# Keeping Cyprichromis Fry Alive



## pkut (Feb 3, 2005)

I have had a lot of problems keeping new born Cyprichromis alive in my local water. Once they are a couple of weeks old, the problem subsides and I can do normal water changes again. I have found that the only way I can keep newborns alive is to put them right into a tank that has well aged water (my tap water that is weeks old) that has been filtered with Purigen or carbon.
I even have tried putting the newborn fry in a floating breeder trap in the same tank that the adults breed and hold their eggs in. The fry die within a matter of hours doing that! If anyone else can post their experiences with their Cyps and water quality, it would be appreciated. This is the only Tang that I've a fry water quality problem with.


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## dmiller328 (Nov 17, 2008)

Hey Paul,this is Dave

I suspect your female cyps are holding them way too long in their mouths in the breeder net and the fry are very weak when she spits.I would strip the female of the fry when it looks like the yolk is about gone,about 21 days of holding and place them in a 10-15 gallon with the same water conditions,pH,hardness,and temp of the breeding tank.The fry tend to do best with a temp of 80 degrees,small feeding 2 times a day,and small but often water changes of20% for the first few weeks.


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## borohands8593 (Apr 15, 2009)

I used to add all kinds of chemicals and measure every known parameter of water quality daily, but with work and life have not been able to care for my tank like I used to. I have no problem keeping cyp fry alive in a small 1 gallon holder I made (DIY style) that sits in the top backcorner of the main tank, and once they reach over an inch I release them with the adults. I have about an 80% survival rate of fry from raising until release, after theyre in the main tank I loose track since theyre so hard to count. I do run purigen and add prime to water changes which i do every 2 months, but have live plants which helps water quality.


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## pkut (Feb 3, 2005)

Hey Dave,
Thanks for your help, I appreciate it. I understand what you're saying about the fry being held too long by a female and being malnourished when they are finally released. The last ones I lost were fry I stripped from a female. They still had a small amount of egg sack left but were swimming around fine. These are the ones I put into a floating, plastic breeder trap and left them in the same tank with the adults. By the next morning, they were dead.
I've had luck tumbling Cyprichromis eggs that only showed heads and tails to a small degree when I first stripped them from the female. I've also had luck stripping fully formed fry. It's always in a tank holding well aged water from my tap along with that water being filtered through Purigen or activated carbon that I have the luck in. The fry aren't having a malnutrition problem. I still believe there is something in my tap water that the newborn fry just can't handle.


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## dmiller328 (Nov 17, 2008)

Sounds like something strange is going on since it is not malnutrition.If if it is your local water though,why would the fry be fine in the mother's mouth then die suddenly once in a floating breeder?I think you will have better luck moving the fry in a 10-20 gallon tank that has no light or dimly lit with sponge filter for aeration.The floating breeder might not have enough flow or lets too much temp fluctuations.If you still suspect the tap water you might want to try polyfilters in the filter or near the sponge filter.They absorb many harmful contaminates and helps keep the nitrates low.


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## pkut (Feb 3, 2005)

Dave andborohands8593, Thank you for your input and good ideas. I really appreciate your help! I'll keep working on this problem and if I come up with any new information, I'll add it to this thread for everyone to be able to read.


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## pkut (Feb 3, 2005)

I've tried something else that has worked twice for me now. I put newly fertilized eggs in a tumbler and have been having good luck doing that. I also had some half developed fry in the tumbler with the new eggs. The eggs and fry were stripped from females that reside in an 85 gallon tank and placed into a tumbler that is running in a 20 gallon tank. The 20 gallon tank houses a light load of fish on a constant basis. 
The half developed fry in the tumbler died in about a day, as has normally has happened to me in the past. The eggs have been in the tumbler for a number of days now and are turning into fry normally. I have accomplished this one other time. I guess whatever change that takes place in the environment is handled much better by fresh, undeveloped eggs than half developed or almost fully developed fry. I will try stripping females as soon as they breed in the near future and see if I can duplicate my success.


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## punman (Oct 24, 2003)

I strip the females before Day 21 and put the fry in a 10 gallon tank. I feed only live baby brine shrimp for two weeks, then supplement with crushed NLS Grow for three weeks. At that point I stop the live brine shrimp. I typically lose 15% of fry but if they make it that far they are usually out of the woods.


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## pkut (Feb 3, 2005)

Thank you for your input punman. I appreciate it!
The eggs in the tumbler are still doing well. They are now fish with egg sacks and seem to be coming along nicely.
Yesterday afternoon, I stripped a Paracyprichromis female and got 3 fully formed fry from her. I put them in a fry saver that has forced water circulation and added a minute amount of decapsulated brine shrimp eggs to it. I thought that having them in the fry saver with good water circulation (not an overbearing amount) would be an improvement over them being in a breeder trap with no forced circulation. 
I checked on them last night at midnight and they seemed fine. This morning when I checked them, they all were dead. This is what normally happens. They never quite last for 24 hours.
I'm sure that in a few more days when the ones in the tumbler are fully formed, I'll remove them and they'll do well for me. What a mystery this is to me!


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## punman (Oct 24, 2003)

Sorry for your loss. Seems bizarre. Is that tank the same that the Paracyprichromis female was in?


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## Number6 (Mar 13, 2003)

Cyps are not a species that can tolerate low O2 in my experience and fry find it deadly.

A fry trap that has an air lift (water continuously pumps into it and flows outwards into main tank) had a 100% success rate for me in the tank with the parents in it. Odd that it failed for the 3 paracyps, though that might have been the decapsulated eggs at fault. Not fond of them for these fry and I prefer simple ground up NLS grow. I also vacuum out all debris at the bottom of the cage if any traps... every day. I've also used very large tanks for a grow out tank. The minimum size that I used to use was a 20g tank with a 10g sump... the bioballs in the wetdry worked very well for oxygenation.

If I were you, the first thing I would try and do is increase the oxygen level of the main tank... even if the adults show no signs of needing it. The other thing would be to get my hands on a 20g tank for growing out fry... :thumb:


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## pkut (Feb 3, 2005)

punman, I've had the fry in the same tank as the parent fish plus three other ones. The results are the same in all of them.At this time, the tumbler with the developing fry is in a different tank than the parent fish.
Number6, I understand what you mean about well oxygenated water. I also understand about keeping the fry saver clean. I have watched these things especially because of this situation.
The fry that I manage to keep alive in any way possible, are presently growing out in a 29 gallon tank. Once I get them to live for a few days, I never lose anymore of them from there on during grow out in the 29 gallon tank. There's just something about the first few days that is the problem.
Thank you both for your input. I appreciate your help!


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