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hi. i hatched some killifish fry two days ago, and i've noticed that when the fry are not swimming they rest on the floor of the tank or hang on the walls. is this normal? plus, how do i know if they're eating? they're so small it's hard to find them. i've given them baby brine shrimp, so hopefully they're eating.

Last edited by niggit at 17-Oct-2004 18:21

Look really closely at the frys tummies. If you see an orangey dot, thats a baby brine shrimp in the killie fry's belly.

they're really really tiny, but i'll try

is it normal for them to be "sticking" to the sides of the tank, rather than freeswimming? they are between 3-4 days old at the oldest

Hmm. I only tried killies once and ultimately, failed miserably. I was told to "keep them in a small container". I think I took the advice too much to heart.

After the eggs hatched in the medicine tablet vial, I placed two tiny fry in a rose bowl and three fry in a glass baking dish.

Note: Its vital that the artemia be freshly hatched for smallest size and greatest nutritional value. Hatch them then store in brine in the fridge for up to 24 hours. Restart the BBS hatchery immediately after harvesting the nauplii.

Initially the kille fry did well, and I could see that their little tummies were orangey after they ate. At first they could only eat one or two artemia nauplii at a time, then they got up to at least several.

From the get go, the fry liked to stay close to the bottom but would swim up and about to grab the baby brine shrimp. Sometimes a fry would lurk right at the surface of the water, near the edge of the bowl, but mostly they stayed right at the bottom.

They were growing and so were their appetites, so I started feeding more and more artemia. I was not overly concerned when I fed more than they could eat in a few minutes, thinking the artemia would live for a little while and get eaten later in the day. Bad idea. Lost one or two fry after that mistake. After that, I tried hard not to overfeed, but with so few fry, it was very hard not to overfeed. I lost them one by one over a couple of weeks. The largest one got to about a half inch.

So where did I go wrong? I strongly suspect ammonia poisoning, even though I performed daily water changes. The containers were bare bottom with a small sprig of java moss, no filtration, no aeration, and as I noted above, no doubt WAY too small.

If I ever try them again, I'll use a 2 gallon aquarium fitted with a cycled, air driven, fine pore sponge filter.

Hope you do better with your killie fry than I did with mine!