Erectus Fry Issues

[Dogshowgrl]

I know I am new, but I am smart and I am fully immersed into not just reef keeping but these awesome ponies.

This is the 4th Brood from my Erectus pair this morning. YAY! But that is not where my issues are. We are going along well every 16 days. The first two broods I gave to a friends to raise since I didn't have the time to get everything going. I now have gotten my setup going; including cultures of nano, rotifers, and BBS and air pumps, buckets, and tanks.

Now I have brood 3 that are 17 days old and starting about day 13-14 I started losing 15-20 instead of the normal 3-8. I do 50-60% WC twice daily feed 1-2 day old BBS enriched, alternating with phyto and selcon. I did a FW dip on day 5 due to bacterial itching and it worked great. I understand there will be times for starve out and dies offs, but I can't lose this many now before I even get to introducing frozen. They are growing like weeds and are very active. I understand I should cull the ones that look bad before they die for water quality, the first week or so I did, but now they are active and feeding and then the next morning dead.

Amm- untraceable (red sea)
SG- 1.020 (all my cultures are at the same)
pH- 8.4-8.6 hanna checker and red sea testing about the same each time

Lights on 24 hours a day for day 1-4,
then 20 hours day 5-8 and now 18 hours a day
Using 2.5 gallon blue Lowes buckets with two air lines to create movement and extra small zip-ties for hitching

What ever other information you need, feel free to ask. Please be kind, I know I am new, but we are all were at one point. I am trying my hardest and I am just trying to find out some problem solving skills here.


Even if you have no suggestions, if you have successfully raised fry in the past what was your average survival rate?

[rayjay]

In my earlier days with reidi I used 4L glass jars, cleaning them out with complete water change every other day, using continual lighting and greenwater plus Cloram-X with open ended air lines. http://www.angelfire.com/ab/rayjay/fry.html
However, when I started on raising erectus I used a Muck Bucket system with sump, a scaled version of Dan's round tubs he had been using. Total water in the system was about 25 to 30g. Lighting was 24hrs and feeding was done 3 to 4 times a day, mostly 4 but at least 3 when not able to do 4. I used ClorAm-X but don't know if it was needed or not, but just to make sure ammonia wasn't a problem due to the heavy feeding.
I evolved to the point every batch of food was enriched with Algamac 3050 for the first week or so, then enriched with Dan's Feed after that until weaned onto shaved frozen mysis. Once on mysis, I still grew out artemia to juvenile and adults to enrich once a week or so to feed in place of the mysis, just for added nutrition.
As they grew larger I would transfer them to standard tanks with overflows and sumps.
I think for most of us, it is just trial and error until we get it right.
My successes ran from as low as total failures of some batches up to around 60% for the better batches. Some failures I knew I did something wrong but others I found no explanation for.
I have NO idea what I did different when I started getting good percentages as I thought I was still doing the same thing as when I was only getting 30-35% success.

[Dogshowgrl]

Originally Posted by rayjay

In my earlier days with reidi I used 4L glass jars, cleaning them out with complete water change every other day, using continual lighting and greenwater plus Cloram-X with open ended air lines. http://www.angelfire.com/ab/rayjay/fry.html
However, when I started on raising erectus I used a Muck Bucket system with sump, a scaled version of Dan's round tubs he had been using. Total water in the system was about 25 to 30g. Lighting was 24hrs and feeding was done 3 to 4 times a day, mostly 4 but at least 3 when not able to do 4. I used ClorAm-X but don't know if it was needed or not, but just to make sure ammonia wasn't a problem due to the heavy feeding.
I evolved to the point every batch of food was enriched with Algamac 3050 for the first week or so, then enriched with Dan's Feed after that until weaned onto shaved frozen mysis. Once on mysis, I still grew out artemia to juvenile and adults to enrich once a week or so to feed in place of the mysis, just for added nutrition.
As they grew larger I would transfer them to standard tanks with overflows and sumps.
I think for most of us, it is just trial and error until we get it right.
My successes ran from as low as total failures of some batches up to around 60% for the better batches. Some failures I knew I did something wrong but others I found no explanation for.
I have NO idea what I did different when I started getting good percentages as I thought I was still doing the same thing as when I was only getting 30-35% success.

Thank you, Rayjay, I was hoping for a response from you. What I am getting from this is "keep doing what your doing"

I appreciate your time. I am going on vacation often this month and my friend will have them for a bit, but when I return there will be a bit of an over haul now that I have a good idea of the lay out I need and how it will work best.

[BlueCat1949]

When I was raising erectus I did five feedings and water changes a day and tore down and sterilized everything every fifth day.

It was pretty time consuming for sure and I had a full time job at the time but I was able to come home at lunch time for a feeding. After five years of doing this I burnt out and stopped keeping horses all together.

I did have success and was able to sell many horses over a three year period. I think the main thing is you really have to be dedicated and never take vacations as no one else will be able to keep fry alive when you are gone. I found this out when I did an overnight trip to San Francisco to give a seahorse talk and came home to a disaster.

Good luck

[iluvmyfishes]

Babies eat a lot, try increasing your feedings.