2 replies to this topic

[Sunfish89]

Hi! I was planning on breeding Elassoma evergladei outdoor this summer. I had some success by breeding them in a tank. The biggest issue is that the adults eating the fry. I removed some fry and put them in a jar. The ones in the jar seems to grow faster than the ones in the tank can the smaller space making it easier for them to find food? I feed them vinegar eels until they are big enough to eat BBS.

I was also planning on trying to remove the adults from the tank once fry started to appear.

[gerald]

Yes it's much easier to move the adults to a new tank and raise the fry in the tank or tub where they were spawned. Tree leaf litter is good for helping to grow protozoa and rotifers as a supplemental food for the fry. 

[littlen]

There are some great threads on this forum about breeding Pygmy sunfish.  Do a quick search and you should have hours worth of reading.

It seems to me like you have the right idea about rearing the fry.  What does your breeding tank setup look like?  If I had to guess, adding additional plants--like Java moss--might increase fry survival with the adults.

In an outdoor pond, the adults and fry will also have to evade predators in the form of aquatic insects and their larvae/nymphs.