Crisis! Baeschi's spawned just before I pull the tank apart

[parkap]

Hi All,

I discosvered that my baenschi's have free swimming fry last Sunday. Which is great because both parents are great specimens. The problem is that I have to start to pull my 6x2x2 set up apart tonight in preparation for moving house on Friday (one of the reasons I haven't been as active on this forum over the last few weeks as I otherwise would have liked.)

I've got 4 2ft'ers I'll be putting all my fish into. But obviously I can't put the babies into a tank with other fish, particularly as I won't be feeding them until we get to the new house (Friday).

I also won't have the 6x2x2 set up in the new house for a couple of weeks as I have to get the floor reinforced. So the fish will be in the 2ft'ers all that time.

Any ideas on what to do with the babies? I'm actually surprised they've survived this long in the display tank. There's about 12 of them. Any suggestions on feeding etc, would be great. I won't be able to set up a BBS hatchery for about a week as everything's been packed already.

Thanks,
Peter.

[Th0mas]

Congratulation on your new found problem :lol:
Th

Don't think there's any other choice but to seperate mum and the kids for the move and raise the kids seperately. Now the challenge is how to pull the fry out in a fully planted 6x2x2.

Can try to re-introduce the kids back with mum but won't guarantee on the result.

Get a matured sponge filter, spare tank with water from the 6x2x2 and raise them seperately.

Other alternative is to find them a foster mum/parent. Not sure if there's anyone else but me who has a pair raising free swimmer at the moment. But the problem with this is how to seperate the two lots when they grow up.....

As for food - frozen BBS might work (but no guarantee).

Thomas.

[fishgeek]

ice cream container, fly screen and some polystryene

put the kids ina home made floating hatchery with a bit of moss
microworm and any other small live food would be most useful though with water flow through the flyscreen cutouts you wont get the live food staying in with the fry anyway

[Th0mas]

Spoke too soon - the parenting female I've got has suddently passed away :cry: . Leaving behind a large group of orphans (and dad). She wasn't suffering from anything significant visually, had a little sore for the last few days on just beneath the dorsal and it wasn't troubling her. I've held back on the medication as I didn't want to dose the fry nor believe the problem she had was serious. Having keeping up with the water change daily and this evening my wife found her dead on the bottom while dad is wandering about.

So much for the idea of foster parent, now I've taken dad out (just in case he started to snack on them) and will raise them seperately (1.5 week old, should be okay).

Thomas.

[Robdog]

Bad luck guys. If only I could get mine laying. I haven't seen my female too far from her home lately so maybe I'll have some "problems" of my own soon.
Peter, i'd offer to rent out one of my spare tanks but I've only just filled them up, even with old tank water I don't think they'll be fully cycled yet. And you're in the Gong and they'd have to survive the trip to Syd.

[Th0mas]

The trip to Sydney isn't that bad, about 40 minutes depending where in Sydney.

Now I've got a tankful of free swimmers, plenty of room to handle extra fry inside - but the seperation would be impossible once they're mixed.

Thomas.

[Th0mas]

How are the move going?

And the free swimmers - did you managed to get them?

My orphans baenschi are doing well, dad is back in the community tank for a break and I'll probably go around to find him a new mate soon. In the mean time, the "Beta" pair of baenschi has settled into the "honeymoon suite" (the tank that had the initial pair in - had to move lots of fish around to have it ready for them noon today) and spawned in the evening. The eggs from this female is more red in colour than the other one.

Have got some pics for my own record.

Thomas.

[parkap]

Hi all,

First of all thanks for all your advice.

A quick update for you:

By Thursday morning when I started to take the tank apart no babies could be seen anywhere. Quite sad but at least the parents survived the move, as did all my fish. They're all in 2ft tanks now until I can get the main tank set up in a couple of weeks.

One tip I can give you all, baenschi's are the masters of hide and seek. The male and female breeding pair were the last fish I caught. The female even hid from me after I had totally stripped everything out of the tank, then all of a sudden something went flashing past me.

The other surprise was that one of the fresh water shrimp I put in a few months ago is still alive. Haven't seen any of them for months. Again, it wasn't until everything except for a little bit of water was left in the tank, that this little guy went swimming past to let me know he was still in there. I put him in a tank on his own with a single little plant. Whenever I got too bored packing and moving boxes I played spot the shrimp - which was a surprisingly hard game.

p.