Lost BGJD Fry

[bolivianbaby]

This spawn was huge! I pulled most of them out when they became free-swimming on October 4.

I've lost all of them but 5 or 6. I've been feeding them BBS three times a day and performing daily water changes.

Can anyone help me figure out what went wrong?

I know this pair has spawned successfully. They belonged to a friend of mine and she has raised them to juveniles before she sold them.

 

[Aquanero]

I'm not an expert on breeding JD's but I'm sure there are members on here with some experance in this area. I'm woundering if you should have left them with the parents. I normally don't pull the fry until the parents are ready to breed again. Anybody else?

 

[peathenster]

Do you know if they learned to eat bbs? Did they have round bellies that looked orange? Sometimes fry can survive a few days to a week without eating, but eventually they would run out of nutrients and there would be a massive die off at around the one week mark.

 

[bolivianbaby]

Do you know if they learned to eat bbs? Did they have round bellies that looked orange? Sometimes fry can survive a few days to a week without eating, but eventually they would run out of nutrients and there would be a massive die off at around the one week mark.

That's an interesting question. The BBS I feed them is frozen. I defrost it in tank water before feeding. They "swarmed" it when I put it in and it looked like they were eating it. I did see several of them "down a few".

However, they didn't have the round orange bellies. I feed this to all of my fry and none of them have the round orange bellies, but I've no issues with any of my livebearer fry.

I'm going to consider them not eating to be a possibility. What are my other options in regards to feeding newborn JD fry?

 

[Aquanero]

That's an interesting piont Peat. I use BBS but also smash up some pellets into powder like Boi-Gold +, NLS Thera+A and Massivour, Hakari also make first bites which I've used in the past but not so much any more.

 

[peathenster]

Well I guess the size of the fry may make a difference - most of my G. orange head fry can survive on decap bbs eggs, but angels and apisto fry seem to be smaller and do very poorly on prepared food. I haven't bred BGJDs myself and don't actually know how big they are, but they are probably much much smaller than liverbearer fry.

 

[bolivianbaby]

That's an interesting piont Peat. I use BBS but also smash up some pellets into powder like Boi-Gold +, NLS Thera+A and Massivour, Hakari also make first bites which I've used in the past but not so much any more.

I'm glad you mentioned those. They're all on my shopping list. Finances have been tight for the past several weeks.

Well I guess the size of the fry may make a difference - most of my G. orange head fry can survive on decap bbs eggs, but angels and apisto fry seem to be smaller and do very poorly on prepared food. I haven't bred BGJDs myself and don't actually know how big they are, but they are probably much much smaller than liverbearer fry.

Isn't the frozen BBS the closest thing to the newly hatched BBS you can find? They're really really tiny.

 

[Gruff Master]

My old JD's bred like rabbits. I left the fry with them until they laid a new batch of eggs. I fugure that the parents can do a far better job at raising the fry than me. This also gives the fry a chance to get strong and learn to forage on their own. Also be careful with the volume and frquency of your water changes with young fry. Sometimes the swift fluctuations in parameters that are tolerable for adults can be very hard or deadly for their fry.

 

[pat3612]

I had a pair that spawn like ten times out of all the spawns Only 2 of the fry have made it so far I dont tknow if it the genes or not But Iam going to pair them up to different fish if I can.

 

[bolivianbaby]

My old JD's bred like rabbits. I left the fry with them until they laid a new batch of eggs. I fugure that the parents can do a far better job at raising the fry than me. This also gives the fry a chance to get strong and learn to forage on their own. Also be careful with the volume and frquency of your water changes with young fry. Sometimes the swift fluctuations in parameters that are tolerable for adults can be very hard or deadly for their fry.

Hmmm...another interesting point. Especially since the parents are in a 55g tank and the "baby" tank is a 10g. What would your suggestions be on volume and frequency of water changes?

I did get this pair from a friend and she always pulled them when they became free-swimming. She said they would eat their fry.

I had a pair that spawn like ten times out of all the spawns Only 2 of the fry have made it so far I dont tknow if it the genes or not But Iam going to pair them up to different fish if I can.

I'm sorry. I definitely feel your disappointment.