Dividing tanks as a chance for fry?

[Stefanie Rick]

Hello,

as exhaustingly reported in my P. nagyi-thread, I owe two of only three offspring of my nagyi-pair to the fact that I divided a 25 l tank into two halves by sliding in an acrylic glass pane vertically. The very young fry must have managed to slip through millimetre gaps into the uninhabited half of the tank and so survived without being eaten by their parents.

I now plan to use this “method” discovered by accident to get more fry of this cannibalistic nagyi pair. I will provide better chances for the fry to escape by replacing the solid acrylic glass by a perforated acrylic pane. The holes in the pane need not to be larger than a few millimetres, enough for newly hatched fry to slip through. This method has the advantage of being able to raise fry in the same water as their parents – without the young being in danger to be eaten.

I think this might be a method for people like me who do not like to take out clutches and rear the fry artificially. As the fry do not need much space, this method might even work in smaller tanks. You don’t need to separate a complete half of the tank – a third or a quarter will provide enough space for small fry to find a safe refuge.

I will report about the progress of my plan.

[Davy Grenouillet]

Hello Stefanie,

You can find on ebay breeding tank to put in a parents tank but you must catch juvenils to put them into the breeding tank…
It´s more simple when the fry is on a canister.

[Stefanie Rick]

Yes, but that’s just what I want to avoid – I don’t like the thought of catching and disturbing the fry – it’s much easier and free of any stress (for me and the fry!) to let them find their way into safety alone. To me that’s the great advantage of the described idea – to leave the fish without any disturbance and still enable the fry to escape from their hungry parents.

[Marcin Chyla]

Hello, I also thought about this kind of solution.. but I would like to do “two tanks in one”. One 40 cm tank will be splitted on two parts using the acrylic glass. In one part I will set up paro pair with all leaves, java moss, cave..and the second part I will manage in the same way but without paros. After a spawn, I will pull up the acrylic glass and gently move the female to second part (she will swimm to it alone without a any net and so on…) Then after a few days (when the fry will hatched) I will remove the male… It is like having two tanks but without any stressed catching fishes by net after spawn…
And one more thing – I have the same experience with P.nagyi – only 3 pcs of fry I had from one pair when I left them in one tank…(extensive breeding )
To compare – P.linkei I had about 30 fry from one tank (extensive breeding method)
P.cf.bintan “Blue Line” – 1 fry…:) – that’s why intensive method is needed..:)

Best regards
Marcin

[Stefanie Rick]

Hi, Marcin,

yes, that’s another way to do it. But I even want to avoid the stress of separating first the female, then the male. Moreover, in a well grown tank it is not so easy to lift the dividing pane and lower it again without wedging the plants in. Lifting the pane results in an undertow – I prefer to leave the pane were it is and give the fry small holes to slip through. I am sure this will lead to many more surviving fry – when even now, with no visible gaps, some fry succeed in slipping through.

[helene schoubye]

I think its quite interesting, and good thinking. Looking forward to more experience with this kind of tank dividing, but it makes sense of course.
The small tanks are good for some purposes, but it does of course leave the fry exposed. But I guess I would feed the ’empty’ spaces a little if I thought there were fry in the tank, – or maybe place a small source of light to attract the artemia nauplies.
Fry in my experience learn really quick where food is supposed to be and they position themselves there quite quickly.

[Pavel Chaloupka]

Have anyone tried to use a grill like this: http://www.akvarista.cz/web/imgs/diskuse/0000525.jpg
What I am planning to do If am able to get my new Paros to spawn is use this kind of grill as it is used for all the kind of tetras for spawnning and put some leaf litter on it for the breeders to feel good. That would give the fry a very good chance to escape as soon as they start freeswimming without having to look for the holes between the glasses for a long time. Than for maximum safety move the parents to another tank and go on.

[Dorothee Jöllenbeck-Pfeffel]

Hallo!
Stefanies Idea seems good to me, if the parents show to be canibals …
Perhaps an net with a frame would be also a method to divide the tank instead of an acrylic plate?

With fry boxes in the tank I’ve never had good experiences , but that was in “usual” water, but not in black water. It was so difficult to keep them clean enough ..

For example with young catfish. By the way, we have low carbonated Black Forest water, but with a basic pH to protect the water pipes …

But I suppose, (now I know more about black water than that time) it was a problem with not “clean” and not sour enough water …
It seems to me that nearly all aquaristic fish for low carbonated water are black water fish and need low pH and low bacteria number…., especially the fry … But nobody tells the people who buy them …

Perhaps most of successful aquarists have high carbonated water and use anyway osmosis water?
And have therefore better changes to give the fish the “clean” water they need, even if they don’t know much about the necessary balance of the water values?….

[john walsh]

So many variables re. good parenting. I have recently managed to raise 32 fry to 1.5cm when the P.Bintan spp were left in situ with their offspring. Whilst i had presumed all of my P.Bintan Sentang brood had been eaten by their parents (never ever saw small fry), until yesterday when, for the first time i saw three good sized juveniles when rescaping their aquarium.

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