Multiple Fry Batches in the same tank?

[darkdep]

Ok, my fears came to life tonight.  I have a 10gal with 14 existing cobalt blue fry (about a month old; I'm hoping to have a 25+gal growout tank for them this week), 2 small plecos, and a holding female cobalt blue.

That was until about an hour ago.  Female spit her young (guess she was farther along than I thought) and I see em poking their head out of various cover every once and a while.

My concern at the moment is twofold:

1) Will the month-old fry likely attack the newbies?  I haven't seen this happen yet but...
2) How likely is it that the new fry will get food with all the rest of those guys in there?

I'll likely shotgun together a new tank tommorow or Friday for these guys, just want to know how desperate I should be to get this done (assuming I do want to keep every last fish I can)...


On another (funny) note, I think I might have a record for the number of fish in a 10gal...if the new batch was as large as the last, I might have 31 fish in a 10gal  :lol:

[gvv]

1) Will the month-old fry likely attack the newbies?  I haven't seen this happen yet but...

I can tell you that one month is not a big deal you can put them together. Oldest will not hunt youngest. I had to put mbuna of differrent ages into same tank.

2) How likely is it that the new fry will get food with all the rest of those guys in there?

If you put enough food - there will be no problem.

On another (funny) note, I think I might have a record for the number of fish in a 10gal...if the new batch was as large as the last, I might have 31 fish in a 10gal  :lol:

Don't even think about it. I have swordatails (about 50 or more), cynotilapia afra (about 30 of diferent ages - more than month apart), about 20 BN pl*cos, SAE, etc in the same grow up 10G tank and they feel fine for now (just also have no place to put them).

Good luck!

[darkdep]

Thanks gvv, think I can relax a bit !

[sylvain]

Don't relax too fast. You should know that as long as you feed them properly, they should do fine, but the law of the jungle is, that they can still be preyed on, not necessarily by the month old ones but by the parents. Make sure you have plenty of caves and hiding places, also since they are babies, the number you have in that tank is not really a problem for now, but as they will grow, there will be some chasing and fighting, and the strongers are going to survive. As for overpopulating a 10 gallons tank, I just want to say that I find it sad, because even if they seem to be ok and doing fine, the reality is they are probably gasping for oxygen, the water must be poluted with all their droppings, food waste, etc.. unless you do everyday water changes, but still having over 50 fishes in a 10 gallons tank, is something you should never do.

[darkdep]

Well, my 10 gets a 50% waterchange every other day (probably everyday now that there are two batches in there).  

Believe me, I heard about it.  My wife was trying to get me to start phoning people at 10pm last night in a desperate search for another tank X=)

Anyway, all I need to do is be comfortable that they will be ok for a couple days at most.  They will be seperated today or tomorrow.

[fishycanuck]

Deep breath, Sylvain - although there might be 50 individual fish in the 10G, they are fry and don't add much to the bioload.  The breeders in this group are a pretty decent bunch and won't let the fish suffer!

[darkdep]

Thanks FC X=)

[gvv]

although there might be 50 individual fish in the 10G, they are fry and don't add much to the bioload.

You are right! I just want to add that nobody is gasping and in the opposite look very healthy and active. The problem with overpopulated fry tank can occur later on - in order to grow, they will need more space, otherwise, they will be "dwarfs", as they will stop growing even if you will increase the quantity of food and will make regular water changes...
Now, concerning the "jungle law"  As I understood mother spit them and darkdep you are not planning to put mother into same tank?! Second, these "cobalt blues" are mbuna and I had good experience with mbuna of different  spawns in same tank... I'm not saying that this is a good idea to put just released fry with 6 month juvies in the tank without hiding places (oldest will kill just of curiosity), but 1 month is fine. And certainly it depends on fish you have. If it will be pelvicachromis sp. (like kribs) I will definetly say no, if you don't want the smaller guys to be killed. They will hunt on everything smaller than they are. But mbuna are calm when it concerns fry/juvies. Let's say that when I decided to leave all fry in my show tank I got teh full tank of fry and juvies and had to disemble it in order to get rid of smaller ones... Adults didn't hunt for them.
But, for sure sylvain, I should agree with you that the best solution is to have separate tanks. Just sometimes it is not posible
Regards

[darkdep]

Right now the mother is in the 10Gal with the babies (she was seperated from the main tank).  She is acting very calm towards all inhabitants at the moment, just seems happy to be eating again.  My intention is to let her gain some strength and put her back into the main tank in maybe a week or so.  There are hiding places in the 10gal, I didn't realize how many until I put a net in to  attempt a quick catch of the juvies X=)

So, the end result will be:  Momma back in main tank with the rest of the adults; new fry stay in the 10gal nursery, and the juvies will move to the (about to be set up) growout tank.  All they have to do is get along for a little while X=)

[sylvain]

just to clarify, when I said that it is sad to have more than 50 fishes in a tank, I wasn't talking about the babies but more of what someone elses wrote,

""Don't even think about it. I have swordatails (about 50 or more), cynotilapia afra (about 30 of diferent ages - more than month apart), about 20 BN pl*cos, SAE, etc in the same grow up 10G tank and they feel fine for now (just also have no place to put them).
""
It's wrong to think that because they are small they don't had to the bioload, especially if you are increasing the amount of food, to make sure all of them will eat, you could increase the pollution in the tank if they don't eat all of it, it will rot, better off giving twice a day the same amount that you usually give them, then more only once or more twice a day.  Also, I've been keeping fishes for close to 20 years, I have quite a lot of experience with mbunas, and my experience has shown me that they can eat their fry anytime, even the less agressive will, my 150 gallons african cichlid tank is well decorated for their specific needs, and I still notice that the population is quite regulated by the adults, some young survive, some don't,  eaten by the others, I have at least one or two females that spit fry every two weeks, and still the population rises slowly, I had to remove around 30 fishes over the last year. you can see pics of my tanks in my signature. I have two 150 gallons, one 40 gallons, one 90 gallons and I'm getting one 120 gallons next week for my tropheus project.