Teachers’ Lounge

I am interested in the answer to this question also!

We have about 11 “overachievers” that are swimming up near the surface and the rest are still chilling out in the gravel.

I am guessing it is about time to feed the swimmers…. going to look it up in the maintenance guide, but ran across this posting first so added my 2 cents in!

This is also our first year with TIC (and we hope to have many more!). 

Our alevins began swimming/exploring in their hatching basket mid November. We began feeding them then - just a literal pinch twice a day. A greater percentage of them were swimming just before our Thanksgiving break and we decided to keep them “contained” in their basket until we returned so as to monitor what they were capable of.  We dropped the basket last week and maybe 30% swam out.  We continued feeding them two small pinches each day and swirling the food with the turkey baster so that it dropped for those bottom feeders.  A week later 90% were free swimming, so we dumped the remainder into the tank and took out the basket.

I’ve been concerned with just how much to feed them. They are looking more like fish - patterns, no egg sack, little fins and about an inch to 1-1/2 inches long. I just discovered the manual page that has a mathematical algorithm for figuring the correct amount of feed (I figured .34 grams of the 0 size for 300 alevins) and will begin to feed them that amount tomorrow. (I have a small digital scale that measures to the .00 gram. Lucky me!) It is more than we’ve been giving them so far.  I also am still using the 0 grade food. We’ve not used half of what we were given, so I figure they can still eat it.  Anyone know differently?

So far we’ve only added water twice; once for evaporation and once because thought our PH and ammonia numbers weren’t “perfect. We removed around 10 gallons that second time.

So my big questions for the moment concern food size and lighting. 
When do I begin to feed my fry’s the number 1?  Should I use up the 0 first - feeding them the appropriate weight?

Should I add some lighting to the top of the tank? (any special UV bulb?) The tank is in the school’s main lobby and receives ambient florescent light.  We will continue to keep styrofoam on the sides and bottom to insulate, we removed the top piece so that they get more light than they have had before.

Ours are not as big as yours—maybe because we haven’t been feeding them much at all! Just a tiny pinch Friday and another today. Almost all are now swimming freely. They congregate in the upper left-hand corner so that’s where we add the food. There are still a lot in the gravel, though. They are only about 1/2 inch long right now, but cute as can be. Kind of sad knowing that most will die before release…. Unlike you, I do not have such a sensitive scale! After you find out what 0.54 grams looks like, can you describe it?

      Hope someone with experience answers your question about the light. We have a hood with a light, but I haven’t turned it on yet since the alevins can’t take UV light. I do want to add some plants to our tank, but figure we can’t do that until we can turn the light on. So far our ammonia and nitrate levels have been low, but I am sure that as the fry start feeding and excreting these levels will increase and the plants would help prevent them getting too high.

Your feeding guidelines are in the TIC Activity Guide. You should be starting to switch up to size 1. Mix a little 1 with some 0 so they get used to eating the larger size food. If your fish are free swimming, you can turn your lights on on the hood. It won’t damage them at this point.