RAISING FRY

I have a grow-out tank of 67 - month old fry. It's amazing how fast they are growing. I feed them 3-4 times a day. Sometimes more and sometimes less depending on my where-a-bouts. From the day I separated them from mom I have been feeding them brine shrimp, blood worms and crushed flakes. Even at such a young age they are fun to watch. They dart around more than swim in my mind. I tap the glass and they dart back but within seconds come back to explore what startled them. There are quite a few sizes within this brood. I would say there's at least a dozen that are much darker and much larger, then there are the majority that are lighter in colour and midsize - finally there are a dozen or so that are pretty tiny can almost translucent. No matter the size they are all doing amazingly well. From her initial spit of 69 I have only lost 2 fry.

While I did my Monday morning water change this week I stripped two holding female M.Auratus - Golden Cichlids. I had intended on letting them spit naturally but, in the tank I had another female holding that I wanted to separate so I decided I'd strip the two and then remove the other female. n doing that I had to remove all the rocks and decor in order to catch them. The reason I changed my mind about stripping the younger females is because I have ordered new substrate that I intend on changing in the next week or so and I wouldn't be able to do that with the fry in the tank. 

That brings me to the subject of this post. I stripped both young females of fry amounting to 17. They are healthy, free swimming and doing well. I placed them in a floating fry cage in my grow-out tank. The size between them and my month old fry is crazy and it would be suicide to put them together. 

Stella bred again on February 22nd and should spit around March 16. I'm hoping I can put her fry with the newly stripped fry as I figure they will be closer in size. I will make that decision when the time comes. By then I'll be moving my older fry to my 30 gallon grow-out tank and the new fry can go into the 20 they occupy now. 

After I change my substrate I will be allowing my brooding females to naturally spit and raise their fry in the community tank. I just to have room to keep them all.

So as of right now. I have my 55 gallon African Malawi Cichlid tank, a 40 gallon South American Cichlid tank, 2-10 gallon brooding tanks and a 20 gallon grow-out tank. I also have a 30 gallon grow-out tank not set up until my fry are bigger and another 55 gallon tank that will be home to my South American Cichlids because they will be outgrowing their 40 in a few months.