco x1
Female Bristle-nose Pleco x1
Male Dwarf Gourami x1
Neon Tetras x20
Yellow Mystery Snails x3-5

And as you may see the plecos and Cichlids should mate/spawn...
I want to know if they can just eat stuff off the sponge filters or do I need to make some sort of microscopic food... I Have a 1 gallon container that I can culture something in. But I do not want to make anything larger as I am only going to feed this to the fry.

If they could just eat of the sponge filter that would be great news but I am told they need microscopic food so I am not sure if the filters will have that or not...
thanks

 

[tlindsey]

So I am getting a 55 gallon tank.
It is going to hold this stocking:

Male Cockatoo Dwarf Cichlid x1
Female Cockatoo Dwarf Cichlid x3
Male Bristle-nose Pleco x1
Female Bristle-nose Pleco x1
Male Dwarf Gourami x1
Neon Tetras x20
Yellow Mystery Snails x3-5

And as you may see the plecos and Cichlids should mate/spawn...
I want to know if they can just eat stuff off the sponge filters or do I need to make some sort of microscopic food... I Have a 1 gallon container that I can culture something in. But I do not want to make anything larger as I am only going to feed this to the fry.

If they could just eat of the sponge filter that would be great news but I am told they need microscopic food so I am not sure if the filters will have that or not...
thanks

Actually the female will guide the Apistogramma fry to certain area that she feels that are safe and will provide food. Apistogramma fry are very tiny in comparison to medium sized Cichlid fry and I suggest hatching brine shrimp, or culturing micro worms but would lol only culture the worms if you had an unoccupied area unfinished basement due the smell when you open the lid lol. The sponge filter will be grazed on by the tiny fry also.

 

[tlindsey]

Actually the female will guide the Apistogramma fry to certain area that she feels that are safe and will provide food. Apistogramma fry are very tiny in comparison to medium sized Cichlid fry and I suggest hatching brine shrimp, or culturing micro worms but would lol only culture the worms if you had an unoccupied area unfinished basement due the smell when you open the lid lol. The sponge filter will be grazed on by the tiny fry also.

When you have time check out Apistogramma.com very resourceful for Apistogramma enthusiast.

 

[Davidiator]

Ok.
I talked to gourami swami and he said that the mom will take care of them till they are free swimming. Then I need to basically sell them.
But thank you

 

[Davidiator]

Will do. Thanks again

 

[phreeflow]

You can squeeze the sponge to inoculate the tank with microorganisms once they are free swimming. Having a mat of moss or Indian almond leaves also provides places for microorganisms to populate. If you want to culture something then go with microworms (super easy) but use potato flakes and not oatmeal as the growing medium. Oatmeal stinks...potato flakes not so much

 

[duanes]

When they are wrigglers (As Gourami Swami said) they live off a yolk sack taken care of by the parents. But when they become free swimming they will still only be tiny, and for the normal LFS, too small to be sellable. Most store don't take fry until they are large enough, and look at least something like the parents (@1+"), which usually takes a couple months.
So you will need to feed until that time as they become a sealable size.
I usually raise artemia (brine shrimp) until the fry adapt to flake, and have at least 2 cultures going constantly, to keep up with the growing constantly hungry fry. I also let age grow on everything except the front glass to provide grazing.




and just a heads up, plecos will eat cichlid eggs and wrigglers, especially at night when the parents are resting.