water changes in fry tanks?

by **Biulu** Wed Mar 12, 2014 11:25 am

Based on the age of my fry and the articles I read about the growth inhibiting hormone it is time to start doing water changes in the betta fry tank.

The question is how to do this without sucking up the fry? Do you guys use a turkey baster, or something else?

by l_l_l Wed Mar 12, 2014 12:13 pm

I have just did a water change in my tank and sucked up a few shrimp fry while doing so.
Luckily, they were in a white bucket so I could see them and put them back in the tank. Smile

by mikebike Wed Mar 12, 2014 12:47 pm

I have several empty large clear plastic jars
or you can use any other container.

I either remove the water with a turey baster or a syphon hose into the container.

I can then look into the cantainer to see if I have sucked up any inhabitants of the tank/grow out.

I recomend doing this any time you re syphoning vacuming a tank/container

by caoder Wed Mar 12, 2014 4:54 pm

You can also use airline tubing and be very careful and patient. I have heard of using an airstone at the end, but I don't know how well that works as I have never tried it.

by **guppyguy** Wed Mar 12, 2014 5:51 pm

Water changes is very important in the growth of many fry. It really does have a impact on my guppy and and endler fry. Cool

by sucker4plecos Wed Mar 12, 2014 5:55 pm

An air stone on the end works fine.... better if it is newer..... we use air stones at the end of our drip lines at work and they work fine... if you throw a plastic two way valve on the end that's draining you can also control the amount of water that is being siphoned ....

by **Biulu** Wed Mar 12, 2014 6:56 pm

How does that work with the airstone? I assume you are supposed to put it on the side that you put in the water?

by caoder Wed Mar 12, 2014 7:31 pm

Yes, it becomes a filter of sorts for the siphon.

by **Biulu** Wed Mar 12, 2014 7:41 pm

Ok, I will give it a try!

by **Biulu** Wed Mar 12, 2014 9:09 pm

Well, it works, but it is sssslllllllllllloooooooooooowwwwwwww! However, I put the airline in a way that the tank can only drain until the height I want which gave me time to do other things in the meantime.

by sucker4plecos Wed Mar 12, 2014 11:48 pm

If you put a suction cup (one of those with a smaller loop/hoop in it for aquarium use) you can run the air line through it and stick it to a level you like with the air stone attached so it does not go through the loop..... it will then drain down to that level without worry of coming loose or over draining...

by Pelle31 Thu Mar 13, 2014 5:41 am

I use a turkey baster and usually a white pyrex dish. Once the fry are big enough I switch to a smaller diameter hose. I have a massive batch of GBR,if any are sucked out I just use a pipette and put them back into the fry tank.

by **Biulu** Thu Mar 13, 2014 11:48 am

sucker4plecos wrote:If you put a suction cup (one of those with a smaller loop/hoop in it for aquarium use) you can run the air line through it and stick it to a level you like with the air stone attached so it does not go through the loop..... it will then drain down to that level without worry of coming loose or over draining...

I did something similar but I used the glass lid. I lowered the airline into the water until the desired height of draining and then simply closed the lid so the airline was stuck between the lid and the rim of the tank.

Fry seem much more active today already! I will be keeping this up...

by mikebike Thu Mar 13, 2014 12:13 pm

I like to move the syphon hose/tube along the bottom to suck up the debris.

by **Biulu** Thu Mar 13, 2014 5:04 pm

That is a good point Mike! In this case though, it is a 'normal' planted tank with gravel, no bare bottom one. For that reason I don't do siphoning only water changes.