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Okay guys I have never had fry before. So I have no idea about what to do.

Specie is Zebra Danio. In tank 10 gallon, no fish lots of snails. Hornwort Java Moss and Java fern plant wise. I recently added Copper Sulfate to the tank to kill the snails, but its not working. I am doing a 50% WC tonight to remove the Copper. And adding in a filter with Carbon. I want to save the fry as much as I can.

Any help will be greatly appreciated.

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I would do a 50% water change at least every third day at least three more times.
See if you can get a "small" Clown Loach from your LFS on the understanding you can return it.
The CL will have to stay in the tank for at least a month to clean up all the snails providing they are not the big hard shell varieties.

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Ok now im confused. The snails will be no threat to fry, being that they cant catch them, and a clown loach would eat them soon as look at them, you dont want copper anywhere near fish fry, and big water changes will probably snuff them out, wouldnt 10% water changes every 2 -3 days be better , although granted you have to get the copper out, it would be better done when the fry arent in there, perhaps forget the big changes and just rely on carbon?

And a 10 gallon with snails- er - just put hand in and take snails out? Meh!

Why is it getting so complicated ?

The majority of the snails are currently smaller than a pin head. I am just going to deal with the snails untill the fry are big enough to move. Once that happens I have 4 small CL's already And will let one of them have a nice treat.

My main concern now is raising the Fry. I have never had to do this before and I want to do a good job of it. What should I do?


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Well, the general priciples of fry raising for fish like danios is fairly simple, they usually follow the average rules for raising a generic fry without parental care .

Primary rules are.

1) steady temps, usually smack in the middle of the temperature tolerance for the species.

2) Good water quality with no large changes. Small changes of 10% or so every three days are better than bigger changes weekly or fortnightly. All water must be preconditioned and as close to tank temperature as possible.

3) No medications or residues of medications permitted.

4) Low flow but high oxygen. All the airstones you like, but lower flow rates and cover filter inlets, I find fine filter foam wrapped round all water outflow from the tank very useful, just a wrap around with an elastic band usually does the trick, and change the foam every week.

5) Mature gravel , rocks, bogwood and plants, - often immensely important for providing algaes and aufwuchs as first food for the young. Mosses are often immensely useful in that regard. Almost all fry species do better with dense cover too.

6) Species fry tank. Dont risk any other species in with them, not shrimp, or even ottos etc. Few fish or invertebrates can resist fish fry, even 99% of vegetarian species will happily avail themselves of a welcome boost of protien. Snails are a risk to eggs, but not generally to fry.

7) Tiny available foods for when they get past a week old, liquifry, decapsulated brineshrimp cysts, baby foods like tetra first bites and hikari micro pellets, failing that grind regular flake as fine as you can with the back of a spoon. Feed at least 3 times a day on average.

8) with the filters partially blocked off, dont forget to gravel vac excess foods, as too much spare in the tank will cause saprolegnia, and you'll likely lose the fry.

Basically the rule of thumb is peace, quiet, plenty of food, and the most stable water quality you can manage. Like the adults you can give them a photoperiod, but if you wish to promote the growth of tiny foods in the tank you can leave the lights on 24/7. The fry must have shaded areas so they can rest though.

Some people do it the sterile way with a bare tank, but i think it helps the orientation and fitness of the fry to do it as naturally as possible, not to mention the microfood gives them a developmental advantage at a most vulnerable age and sets them up for a healthier life . Ive seen too many fish raised under lab conditions suffer ill health, behavioral difficulty, short lives, low immune systems,breeding depression and given a lifelong permanent developmental disadvantage to believe sterile raising conditions are the way to go. Just look at rams, angels and discus, all prime examples of badly bred fish, all done in sterile setups in vast numbers in warehouses , its not the way to go.
Start natural, let them eat aufwuchs and interact with their environment, develop normally and healthily, and keep them that way. That way the healthy progeny of your fish could be enjoyed for generations.

Hope that helps.

I would recommend Hikari First bits over Liquifry. Because the Liquifry tends to spread out through out the tank which I think would be easier for the fry to eat it but leaves an awful mess were as the Hikari first bite tends to sit on the top of the tank were the excess can just be scoop out.

"No whammy, No whammy, No whammy, STOP!!"

1984-Michael Larsen On Press Your Luck

Liquifry is intended for really tiny fish that micropredate, and short of a natural supply of aufwuchs there is no other realistic alternative for really small fry, so in many cases its not a question of preference, sometimes you have to use it. Powdered foods can be too big for really tiny fry. Ive never noticed it cause worse pollution than other fry foods, in fact I would say the reverse, filters tend to pick it up almost too easily. I think what were talking about here is overuse and overfeeding. Fry tanks often get pretty dirty anyway because of the compromises you have to make with filtration.