Reply To: how do i keep fry alive for more than 3minutes??
Well you are certainly not a beginner. You are breeding similar fish to me, check out my videos on youtube.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BYxFcoSjkXI
I have yet to spawn the CPD’s iv tryed twice and not got them to lay, mine are too shy in the bare tank i usually use. I have bred and raised loads of small/tiny fry though. If you can succeed with the tiny pencilfish you can breed and raise nearly anything(bit off track but roughly how many pencilfish fry do you get from a pair, i use two females to 1 male and get roughly 60-80).
With my fry i use a tiny bit of liquifry, 2-4 drops in a 16litre tank for the first couple of days. I then swap to a tiny powdered food which is infusior sized until they can take newly hatched brine shrimp. Once on this your problems are over and they should grow rapidly.
Over the years i have obviously lost fry and encountered problems, this is a natural learning curve. I will list a few mistakes/problems i have had.
1-Overfeeding (fry can only eat a minute amount at a time. less than the smallest amount we can measure)
2- Underfeeding (tiny regular feeds are required) 10-20 feeds a day are ideal but no one i know has this much time hense if you work all day a fry can easily go 8-10 hours without food which is bad. Try liquifry mixed with water to slightly cloud the water while you are away.
3- Water changes.. When i first started i changed anything upto 50% daily as soon as the fry were freeswimming.I would lose 4-5 fish after every waterchange I now only start water changes after i start feeding baby brine shrimp, usually 1 week after freeswimming.And never a huge amount 10% daily is better than 50% in one go.
4- Moving/tiny changes in water. I never move fry. I use a bare tank for the parents to spawn then remove the adults. The fry are amazingly delicate and even the most careful people can damage/shock them. I also match the water temp to the nearest degree when changing water as i have lost fry due to inaccuracy in temp. Even 2-3o can be dangerous
Right im knackered now so im going..Goodluck 
:wink: [/list]