Yellow lab fry graveyard... what did I do wrong

[maddhatter72]

Hi guys,  I'm a novice when it comes to aquariums and have been learning as I go thanks to this site.

A few weeks ago I got some very nice Yellow labs from armthehomeless.  A few of them were holding.  Last week I stripped 4 fish and got a total of 16 fry.  (Tim had stripped most of the fry but a few went undetected)  Only one of the mother fish's fry still had egg sack attached but they were free swimming and the egg sack were close to consumed.  I put them is a large platic container (14inx10inx8in with an open top) with water from the tank the mothers were holding in.  They wer stipped directly into the plastic container after the mothers had been swimming in it for 30 minutes.

The fry were fine for 3 days.  I airated the water in the container with a small air pump once a day for about 1-2 hours.  On the 3rd day 2 died.  I pulled them out. Yesterday (4th day) all but 5 died.  The water is only 5 days old and gets airated daily.  Plus there is a lot of water so it should not have gone bad right?   I did not do a water change but on the 4th day I did add about 50 more water to the container bringing it to the top with a few drops of the decloranator stuff.

I would crush up some flakes into dust and sprinkle into the container.  None of the surviving 5 have egg sacks.

What should I do to get better results in the future and keep the 5 remaining alive.

Was it the water.... Weak fry.... airation.... wrong food..  

Setting up a tank specifically for small fry is not a viable option for me right now as i've committed my resources to setting up  some small tanks for 5 groups of kids i know and as with everyone else money is short.

Thanks
Riaz

[eklikewhoa]

Re: Yellow lab fry graveyard... what did I do wrong

Maybe it was the temp? Fungus?

If the fry were still one the sac then there should have been constant aeration or they should have been put in some sort of a tumbler.

[maddhatter72]

Re: Yellow lab fry graveyard... what did I do wrong

Questions Ek,

Fungus?  I saw your answer the the fungus on eggs question so I guess it could have been but the fry with yok sac were almost competely developed.  I mean the egg sac was almost consumed.   Does fungus only effect the egg portion?  If now shouldn't all of the fry have died already?  I still have 7 that hid under a small piece of holey rock I put in there container.  The all seem energetic.. .. atleast when it comes to hiding from me.  The fry seem to delecate for me to medicate there water with antifungacide.  Won't it bee to much for them.  How about a little bit of salt?

I thought about the airation as well but everytime I put the airstone and pump in it created sent them flying all over the place.  I thought they'd die of exhaustion so I would air the water for a couple of hours and them remove.  

I don't know what to do about temp.     I haven't tested it but that could also have done it since I sleep with my windows open and its getting colder at night but the container there in is plactic and would probably melt if I tried to put a heater in it.

Aren't tumlers for eggs to keep the rotating so the embrio develops proportionally?  I didn't think that it applied to developed or close to fully developed fry?  None of the survivors have egg sacs should i put the airstone and pump into the container and let it toss the fry around all day?


Thanks,
Riaz

[Brownsnoutuk]

Re: Yellow lab fry graveyard... what did I do wrong

Did you treat the water before adding it, or add it then treat it?

It was probably a build up of ammonia or the temperature getting too cold at night, do you have anyway to test the water? If it was the ammonia then adding more water might have saved the remaining fry until the ammonia becomes concentrated again. Id do a 25% water change, treating the water with dechlorinator Before adding it to the tank. Then do another 25% tomorrow.  At the same time id start a sponge filter going on one of your existing tanks to let it build up bacteria. After a couple of days you can put the sponge filter in the fry tank and change from every other day water changes to weekly water changes.

[armthehomeless]

Re: Yellow lab fry graveyard... what did I do wrong

My first guess would be the temperature change over the past few days. Temperature changes faster in smaller bodies of water than it does larger bodies of water. Depending on how much crushed flake food you were feeding them, I might think about the possibility of of an ammonia spike as well, just like Brownsnoutuk said. I try to change the 50% of the water on my fry tanks twice a week.