Reply To: My first fry!!!
Before my fry were able to eat BBS (almost a week for the CPDs it seemed like), they ate loads of micro-organisms I couldn’t see in the water because they are too small. These populations of “infusoria” are kept high in the presence of live plants (shameless plug for the live plant cult).
I also fed them a powdered food made for raising fry. I used “OSI micro food” http://www.petsolutions.com/Micro-Food+I92700105+C100045.aspx although I think a bunch of companies make fine powders and granules — check the fish food shelves where you work. If you can find it, Liquifry #1 is a liquid suspension of super-tiny food bits for the fry.
I highly recommend micro-worms too. Culturing them is even easier than brine shrimp. Also less smelly if you are trying to keep the BBS bubbler going more than a few days on a single batch. Way less smelly if you make the mistake of letting the air stop in the BBS bubbler!!!!
I posted a link earlier to a great step-by-step recipe webpage about culturing micro-worms. $10 worth of supplies (plastic dish and lid, flaked dry baby cereal, brewer’s yeast, and active yeast) will keep you in wiggly live fish food for months — and get the adults fattened up for breeding. Once you have the supplies, all you need is a couple of bucks for a little dish of someone else’s culture, but these are easy to find at your local fish club, or at places like aquabid.com. Are there any other fish breeders at the place you work? They might have some live food cultures to get you started. I promise the micro-worms won’t stink up the folks’ house. There is a bit of a yeasty smell — like baking bread — but unless you keep the lid on tight for a couple of days without letting it breathe, you won’t get the foul smell that a bubbler full of BBS can bomb you with if it goes anaerobic.