fry did not attache

[Insomnia]

Ah, adventures in fishkeeping, I have a bredding pair in my main tank who have finally had a successful hatch, The fry did not attache to either of them, rather, they attached to a plant. The female has been sucking them up and spitting them out, but she just moves them from plant to plant since a plant is where she had chosen to lay her eggs 3 out of the 4 times she has done so far. In any case, is there anything I can do? Anything I should do? This is my first hatch as well as hers :roll:

[Merrilyn]

Well, for a start, congratulations are in order. You have a confirmed pair, and they are fertile. That's the first hurdle out of the way.

Most of the big breeders have nothing in the breeding tank but the cone. Fry will be attracted to any dark object in the tank, so the parents should be the darkest thing they find. Everything else should be pale, like the substrate, background and any filters in the tank.

Breeding in a community tank, with plants and other fish present, has been done, but not usually with any great success.

[Insomnia]

Yah, I figured as much. This particular pair is a White Diamond Female and a Brilliant Blue Snake Male. The Male turns quite dark, certainly darker than the green plant the fry ended up on, so I am still a bit surprised. The tank they are in is 250 Gal. It's 8' long, I have been considering putting a divider in for them at one end. Any thoughts?

[Merrilyn]

Any chance you can give them a three foot tank on their own. You are going to need it to grow the fry out anyway.

I've got an 8 foot tank myself, and I couldn't recommend dividing off a section for the pair. Too difficult to control the feeding of the fry, and the parents will spend too much time at the divider trying to drive away the other fish. Any fry that stray thru the divider will become lunch.

[Insomnia]

I was considering using a black acrylic divider, there would be no perforations for the fry to escape. This tank is plumbed through the bottom with multiple intakes and a water outlet on each end, I could easly divide it so it would be completely cut off from the rest of tank yet still share in the filtration. Setting up another tank is a possiblility, I'd just have to figure out where to put it. :wink: