After two big die-offs right at the 8 day mark, I tried a couple of new things on the latest spawns (now approx 10 & 12 days old).
1) Went out and bought jugs of Spring water for the spawn tanks, instead of aged tap water.
2) Left the sponge filters in and running through the whole spawning process, instead of turning them on when the fry were free swimming.
3) Started on BBS (alternated with walter worms) from day 1 of free swimming, instead of infusoria & walter worms.
Not sure which of the three factors was contributing to the die-offs, if not all three, but this time I've spotted no fatalities at all, even though I'd have expected at least a few malformed ones to perish. 100+ in one tank, 75+ in the other. The smaller spawn (orange x yellow) seems to be growing a smidge faster than the larger spawn (black x red). Spawned in 10 gallon tanks.
1) Went out and bought jugs of Spring water for the spawn tanks, instead of aged tap water.
2) Left the sponge filters in and running through the whole spawning process, instead of turning them on when the fry were free swimming.
3) Started on BBS (alternated with walter worms) from day 1 of free swimming, instead of infusoria & walter worms.
Not sure which of the three factors was contributing to the die-offs, if not all three, but this time I've spotted no fatalities at all, even though I'd have expected at least a few malformed ones to perish. 100+ in one tank, 75+ in the other. The smaller spawn (orange x yellow) seems to be growing a smidge faster than the larger spawn (black x red). Spawned in 10 gallon tanks.