Alternative larval food

[Timothy McCandless]

I am going to attempt using addison's larval food for some 3-stripe damsel fry and was wondering if anyone could suggest a second food that doesn't require culturing.

Thanks

[FMarini]

Tim:
Are you trying to replace rotifers w/ this addisons food? or BBS. What size are larval sized damsel fry?
Whats in addisons, may i ask?
frank

[Timothy McCandless]

Frank,

Well the fry hatched Monday night. After just being laid Friday morning at 11:30am. Since I have nothing else to feed them. I am trying DT's live phytoplankton. A marine biologist friend had suggested that I give that a try.
The fry are quite small. Approximately 2mm in length. It looks as though they don't have a yolk sac. It is now 5:22pm on Tuesday and the fry are still active.
If you have any suggestions let me know.

Thanks,
Tim

[FMarini]

Tim:
are you sure w/ 2mm. If so them rotiers might be useful. If the fry are smaller, they may require invertebrate zooplankton
My concern is that the fry may be targeting meovement, and phytoplanktons don't jerk or wiggle. Also try to keep the food density high(i.e., ensure that the fry don't have to swim much to "bump into" food).
Lastly you might want to keep a light source away from the rearing tank, but visible from w/in the tank, as we have learned w/ clownfish fry. At first the fry photo repel(they try to run away from the light and many kill themselves attemtping to burrow thru the bottom of the tank), then after a few days they phototrope towards the light, exhausting themselves to stay float towards the top of the tank where the light source is. Since i have no clue what these fry will do room lighs may be sufficent,
As far as rotifers, inlandaquatics, and mountaincorals.com (velvet green + rotifers) are the places.
good luck
frank

[Timothy McCandless]

Frank,

In all honesty I think they may be smaller than 2mm. Having held the ruler directly in the tank and compared size it seems to be that way.
I already chose not to use a light over the tank. Thanks for the confirmation on that.
How long can I expect the fry to live if they don't have a yolk sac? This way I can get an idea of whether or not they are eating..
Thanks
Tim

[FMarini]

Tim:
My uneducated guess would be 70hrs max w/o food, most likely between 30-50hrs total. There is a post on thereeftank where a guy is trying to raise clownfry and is using DTs and ground up flake food and his clown fry lasted almost 65hrs. i suspect they didn't eat this stuff at all.
Just becuz their egg sac is gone doesn't mean they have a nub of reserve left.
Last point, now that these fish are breeding, expect them to do this regualrly. Plan accordingly for the next batch, if things don't work out w/ this one. A good trigger poin could be like when you see the eggs being deposited, then order rotifers, etc
Good luck
frank

[Timothy McCandless]

Frank,
Thank you for your input. Right now I am at 32 hours and counting. The fry have survived so far. Don't seem to be any larger though.
I suppose I should get a regular set up going for the rotifiers.
About the damsels breeding regularly. They have been doing so for a year now. I had never witnessed the mating dance before and could never see where they laid their eggs. So, I would check for fry every Thursday and Friday. That was the time when they seemed to hatch. The pair has produced fry on a regular basis every other week for the last year. Since these fry that I am trying to raise right now were laid on a Friday and hatched on a monday I am assuming that these damsels spawn more often than every other week.
Again thank you for your input. I will be ordering rotifiers and brineshrimp. A quick question for you in that category: Is there an effective way to raise the rotifiers without any green water?

Thank you again for your help and your opinions.
Timothy McCandless

[FMarini]

Tim:
"""Is there an effective way to raise the rotifiers without any green water?
"""
NO.

However life could not be easier.
http://www.mountaincorals.com/faq.htm
read from 3 sections down from the top all the way to the bottom
PS...keep this hush hush. This is my secret
frank