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RE: Having trouble in raising Nothos. fry
Hi Robert,
I tend to agree with your ideas concerning snails green water and java moss.
But there is one issue of concern here, Nothos are very sensitive to velvet.
This parasite and other potential illnesses seem to exist in many otherwise
healthy fish tanks. The larger fish seem capable of dealing with it and not
getting sick. By using water from an established fish tank you run the risk
of introducing one more variable into the equation. This may lead to a
scenario where it works for me and not for you where I have no velvet in my
established tank and you might have it present. This is why I recommend tap
water. Certainly it is not better for the fry, just safer.
As to the green water and the java moss, my experience with Nothos is that
they do much better with lots of plants in their tanks. (Green water is
after all lots of plants, all be it small plants.) Plants absorb that
something which is so toxic to Nothos and to a lesser degree Giant Japanese
Pond Snails. I think that as long as the green water is not from a tank
which has ever contained fish you should be safe.
As far as larger containers go, I have raised upwards of 150 Nothos in a
shoe box for their first two weeks or so. I find that compacting the fry
with their food as densely as possible is a good thing. The fry just need to
open their mouths to eat. But given enough food larger containers should not
be a problem and there may be an up side to the increased water volume.
I tend to add microworms or vinegar eels for the first day or two.
Experience shows that they are not actually necessary, but it seems the more
food that is present the better. Paramecium or infusoria may not be
necessary but should be a nice touch. The only problem I have had with
paramecium is that they have gotten lose in my fish tanks. They really do no
harm but they do cloud the water and adult fish will not eat them. And with
Nothos I do not run filters fast enough to filter them out. Therefore I
rarely use this micro-menace.
Peace,
~RJ~
-----Original Message-----
From: owner-killietalk at aka_org [mailto:owner-killietalk at aka_org]On
Behalf Of RuevenM at aol_com
Sent: Sunday, January 20, 2002 9:24 AM
To: killietalk at aka_org
Subject: Having trouble in raising Nothos. fry
Hi,
With over a hundred fry, it is easy to overfeed and over crowd. You
might consider hatching the peat in a 10 gallon tank or even a 20 long. I am
not a big fan of tiny fry containers or small sweater boxers. I always use
the large sweater boxers for any fry. The ones that are at least 15 inches
by
12 inches, or near that size. Overcrowding is a real factor in alot of fry
deaths. Also, put in alot of java moss or java fern in the fry tank. The
plants do wonderful things for the fry. Small pond snails are also a great
addition and should be in all your fry containers to eat dead bbs. I keep
them in my daphnia cultures even to keep them clean -- maybe 100 in a ten
gallon tank. I have always fed all Notho fry green water or paramecium for
the first few days of their life, along with bbs. I think they need it as
they are so small. Green water also seems to have a wonderful effect on fry.
I firmly believe that microworms are too large for almost all newly hatched
fry. By skipping infusoria feedings for the first few days I believe we
seriously weaken our fry. Definitely ADD water each day to the container
rather than changing it. If you can, take the new water from an established,
healthy and well planted large aquarium. There's nothing like "live plant"
aged water. Hope these ideas help. You might just be killing the Nothos with
kindness. That works for Aphyosemions but seems to bother Nothos :-).
Robert E.
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