Pregnant....again

Ok guys i think im ready to keep this batch. As luck would have it my erectus male is pregnant again and has been so for about 1.5-2 weeks. I think he is going to pop some beautiful babies out any day now. I have my 15gal uncycled QT tank up and running again for him and his babies, im just waiting for the pH to stabilize.

Here are my questions:

How often to i feed the babies?
How long after their born do i wait to start feeding them?
How exactly do i gut-load BBS and whats the best product for this?
Are there any commercial brine shrimp hatcheries that yall reccommend for hatching the large amounts of BBS i will need?

Thanks guys,

-Adam

I kinda need the info soon guys, if yall can reply for me id appreciate it.

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Originally Posted by Cyclura

How often to i feed the babies?

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I fed my fry twice a day, letting them ingest what they could in an hour, and siphoning the rest off.

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How long after their born do i wait to start feeding them?

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I make a greenwater soup for them and feed them immediately.

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How exactly do i gut-load BBS and whats the best product for this?

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You need to feed the new (18 hours or less) BBS with selcon, phyto products and feed within an hour or so after they ingest the foods.

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Are there any commercial brine shrimp hatcheries that yall reccommend for hatching the large amounts of BBS i will need?

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I've tried all kinds of off the shelf shrimp hatchery equipment and found that the most productive, and easy to care for is the old soda bottle with drilled cap and airline.

Dave

since this is H erectus fry were talking about....is infusoria really necessary?

No, not at all. Baby H. Erectus will take BBS right away. Northern strains of Erectus tend to be smaller, but will take smaller strains of BBS. Otherwise, you'd have to use rotifers and such until they can take BBS. Southern Erectus are larger fry and take the BBS right away. Be sure to gut feed them.

D

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How exactly do i gut-load BBS and whats the best product for this?

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actually, BBS don't have mouths, and as such, cannot be gut-loaded for 24 hours. during this time, they live off their yolk sacs, which is why they're very rich in nutrients.

IME, your best bet is to have two cultures going, one that hatches in the AM, and one that hatches in the PM for your daily feedings.

2 liter pop bottles, work fine as hatcheries, but i've given mine the boot in favor of the hatchery from Seahorse Source, the ultimate place for captive bred seahorses. . Dan also has KILLER decapped cysts...they decap under a microscope so they know exactly when they're ready.

have fun with the fry.

Doooh... I thought they went Instar II within 15 hours? That's why I've been telling peeps... 18 hours or less... Thanks for keeping me straight buddy...

Dave

18 is pretty close to 24...especially since nobody really knows when the little beggars hatch.

well yall have got me all confused. If they are so nutritious while they still have their yolk sacs, then why do we enrich at all?

Greg's right...they have no mouth until their Instar II molt. They are, before then, living off of their yolk sack. At that point, they ARE nutritios. There is no need to pack them.

We gut pack brine, ghost shrimp, and in some cases, other fish or even bugs as a means of delivering more nutrition to the fish we keep. The brine shrimp should be fed a quality paste, phyto, selcon or something if they are more than 24 hours old. At that point they have depleted their yolk sack, have a mouth, but empty stomach and are of little nutritional value.

Dave

any updates on your fry?