# Fry Food Question



## Emily (May 4, 2010)

Hi everyone,

My dwarf balloon parrots spawned again, and this time they didn't eat the fry -- yay! I have put a tank divider in my 120 gallon so they have about a 12 x 12 footprint of space of the tank. In that space are both parents and a cory I wasn't able to net out, along with a small piece of manzanita, a large java fern and sand substrate. It's an established tank, it has been running for almost a year. My question is: do I need to feed the fry, or will there be enough microscopic food particles for them on the plant and substrate? I have powdered baby food but am worried about polluting the water (I find it super difficult to gauge how much of that to feed). I thought about hatching baby shrimp but I don't have an extra pump lying around to power an airstone. I also have some daphnia outside in a bucket but there aren't a ton of them and they look too big for the fry.

Thoughts?

Edit: It's probably worth mentioning that the fry are about a week old, and are *just* starting to become mobile. A few are free swimming, most are still wiggling on the ground... I'm assuming once they are free swimming they need a food source but it's hard to tell because I can't see a yolk clearly, they are so small!


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## Shrimpette (Feb 17, 2015)

I feed my fry a couple times a day - small amounts cause they don't need much of course. One of their favorites was cooked egg yolk - disolve a tiny bit in a small amount of tank water then dribble a few drops into the tank. Mixed well, the particles are even smaller than the Hikari First Bites (they also suspend in the water and sink slower). I also feed microworms, though it took them a while to catch onto them.

Infusiora is supposed to be a good first food as well, but I never got the hang of making it and trusting I wasn't just coming up with rotting veggie mater in water lol

Oh and yes... small amounts a few times a day plus water changes. 

Or are you keeping them with the parents? In that case powder a bit of food when you feed the adults and you'll have the tiny bits landing in the plants and such that they can feed off of.


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## Emily (May 4, 2010)

Thank you so much for your response, sorry I haven't had time to reply until now. I did keep them with the parents but only a handful remain as they were sneaking out the sides of the divider and just getting eaten. For the next batch I will remove them and raise them in a separate tank.


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