Advice on Catching Fry in a Mbuna Tank?

Howdy. I've got a 55 gallon stocked with 6 Cynotilapia afra (red top),
6 L. caerulus, and 3 Synodontis multipunctatus. The tank is heavily
built up with rockwork (right up to the surface).

My afras have started breeding, which I'm very happy about. But I
haven't been able to catch any of the females holding, even though I
observe closely during feeding time. My first clue that they had begun
mating was noticing a fry dart out to grab a piece of flake. As I was
just about to move the tank to our new house, I was able to catch that
fry, and also to find one other, after removing all the rock work and
bagging the adults for the move. Those two are now in a 10 gallon, and
seem to be visibly growing daily on a diet of crushed spirulina flake.
I've got a 29 gallon that I'll be setting up later as a grow out tank.

However, today during feeding I saw another fry in one of the smaller
caves. These guys are very good at staying in crevices where the other
fish can't get at them, so there may very well be other fry in the tank
as well, hiding where I can't see them. I'd like to move these new fry
into the 10 gallon with the others, but I can't think of any way to
catch them other than completely breaking the tank down again, which I'm
loath to do. The other option I guess is to leave them in with the
adults and hope they survive, although I worry about ones hiding where I
can't see them since I can't be sure they're getting any food. Does
anybody have any bright ideas about what to do?

--
Chris Kollmann

cskollmann wrote:
Howdy. I've got a 55 gallon stocked with 6 Cynotilapia afra (red top),
6 L. caerulus, and 3 Synodontis multipunctatus. The tank is heavily
built up with rockwork (right up to the surface).

My afras have started breeding, which I'm very happy about. But I
haven't been able to catch any of the females holding, even though I
observe closely during feeding time. My first clue that they had begun
mating was noticing a fry dart out to grab a piece of flake. As I was
just about to move the tank to our new house, I was able to catch that
fry, and also to find one other, after removing all the rock work and
bagging the adults for the move. Those two are now in a 10 gallon, and
seem to be visibly growing daily on a diet of crushed spirulina flake.
I've got a 29 gallon that I'll be setting up later as a grow out tank.

However, today during feeding I saw another fry in one of the smaller
caves. These guys are very good at staying in crevices where the other
fish can't get at them, so there may very well be other fry in the tank
as well, hiding where I can't see them. I'd like to move these new fry
into the 10 gallon with the others, but I can't think of any way to
catch them other than completely breaking the tank down again, which I'm
loath to do. The other option I guess is to leave them in with the
adults and hope they survive, although I worry about ones hiding where I
can't see them since I can't be sure they're getting any food. Does
anybody have any bright ideas about what to do?

Set up a trap too small for the larger fish? You can make a fish trap
by cutting a soda bottle in half and putting the top upside-down in the
bottom. If you use a small enough bottle, maybe the adults won't go in.
You might be able to modify a marine tank bristleworm trap to work too.

--
Elaine T __
http://eethomp.com/fish.html '__
rec.aquaria.* FAQ http://faq.thekrib.com

"cskollmann" wrote in message
...
Howdy. I've got a 55 gallon stocked with 6 Cynotilapia afra (red top),
6 L. caerulus, and 3 Synodontis multipunctatus. The tank is heavily
built up with rockwork (right up to the surface).

My afras have started breeding, which I'm very happy about. But I
haven't been able to catch any of the females holding, even though I
observe closely during feeding time. My first clue that they had begun
mating was noticing a fry dart out to grab a piece of flake. As I was
just about to move the tank to our new house, I was able to catch that
fry, and also to find one other, after removing all the rock work and
bagging the adults for the move. Those two are now in a 10 gallon, and
seem to be visibly growing daily on a diet of crushed spirulina flake.
I've got a 29 gallon that I'll be setting up later as a grow out tank.

However, today during feeding I saw another fry in one of the smaller
caves. These guys are very good at staying in crevices where the other
fish can't get at them, so there may very well be other fry in the tank
as well, hiding where I can't see them. I'd like to move these new fry
into the 10 gallon with the others, but I can't think of any way to
catch them other than completely breaking the tank down again, which I'm
loath to do. The other option I guess is to leave them in with the
adults and hope they survive, although I worry about ones hiding where I
can't see them since I can't be sure they're getting any food. Does
anybody have any bright ideas about what to do?

--
Chris Kollmann

Flip the light on in the middle of the night after hours of them being in
the dark. I've been doing this for years in heavily decorating tanks with
fast fish. If you get lucky you'll find plenty of fishies laying kind of
stunned on the bottom. Work quickly, they adjust in minutes, and start up
swimming and avoiding again.

--
JK Sinrod
Sinrod Stained Glass Studios
http://www.sinrodstudios.com/
Coney Island Memories
www.sinrodstudios.com/coneymemories/

"JK@work" wrote in message
news:8DQGe.550$b91.368@trndny06...

"cskollmann" wrote in message
...
Howdy. I've got a 55 gallon stocked with 6 Cynotilapia afra (red top),
6 L. caerulus, and 3 Synodontis multipunctatus. The tank is heavily
built up with rockwork (right up to the surface).

My afras have started breeding, which I'm very happy about. But I
haven't been able to catch any of the females holding, even though I
observe closely during feeding time. My first clue that they had begun
mating was noticing a fry dart out to grab a piece of flake. As I was
just about to move the tank to our new house, I was able to catch that
fry, and also to find one other, after removing all the rock work and
bagging the adults for the move. Those two are now in a 10 gallon, and
seem to be visibly growing daily on a diet of crushed spirulina flake.
I've got a 29 gallon that I'll be setting up later as a grow out tank.

However, today during feeding I saw another fry in one of the smaller
caves. These guys are very good at staying in crevices where the other
fish can't get at them, so there may very well be other fry in the tank
as well, hiding where I can't see them. I'd like to move these new fry
into the 10 gallon with the others, but I can't think of any way to
catch them other than completely breaking the tank down again, which I'm
loath to do. The other option I guess is to leave them in with the
adults and hope they survive, although I worry about ones hiding where I
can't see them since I can't be sure they're getting any food. Does
anybody have any bright ideas about what to do?

--
Chris Kollmann

Flip the light on in the middle of the night after hours of them being
in
the dark. I've been doing this for years in heavily decorating tanks with
fast fish. If you get lucky you'll find plenty of fishies laying kind of
stunned on the bottom. Work quickly, they adjust in minutes, and start up
swimming and avoiding again.

--
JK Sinrod
Sinrod Stained Glass Studios
http://www.sinrodstudios.com/
Coney Island Memories
www.sinrodstudios.com/coneymemories/



My fry seem to be doing just fine hiding in the crevices and picking up
scraps and grazing on algae....some are now big enough to no longer qualify
as fry.... ;-)

I'd only worry if you really want to breed and sell these fish....

Gill