Green Severum fry question

[Mudfrog]

Two of my GS's paired up and spawned. I now have fry which are around 4 days old. I really need to do a water change but I would imagine they are very susceptible to water temp, etc. Should I hold off until they are a little larger?

Also, I bought this "Breeding Tank" and it seems to be working pretty well. I have about 1/2 - 3/4 of the fry in this box. Is this an ok way to raise the fry for a while?

This is the pair.. their colors were tremendous while "courting". Sadly, they have dulled down.

You can see the eggs on the pot in the first pic. The second pic shows some of the fry that I missed when transferring them to the breeding tank. Sorry for the poor pics, a new camera is on the way.

 

[xraycer]

I do about 1/3 wc (only cold water) twice a week with my tanks. The temp would drop about 6-8degrees and it never affected my GS frys. Those frys tend to get curious really quick and start straying further and further away from their parents, so you should place a sponge or something over your filter intake strainer.

 

[Mudfrog]

I'm going to try to put a filter sock over the intake. I'm more worried about the catfish and loaches dining on the one's that are still in the tank.

 

[xraycer]

Loaches and catfish will definitely dine on the frys. Parents can only protect those wandering fys for so long in an aquarium.

 

[ryansmith83]

I grow out fry in 20 gallon tanks. The first few days after they start eating food (usually 2 - 4 days after free-swimming) I do 25% water changes daily but step those up to 50% once they've been eating well for a week or so. As long as you are close on the temp they will be fine. Severum fry are very hardy if they're healthy.

That breeder box really isn't going to be helpful. It's best just to move them to their own growout tank if you want to raise them.

 

[Mudfrog]

The breeding box seems to be doing pretty well for now. I really have nowhere else to put another tank, not to mention I downgraded from 7 tanks to 1 so I don't want to start the tank syndrome cycle again. I'm going to try and grow them out a while longer before they are released back in the tank. Currently I'd say there is probably a good 50+ free swimmers in the tank itself and the parents are doing a great job at keeping the other tankmates away. Anything under a 6ft tank and I think I'd be having a lot more issues.

 

[neutrino]

I never had issues doing water changes with severum fry, but I'd recommend the following: keep incoming water temps reasonably close to tank temps (doesn't have to be exact), keep intake of siphon a safe distance from very small fry or screen the intake as suggested above, don't create a strong rush of water in the path of the fry, as in filling too quickly from a bucket at their end of a tank-- very small severum fry are fairly delicate and initially susceptible to damage from too strong a current ime.

I've started a lot of fry out in breeder nets/boxes. In the short term I actually prefer it to setting up a small fry tank. I don't do little tanks for fry, I do divided 55 or 50 gal tanks as fry growout tanks, how I configure them changes with what I've got going at the time. In any case, the larger tank and water volume means a lot less fussing to maintain healthy fry, fewer water changes are needed, whatever algae/bio-film is living in a well established tank gives them something to graze on, etc. Along similar lines, I also don't do bare tanks for fry.

So, fry boxes can be done, but you don't want to wait too long to move them to larger quarters. At some point the confinement to such a small space slows their growth. In a single tank you could give them more space by dividing the tank for a while or by creating a tangle of branches, etc. that keeps larger fish out.