3,895 answers about fish & aquatics
A healthy aquarium is a balanced one — water chemistry, filtration, stocking and feeding all work together, and most fish problems start with the water. This page gathers the fish and aquatics library of KinsLe Answers in one place, organized by topic for freshwater and saltwater keepers alike. Every answer is original, written by KinsLe, and tied to a real KinsLe feature.
297 answers in Young Pets — page 12 of 13
Baby bamboo shrimp are filter feeders, so their care is about food drifting past their fans in a gentle current. Set them up in a mature, established tank where a piece of wood or rock sits near the filter outflow, and release powdered food - finely crushed algae wafer, powdered fry food or spirulina powder - just…
Baby black skirt tetras thrive in warm, calm, very clean water with food ground small enough for fry mouths. Run a sponge filter so nobody gets pulled toward an intake, hold the water steady in the upper seventies Fahrenheit, and feed powdered fry food or finely crushed flake three or four times a day in pinches they…
For tetra eggs and larvae, steadiness matters more than the exact number: the eggs develop on a knife edge, and a swing of even a couple of degrees in a day can kill a clutch or deform the larvae, while a stable temperature at the lower-middle of the species' comfort range hatches them reliably. Use a reliable heater…
Plan the surplus before it outgrows the tank: local fish shops often take healthy juveniles for credit once they are a saleable size, aquarium clubs run auctions and swaps where fry move quickly, and other local keepers will happily take young fish that are eating well. Raise only what you have homes for by separating…
Newly hatched fry find food by sight, so they need gentle, steady light rather than darkness or glare: a soft aquarium light or nearby room light switched on and off gradually, never snapped on in a dark room. Keep the light over the feeding area so infusoria and baby brine shrimp gather where the fry can see…
A breeder box is a small slotted container that hangs inside the main tank, keeping a pregnant female or her fry physically separated while tank water flows through the slots. It works as a short-term refuge for a birth or a few days of safety, but its limits are real: the volume is tiny, the mother is stressed by…
Give fry cover that works at every level of the tank: floating plants to dim the surface and shelter the smallest swimmers, a loose tangle of java moss or guppy grass mid-water where fry can vanish from adult mouths, and broad leaves low down for grazing. Those same plant surfaces grow the biofilm and infusoria that…
Move the guppy late, gently, and into shelter rather than confinement: wait until she looks boxy from above and her gravid spot is large and dark, then net her into a separate small tank or a roomy in-tank nursery filled with floating plants and java moss. Feed her well beforehand, keep the water identical to her home…
When angelfish repeatedly eat their eggs, raise the clutch away from them: angelfish often need several spawns to settle, and some pairs never stop. Slide the slate or leaf carrying the eggs into a small hatching tank of water from the parents' tank, keep a gentle stream of air bubbles passing over the eggs, and pick…
Frequent small feeds foul fry water fast, so the routine that works is tiny meals, prompt cleanup, and small daily water changes rather than occasional big ones. Feed only what the fry finish in a couple of minutes, siphon the bottom with airline tubing within the hour, and replace a modest amount of water each day…
Grade by size every week or two, because goldfish fry from one spawning grow at different rates and the gap compounds: the largest take food first, grow faster still, and will eventually treat the runts as food themselves. Work gently over a shallow tray of tank water, lifting fry with a soft mesh net or a cup, and…
Stop sprinkling powder dry onto the surface, where it floats, clumps and sinks uneaten: mix a pinch into a slurry with tank water, draw it into a pipette, and release it slowly in a cloud where the fry are gathered, so it hangs in the water column in front of their mouths. Feed far less than instinct suggests, several…
Healthy fry change visibly every few days: bodies lengthen then deepen, bellies round out after each feed and flatten before the next, and the batch swims strongly at every level rather than hugging the bottom. Stunting shows in proportions first — a fry whose head and eyes look too big for a pinched body that never…
Keep cichlid fry growing with small, matched changes: replace 10 to 15 percent of the water four times a week, each time with water matched for temperature and chemistry and added slowly, so conditions never swing between changes. Siphon with a covered intake or airline tubing held away from where the fry gather, and…
Betta fry take food by mouth size, in stages: infusoria during the free-swimming days, about days three to six, then vinegar eels and microworms as a bridge from about day five through the second week, then newly hatched baby brine shrimp once a fry can swallow one whole. From about the third week, add crushed dry…
Feed newborn guppy fry tiny, protein-rich food little and often: powdered fry food or finely crushed flake rubbed to dust, baby brine shrimp or microworms if you can offer them, four to five small meals a day through the first week. Offer only what disappears in a couple of minutes, because uneaten food fouls the…
Decide quickly how many the tank can honestly support, because one clutch can produce a great many snails and every baby grows into a large, hungry adult whose grazing and waste the water must carry. Feed the youngsters from the start with the algae and biofilm already in the tank plus blanched vegetables, and keep…
A sponge filter is a foam block with an upright tube, driven by an air pump. Rising bubbles lift water through the tube, and that movement draws tank water gently through the foam, where helpful bacteria break down waste and fine particles settle out. Nothing pulls water through a narrow intake, so tiny fry are not…
Offer newly hatched brine shrimp as the staple first food, with infusoria or a fine fry culture as a bridge for very small fry in the first day or two. Feed tiny amounts several times a day, only what leaves bellies visibly rounded and orange-tinged from the shrimp, and siphon waste and uneaten food promptly because…
Fry need food sized for tiny mouths given several times a day, water kept cleaner than an adult tank demands because fry foul a small volume quickly, and filtration slowed or guarded so the current cannot tire or trap them. They also need separation from adult goldfish, including their parents from the start, steady…
Baby plecos graze soft algae and biofilm, rasp at driftwood, and take wafers broken small plus vegetables blanched until tender enough for tiny mouths. Guarantee the night feed by placing a small portion at nightfall in the same spot, at the same hour, beside the shelter where the babies spend the day, checking in the…
Feed fry three to five small meals a day, with each meal sized so the fry finish the food within a few minutes and sized finely enough for small mouths to take. Fry stomachs are tiny while growth is rapid, so frequency matters, while pollution comes from portion size rather than from the number of meals. Siphon…
Set up a corydoras grow-out tank around a bare floor or a thin layer of fine sand, a mature sponge filter run gently on air, and water matched to the breeding tank. Corydoras fry live and feed on the bottom, so cover should sit low: a small pile of smooth pebbles, a piece of leaf litter, and a clump of moss give…
Raise koi fry in a dedicated fry pond or tank, feed by size through the season, and plan from the start to keep only a small share. Fry usually feed once they swim freely a few days after hatching, starting on infusoria-type foods, then baby brine shrimp, then crumbled fry food in growing grades, offered several times…
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