Convists eggs hatching

[fishfreaks]

well this morning as leaving for work i realized that our convicts eggs are turning into little wigglers! YAY! the female seems to be picking the eggs that hatch and fall, and then she appears to be spitting them out underneath of a plant.. I just know that it looks like she spit an egg out. Most of the eggs are gone now, so are my assumptions correct? If so, when should we remove the fry? I dont want to do it too early, but then again i dont want to do it too late and they are food. Would the fry be okay if we put them into our 15 gallon until they get a bit bigger? there was only about 100 eggs to begin with, so im hoping to keep alive about 5 if possible.

[fishfreaks]

alright i just checked, they are indeed under the plant like i thought. she has them sitting in the gravel and they are still fighting off everything

[fishfreaks]

theyre still there! she had them in a U shape under the plant haha, i will try to get some pics. how long should i wait to feed? do you think cyclopse ez (sp) will be ok

[TheOldSalt]

Pre-soak the cyclopeze so it will sink and be a bit softer, but I don't think they'll eat them yet. If you can hatch some brineshrimps, get started on it.
If you have a pond/pool nearby with a bunch of plants in it, preferably something like anacharis, the put some plants into a jar and scrape them along the inside rim of the jar in order to scrape the aufwuchs from the plants, which will fall into the jar in a green goo. Doi this many times until the jar is full, and get two more jars of pond water. Take them home, and in a a few more jars, distribute some tank water, the pond water, and the green goo. Mix 'em all up and let them settle, and soon the jars will have greenwater on the bottom with clear water over the green. Pour off the clear water and squirt the green water to the fry with a piece of airline tubing. do this several times a day, and after a few days the'll be ready to eat brineshrimps or cyclopeze.
Instead of greenwater you can also feed them some liquid fry food made from egg yolk or a commercial brand found in a fish store.
By the way, it's a lot easier to feed them in a separate tank, since then you can just pour the greenwater over them with the pumps turned off for a halfhour. In the meantime, sprinkle some powdered flake food on the water whcih will just sit there until you turn the pumps back on again, which will make it sink and give the fry their second course.

They should have their yolksacs absorbed in a few days, maybe 2 or 3, and they'll be hungry indeed by then.
One last thing: since these are first-time parents, they may be more likely to eat the fry if you spook them too much with all your close observations.

[fishfreaks]

thanks tos! how do we do this brine shrimp hatch thing?

[TheOldSalt]

Oh, I didn't see that one coming.

Okay, first, get some brine shrimp eggs. With any luck, you'll find some with instructions. If not, then mix up a batch of saltwater to full strength, 1.026, and put it in a 1- liter soda bottle that's well-rinsed. Fill it to about 3/4, and add an airstone. Pour in the eggs and wait a day. The next day, take out the airstone, wait a few minutes, and squeeze the bottle until all the floating eggshells spill out the top. ( well, you won't get them all, but get all you can ).
Oh, I forgot something important. Wrap the bottle in something black before filling it.

If you can get a brineshrimp net, then the rest is as simple as pouring the water through the net into a bucket, and dumping the BBS into a jar of salty water. Then you can suck them up and squirt them out with a piece of airline tubing, turkey baster, or big eyedropper or pipette. Really try to find a brineshrimp net, as it makes your life a lot easier.

if you can't get one, then this is why the bottle is blackened. Modify a bottlecap to hold a common air valve. Close the valve, attatch to bottle, and turn bottle upside down in something that will hold it there awhile, and shine a flashlight into a clear spot you left near the bottom, which is now the top. The BBS will accumulate near the light, so you can then open the valve and slowly let water out without stirring things up too much. Eventually the remaining water will have a heavy concentration of shrimp, and you can then pour THAT into your jar for feeding.
DON'T dump straight salty water onto your very young fry. Pour them into a small jar of fresh water, and then feed them to the fry.
See why a brineshrimp net is so handy? It saves all this extra trouble.

There are, of course, many other ways to do it, and I know a quick google search will reveal many other methods, some of them easier.
Brineshrimp lose their nutritional value after a single day unless they are fed, so hatching a day's worth at a time works well enough.

[fishfreaks]

so then those brine shrimp eggs that come in a container like flake food are legit? ive seen those before but i thought "oh really now?" and its ok oddsalt, we already have a brine shrimp net