Rainbow cichlid fry dying!!!

[Joeygee23]

I'm stumped. Moved a couple hundred Rainbow cichlid fry to a 20 long. Mature sponge filter, 78 degrees, painted glass bottom to keep clean. Feeding them frozen baby brine shrimp. They are slowly dying off about 10% a day. I've raised 10's of thousands of fry and this has never happened. Any suggestions?

 

[jgentry]

I'm stumped. Moved a couple hundred Rainbow cichlid fry to a 20 long. Mature sponge filter, 78 degrees, painted glass bottom to keep clean. Feeding them frozen baby brine shrimp. They are slowly dying off about 10% a day. I've raised 10's of thousands of fry and this has never happened. Any suggestions?

Is the tank to clean? Is there any algae build up on any of the glass? I would feed golden pearls or something with a little more protein.

 

[Joeygee23]

Last night I crumbled some HBH pellets real fine and they loved it (at least those still alive!)

 

[MonteSS]

I have good luck with De-encapsulated brine shrimp eggs.

...Bill

 

[ryansmith83]

How often are you doing water changes, and what size water change are you doing? I've found in the past with certain fry that if I got behind on water changes in a small bare-bottom tank, they would start to die off in steady numbers. I do daily or every other day water changes on fry tanks, usually about 50% or so. You can age the water to dechlorinate/temperature match it if necessary.

You want to make sure you're getting any uneaten food out of the tank. Rotting foods will foul the water up pretty quickly. You could also try a small bristlenose pleco as a "babysitter." I keep them in my tank to eat the leftover live BBS that eventually end up on the tank bottom.

 

[Morledzep]

my ex killed an entire spawn of red jewel fry by feeding them unwashed freshly hatched brine shrimp.

when i used to try to keep the fry i fed them the de-encapulated brine shrimp eggs and then frozen baby brine shrimp after they got a bit bigger. now i just let the little catfish eat them.

 

[Joeygee23]

The fry were "sticking" to the bare bottom at night. Next batch I put a thin layer of gravel down and pump water from tank they hatched in. Have lost one yet. Thanks for advice.