# White Cloud Fry, Now what?



## giypsy (Oct 6, 2009)

This is just plain embarrassing. For all my due diligence 
re: the planted & shrimparium grow-out, I seem to have
acquired a fry population in a pond scum covered bowl.
I do not think I can even reconstruct the chain of events
based on tank logs, sheesh.

Here is my best guess:
A few weeks ago(?) I moved three 1 m.wcm and two
f fatties into my holding bowl which had nothing but mature
marimo balls and some baby crypt lutea floating, during a 
series of cleaning & re-scaping events. They got no food,
were in there for a few whiles, then put back into the 10g:view.

I kept meaning to empty the bowl & rehouse the marimos to
a 5g I finally got re-started and put the last of the C.Lutea
in the grow out. The water _under_ the pond scum is
crystal clear and the marimos are pearling in the sunshine.

I glance at the bowl and _what-the-hmmmm?_ There is something moving, 
flashing in the sun. I get all excited thinking 
there are accidental shrimp fry in there, nope fish!
Fry are about 1/4" long and free swimming.

Q: should I feed them some pulverized spriullina?
And should I move them to the 5g/AquaClear 20,
or 
should I put them in the planted tank with the
parents & 3 neons, 
and how big should they be before moving them anywhere?

Editor's Update:
Seems only one is 1/4" long, the rest, an a-chem _cloud_, of them
are hanging around at the bottom of the footed bowl. Majority, head & body
are the size of a breadcrumb or a grain of sugar.


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## Six (May 29, 2006)

Honestly, I'd keep them in the bowl and do what you thought- feed them pulverized spirulina. No way will they live with any adult fish- not for long at least!
I raise fry in those catch cups LFS use. Add some air or cut a hole in it and plug it with foam- let it sit inside the aquarium- change the water as close to daily as possible and feed well. Eventually you'll get 1.good at it and 2. some results.
Since you likely dont have that kind of thing, I'd keep them in the bowl, feed them 2xs daily and do a small water change daily. Being a cool water species they can live without a heater. Since the water is colder it also holds more oxygen thus no need for air. 

HTH's!
GL!


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## giypsy (Oct 6, 2009)

Good stuff, Thanks Six!
I agree, keeping them in the bowl seems the only real option.
Best case scenario is that I will round out the shoal with a few more
juvies than I had planned to buy, worst case, live and learn.

Marimo algae balls have become my new best friends,
I suspect they are the reason I even have surviving fry.


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## Diana K (Dec 20, 2007)

Keeping them in a bowl like you have probably has a lot of microorganisms the fry are feeding on. As they grow they will need more food, so start offering the finest things you have. I have had good results with Hikari's fry food, in the green envelope. Terrible results with Liqui-fry products. 
New Life Spectrum also makes a fry food, called Grow. but it is larger, for somewhat older fry and very small fish. I feed it to my Threadfin Rainbows and Dwarf Rasboras and similar sized fish. Good fry food, too, just not so small.


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## giypsy (Oct 6, 2009)

First fry photos @ *10g in the fish village journal*


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## snail_chen (Dec 4, 2009)

I had white cloud fry too. They are so hardy and I didn't bother to feed them anything. Now they grow to mature size! They are said to be able to survive in the gutter!


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## giypsy (Oct 6, 2009)

snail_chen said:


> I had white cloud fry too. They are so hardy and I didn't bother to feed them anything. Now they grow to mature size! They are said to be able to survive in the gutter!


I would have liked to have a larger shoal of White Clouds, mysteriously the fry 
turned out to be Neon Tetras. [link] There is just no explanation for this turn of events.
Fish-keeping is never boring.


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## Bunnie1978 (Sep 29, 2009)

How do you know they are neons? WCMM have the same irredescent stripe when they're babies, it can be blue even.


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## giypsy (Oct 6, 2009)

Bunnie1978 said:


> How do you know they are neons?
> WCMM have the same irredescent stripe when they're babies,
> it can be blue even.


It is pretty clear we do not know what we have here.
The blush on the tail and dorsal are of no help at this point.









The alpha, two mediums and a small were moved to the 
10g:redux Shrimparium due to bullying or just the dominance game. 
The alpha in this shot is about 5/8", by far larger than it's siblings.
The lighting in the 5g nursery is incandescent plant & white.
The lighting in the shrimparium is florescent Flora Grow & Ultra Sun 40s-T8.
The shrimparium also has Mopani which is stratifying the color in my tank
shots due to tannin leaching. The above shot was taken near the top
of the tank. The stripe is blue most of the time, although in this light
there is a little iridescent greenish tint.
The plant is Giant Hairgrass for size comparison.

The WCCM in my planted tank, have a copper iridescent stripe.
Same lighting as the shrimparium.

Your guess is as good as mine at this point.


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## Bunnie1978 (Sep 29, 2009)

Thats what my WCMM fry looked like.  We'll see!


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## praxis5624 (Apr 22, 2006)

WCMM look like Neons when young so be aware.


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