# Calvus fry-rearing experience needed!



## beachtan (Sep 25, 2008)

I've had calvus fry many times before, and due to various reasons, i've only managed to keep 2 alive to date. One for 6-7 months (around 1") and 1 for 3 months (still very small).

This time, I'm hoping I can make this work and my goal is to raise 10 fry successfully. I have about 20 new fry right now. Heres what I've done so far...

After seeing green eggs in a barnacle hole, i waited til they were bouncing around in the nest. Then blocked the female from her fry, and moved the entire barnacle into an established 10gal that had been prepped with 25% existing water, 25% new water, and 50% water from parent tank. I have a thin layer of silica sand on the bottom, an aggregate rock with green algae on it, a small anubias plant, a 4" rock, a mini-sponge filter, super small hob, and a small internal box filter (the cheap kind with the bits of charcoal and filter floss in it). All filter media is properly seeded. Over 2 days, I raised the temp by 2 degrees so it is at 81 degrees.

Yesterday I started feeding Golden Pearls with a medicine dropper into the barnacle since they were all still in there. They swam around a bit and some seemed to go for the food. I fed them again today - not much movement... then I noticed about 6 fry on the sand in various spots in the tank. I'm a bit concerned about the hob - it does produce a pretty strong flow of water and isnt adjustable - the fry are able to sit on the sand without being pushed around in most of the tank, but...

My other main concern is that I usually start losing them due to what seems to be lack of eating... I've tried hatching baby brine every day and got them to about 6 weeks before they started dropping like flies. Usually i have them in a small filtered, floating container, but wanted to try it this way since i've read most people put them in 10's right away. Should i try and get them into a small container for the first few weeks to get them eating good and then dump them out into the 10 or do i leave them in the 10 right away? i just dont know how to get them to eat enough without my polluting the tank too much. I'd like to avoid baby brine and just keep them on the golden pearls if possible...

I'm really stressing about these little guys. Any successful calvus people wanna offer some 'words of wisdom'? BioG?


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## reflexhunter (Jul 25, 2009)

Get a micro worm culture going, easier to use and high in protein.

You can use a cotton swab and get out a little,put in in some water,use just like brine shrimp, maybe they would take the worms better.

Maybe Put some cherry shrimp in there as well for clean up.


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## ryanjury (Apr 15, 2006)

I am by no means an expert as my oldest fry are only just over 2 months old and I am still having the odd loss but still plenty of fry surviving and I think I should get a reasonable amount to a sellable size. Most of my stuff was found by searching biog's posts on here (thanks biog if you read this).

But I wait until the fry appear in the entrance to the shell and then transfer them into a 2ft tank with 100% water from the parents tank and a few trumpet snails for clean up crew, I spin the shell to get them out. The 2ft tank is bare apart from a few pieces of coral rock (buffering) a sponge filter and an airstone to keep water circulating. I only feed the fry microworms for the first week or so, after the first week I just stick a pinch of finely crushed flake/NLS or whatever else I have at the time the fry seem to go for this at this stage. After a month or so I introduce other foods brineshrimp, decap and around 2 months old (my first batch is only 2 months old now) I introduce grindal worms but still feed all the other foods.

My maintenace schedule is daily water changes on them, my tanks have overflows on them and I drip 3L a day into them with a juice bottle with a hole in the bottom. For the first month or so all water changes are from the parents tank, after that I use preconditioned buffered water.

I would start off with the microworms like suggested, brineshrimp are better food but I think they die and foul up the tank allot faster than microworms. I also don't think you need all of those filters either, they wont be producing all that much waste initially if you aren't overfeeding.

Hopefully someone more experienced can help out with why they are dropping dead, I have been having the odd random death every few days, usually the fish are fully intact so I pull them out and have a good look can't see anything wrong with them or any reason for them to die?


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## shellies215 (Jan 7, 2011)

The best advice is PM Razzo, or BioG, Those two are experts on alto fry.


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## ryanjury (Apr 15, 2006)

shellies215 said:


> The best advice is PM Razzo, or BioG, Those two are experts on alto fry.


Yeah that's good advice  However keeping all advice in PMs defeats the purpose of having a forum and putting information out there for everyone to benefit from..


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## Mr Mbuna (Nov 16, 2007)

I have raised comp fry successfully which are similar - sold the first batch last week after 7 months of growing. For them I used a mixture of baby brine shrimp, red crumb (which might be the same as golden pearls, not sure, its a 0.3mm red granule which sinks) and frozen cyclops. I raised over 100 fry from 2 broods this way with very few losses. Kept them in a floating breeder net for first 6 weeks then transferred them to a 3' tank. 
I currently have about 50 calvus fry in a 14x8x8" tank along with a few kilesa fry. They are about 5-6 weeks old now and doing well on the same regime as my comps. Very few losses, if any. They have to be one of the slowest growing fry around.


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## beachtan (Sep 25, 2008)

Well, i've done everything right as far as I can tell... a few of the calvus are swimming and seem to be doing so-so, but I am seeing dead fry all over. They just get skinny and die. I'm so frustrated!!! No matter which method I try, I always have the same outcome.

I think this will be my final try with calvus fry.  I cant handle the dissappointment again.


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## ryanjury (Apr 15, 2006)

beachtan said:


> Well, i've done everything right as far as I can tell... a few of the calvus are swimming and seem to be doing so-so, but I am seeing dead fry all over. They just get skinny and die. I'm so frustrated!!! No matter which method I try, I always have the same outcome.
> 
> I think this will be my final try with calvus fry.  I cant handle the dissappointment again.


Are you feeding microworms? In a barebottomed tank?


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## beachtan (Sep 25, 2008)

no one here has microworms. I've tried LFS, local fish clubs, science teachers...

so I'm using golden pearls. I've seen them chase after and eat it... no idea why its not nourishing them. Some of the dead ones even have orange bellies!!

I've had WAY worse luck with the bare bottomed tank method. This time, I have a thin layer of sand and light water movement so theres really no **** on the bottom.

I've spent SO much time on these friggin' fish! :x


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## ryanjury (Apr 15, 2006)

I would try a barebottomed tank and hatch some brineshrimp if you can't get microworms, is there any other fish keepers around who can post you some microworms so you can get a culture going? Brineshrimp is good because you can see if they are eating it by their stomachs going pink.

If you have substrate then any crud will just sit in it and you wont know if you are overfeeding or be able to clean the waste up to keep the water quality up.


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## beachtan (Sep 25, 2008)

only 2 fry left. I'm in mourning.


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## ryanjury (Apr 15, 2006)

beachtan said:


> only 2 fry left. I'm in mourning.


Gutted, try and get some brineshrimp or microworms next time if they are starving then you obviously need to try different foods..


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## beachtan (Sep 25, 2008)

the 2 left seem to be a little bigger than the others were, and they are swimming around a bunch, and eat... maybe they'll make it!!??!! <hopeful>

Wonder why its so hard to find microworms around here... anyplace besides a LFS or fishclub that I should check with?


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## ryanjury (Apr 15, 2006)

They are hard work aye.. I lost 40 of my smallest ones over night unsure what happened didn't do anything different to what I have always done with them and the bigger batch and haven't had that many drop dead, still around 40 left from the smaller batch and over 60 at 2.5months from the bigger ones.

I would just post up a wanted thread somewhere and get someone to send you a starter of microworms or maybe you can buy it online? We post starters all over NZ and can buy them off various online sites.


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## beachtan (Sep 25, 2008)

Ryan: oh no! i just HATE when they seem to die for no reason!! I've still got those 2! but i'm due for another water change - i dont wanna do it.... the parent tank is cooler than the fry tank, so i'm gonna try to warm the parent tank water with some conditioned warmer tap water before i add it to the fry tank...


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## dmiller328 (Nov 17, 2008)

I would keep the fry tank temp the same as the adult breeders tank around 78 degrees.

The calvus and comp fry are very sensitive to a quick temperature drop and change in hardness.I lost over 40 dwarf compressiceps fry overnight when I forgot to turn the heater back on.

I would use a bare bottom tank with a glass lid, sponge filter,and a very accurate low wattage submersible heater to keep the temp constant.

Also make sure your breeder's water has enough buffering capacity to keep the keep the pH from crashing.I find best to use 100% breeder tank water for the fry transfer.Smaller water changes after that.Once they are 1/2 inch they are much hardier to do 40% changes with no issues.Use slightly warmer water with the same hardness for water change and add slowly.

I think more fry die from overfeeding and the water quality problems that go with it than being underfed.I feed mine mainly decapped brine eggs and NLS Grow powder with no issues.


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## speakerman3 (Nov 14, 2009)

Search ebay for microworms. I recently bought a culture from mytreasuretrove111 and they are well established now. The price wasn't too bad either, $3.50 shipped.


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## Razzo (Oct 17, 2007)

This may help, it contains some "best practices" that I have picked up through the years:

http://www.cichlid-forum.com/articles/a ... ry_pt1.php


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