Posted by nightflower7 on February 10, 2003 at 18:12:28:
In Reply to: Re: Epp! Baby fish! What do I do? posted by PHSplendens on February 10, 2003 at 16:41:26:
::I just bought some new fish, unfortunatly, one already died, and one looks to be on his way out. But I was checking on him this morning, and noticed something odd. I have tiny fish swimiing near the gravel in my aquarium...I can only guess that they must be red plattys, because the fish I had befor was a male fancy guppie (and a neon tetra, but thats irelevant, because they don't breed in captivity). Anyway, I am tottaly unprepared to care for little fish. How do I start? Do i need to worry about them being eaten? (I have, one sick red platty, one almost healthy looking red platty, and a very healthy fancy guppie, and a neon tetra) and should I worry about carring for the sick fish? or would that be harmfull to my babies?
::Any information you can give me on carring for these little guys (and for my other fish as well) would be so helpfull. thank you.
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:First if you want the fry to live you need to get them to another tank, at least 10-gallons. They can be fed flake food that has been crushed into a fine powder along with baby brine shrimp, daphnia, and even liquid food for livebearers. They will need to be fed 4 or 5 times a day and need to have partial water changes 3 or 4 times a week.
:Then you need to find out what is causing the others to be sick. We can help, but we need to know a few things. What are your ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate levels? What size tank is it? How long has your tank been setup? How many of each fish do you have? How much and how often do you feed the fish? How often do you clean the tank, and how much water do you change?
:PHSplendens
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well, I have one red platty now (the sick one died today) the living one has a couple places on the edge of her tail and flippers that look a little chewed up. The one that just died had a realy bad spot like that on his tail, but I think he also had Ick (i gave them medicine for it) But I think they were sick when I got them, because I'v only had them scnce thursday, and there were fish in other tanks in the store that werent terribly healthy looking. (and a freind also bought some fish from there the same day, and she says hers look like they have ick...and the bad spots on the tail)
I dont know anything about the ammonia, nitrite, or nitrate levals, I don't have anything to test it. If you can suggest a good CHEAP type to buy that would be great (im a college student, with no job at the moment, so I don't have enough money for anything too expensive, ands its not realy something I could ask my parents for...)
hmm, its a small tank, a 5 gallon. it's been set up for about 2 or three weeks (i had to move it home for winter break, and It was much easier to move without water in, so except for what was in the container with the fish when we moved it, it had a complete water change). I have 3 fish right now, the surviving platty, a fancy tailed guppie, and a neon tetra. (the neon, and gupppie are not new, I have had them scince school started in august) I also have one large snail that I bought, and a ton of tiny ones that I cant get rid of, that I think came with the live plant (they are not the same type of snail as the large one)
and so far, I have only see 4 or 5 baby fish, they aren't real big yet, but they are bigger then I thought baby fish would be...
I usualy feed my fish once a day, a pinch or two of flake food. They don't usualy end up eating all of that (they only seem to want to eat whats floating, once it starts to sink, they usualy wont touch it).
i don't have anywhere else to put the baby fish, and I'm not even sure if I could catch them...but I do have a good amount of ornaments in my tank, so they can probably hid from the other fish most of the time, if that is the concern (I have a rock, with holes in it, aa live plant, and 2 fake plants, and a little dragon statue)
I know im not giving you very much information to work with, Im sorry...but I am realy new to haveing fish...anyway, thank you for your time.
