The Reason I Was Late For Work Today...New Babies

BarbH

This afternoon before having to head to work I was spending some time watching my fish in the aquarium, when all of a sudden I saw something very small dart out from beneath the moss ball I have and went into the space between a couple of rocks. I got closer and started to look and found out that one of my platys had dropped some fry. I am not sure which female it is, they all look as fat as they have been, one of them is starting to look like she is ready to explode and starting to take on the squarish look. I tried to get the little guy with a turkey baster that I have specifically for my aquarium but no luck he was very fast. Needless to say got a little bit distracted and ended up being a little late for work... opps I dd not see him this evening when I got home, so he might have either gotten eaten by one of the other fish, or he has found a good hiding place. There are several hiding places in the aquarium for the fry, between rocks, plants, and even one of the pieces of drift wood that I have is full on small holes and hollows. So now I will be keeping my eyes open to see if I can find him again, or if there are any others that I did not see.

What have others found to be successful methods of catching the fry in your main tank to be able to seperate them from the community?

Beaches

At least that is an original reason to give for being late. Congrats!!!

That has happened to me a few times, been distracted by something to do with the tank which made me late for work.

BarbH

LOL, at least I live only a couple of minutes walk from work, I can actually see the building from my apartment window. So it was not too bad, but still need to make sure not to do that too often, don't think that the boss would really understand the reason. Have not seen the fry again, but it might have found a really good hiding place, that or the angel that had been chasing him when I tried to catch him might have finally been successful. Will just need to keep an eye on things and see if he reappears. Thinking if he does might try using a cup to catch him, otherwise it will be up to his own cunning to survive with everyone else

Beaches

The only time I have been successful in catching tiny fry, is when they have ended up in the used tank water after a water change (I make sure I look every time now before I throw the water out LOL), then I grab the turkey baster.

BarbH

Did my water change this evening and was watching to make sure no one got in the bucket. They are fast moving little buggers

Teishokue

if you have a hob, check that too. ive found a couple of fries in my hob. also becareful if you have gravel, some fries get scared and get stuck in gravel and ultimatly die.

BarbH

checked my hob when I did my water change, rinsed my cartidges and made sure nothing was floating around. I am thinking that letting any born in the community tank defend for themselves, I have a 10 gallon which I am planning on using for possibly growing out fry, and I have a 5.5 gallon which might be usable. For any fry I want to try to keep I think I might put the pregnant female in the 5.5, and then move the fry to the 10 gallon for growing out, so that the 5.5 would hopefully be free when needed for the female. Would like to eventually sell some to the lfs, already checked and they would buy as long as they have room in their tanks.

Of course today I looked on craigslist to see what was listed and found a bowfront, that might be a possibilty. Waiting to find out how many gallons, they gave width and depth but had hard time finding matching dimensions online. Depending on the size the price might not be bad comes with stand, filter, heater, and air pump and has hood and light fixture. Asking for $65, now it depends on how many gallons, glass or acyrlic and if it leaks. Although resealing is not too bad did that on the 50 gallon that I had gotten another craigslist find