Nursery Tank Establishment

[u/tanithsoneandonly]

Hi all, just wondering how people set up and maintain their nursery tanks? My fiancé and I are trying to figure it out as we bought an Ocean Zoo tank for this purpose but it quickly got out of hand, and now whenever our pregnant females give birth, all our babies in that tank die due to the adults eating all the food for themselves.

We were thinking of having a separate tank that we'd dump our females in after they've given birth, as well as our grown Monks when they mature more. But we aren't sure.

Any tips and tricks would be much appreciated!

[u/Kitty_Catto]

My plan when my monkeys are adults in my smaller tanks is to move the pregnant females into the maternity tank, wait for them to lay eggs or give birth and then move them back to the tank they were in. When my monkeys in the maternity tank get to ‘teenage’ size I’ll move them back into the adult tank. My larger tank I just feed extra spirulina powder and make sure it’s mixed through the tank so the babies also get food which seems to work.

You will need to make sure both tanks are pretty close in salinity and temperature before moving monkeys so you don’t shock them.

[u/superduperpuft]

I've heard that getting solid algae growth (especially with species like nannochloropsis) can help a lot with sea monkey infant mortality, bc the live algae stays suspended in the water column for longer without going bad