recently my jack dempsey's mated & produced fry but unfortunely they made thier pit right next to the filter intake & i am guessing that it sucked all the fry up. (i didn't see it happen) one night there was a grey mass of fry in the bottom of the pit & the next day they were all gone.
so i am thinking of setting up a 2'tank just for them to breed in but was wondering if anyone has suggestions on how to stop the fry from being sucked into the filter intake but still have a well filtered tank. i thought about making a cage made of fly-screen around the intake nozzle but i think the fry could get through the holes in it.
any tips?
put a pre-filter sponge on your filter intakes.
if you are lucky there might be some still alive. as i have found some before.
phagus: thx mate :D i should have thought of that! i suppose you'd have to clean it pretty regular to prevent filter intake blockage ... but for the few weeks the fry are small enough to go through the regular intake mesh it should work a treat. thx.
gasnitro: i was hopeful as well that some of the fry might have survived the plumbing of the filter but i couldn't find any :( the intake feeds directly throuhg the impeller & then into the filter media... so i think the impeller might have chopped them up :(
The other very real possability is that either they ate the babies themselves - especially if first time parents, or there tank mates went for a snack. I find that if the lights go off suddenly at random times in community tanks that the parents can lose track of where the fry are - hence problems.
I like sponge filters in fry tanks as gives filter and food with one foul swoop. Big believer in Java moss in fry tanks too for food and cleansing properties.
HTH
Steve