Dead fry?

[sountfc]

I've got a pair of Taiwan reef fish (Malawis) that bred. I fished the mother out on Sunday and put her by herself in an established 10 gallon tank. She started spitting babies last night. This evening I came home and the entire brood of them were dead on the bottom of the tank. Water parameters are 77 degrees F, 8.1 pH, 0 ppm ammonia. I can't see any reason why this would happen.

Does anyone have any ideas?

[sountfc]

I just realized something when I took a second look. All of the fry she spit out were really small, and still looked like tadpoles, i.e., they had their yolk sacs still attached. This is the first time I've had a female spit fry that weren't fully formed in that regard. Would her spitting them out early in that stage of development be enough to cause them not to live?

[algarciajr]

When I strip females or move fry from one tank to another, especially to a small one like a 10 gallon aquarium I take the whole 10 gallons straight out of the tank they were in and into the new one.

[BeefyG]

I just realized something when I took a second look. All of the fry she spit out were really small, and still looked like tadpoles, i.e., they had their yolk sacs still attached. This is the first time I've had a female spit fry that weren't fully formed in that regard. Would her spitting them out early in that stage of development be enough to cause them not to live?

If the yolk sacs are still attached then they needed to be put in a tumbler to survive. They can't move around so they need something else to move them. As far as I understand, anyways. Sorry to hear about your losing them. A similar thing happened to a friend when he was stripping. We started scrambling around trying to build one out of stuff laying around. It wasn't pretty but it worked.

I could be wrong, btw. I don't breed fish so take it for what its worth.

[fshfrk]

The stress of moving her caused her to spit. Maybe she is inexperianced and she did not pick them back up. They need to go in a tumbler. Good news is you know now. Get a tumbler so you are ready next time. They should breed again soon. Good Luck.

[sountfc]

Thanks for the replies. It makes sense. I'll look and see what a tumbler costs, and will probably invest in one.