How to prepare and feed fry using egg yolk

1. Hard boil an egg

I’ve received several requests from people wanting to know more about how to prepare and feed egg yolk to young fry. I had the same problem once, so I thought I’d write up an article and share it with everyone!

I’m not an expert, so don’t hesitate to GIVE ME SOME FEEDBACK on my methods and perhaps better ways by replying to the article.

YOU WILL NEED

+ 1 egg
+ 1 spray bottle (can be bought for around $2 from just about anywhere… Woolworths, Bunnings Warehouse, Super Cheap Auto)
+ 1 ice cube tray
+ 1 strainer with fine mesh

PREPARING THE EGG YOLK FOR FREEZING

1. Hard boil the egg (about 12 minutes in boiling water) and let it cool in some cold water.

2. Let the egg cool

2. Fill the ice cube tray with water to measure the amount needed. Then poor the water into a small bowl.
3. With your fingertips, sqeese the egg yolk into the water, dissolving as much as you can. This may take several minutes. You don’t need to dissolve all egg yolk.
4. Poor the dissolved egg yolk liquid through the strainer and into your ice cube tray. Heaps of egg yolk will be caught in the strainer, but there will still be plenty of food for the fry. (If you need some egg yolk immediately, use 1/16 of the dissolved and strained egg yolk liquid and follow the instructions below.)
5. Place the ice cube tray in the freezer for future use.

+ The hard boiled egg yolk cubes will keep for up to a year frozen.

PREPARING EGG YOLK FOR FEEDING

1. Grab an egg yolk ice cube (or 1/16 of dissolved and strained egg yolk liquid as explained above) and let it melt in about 100ml water.
2. Poor the liquid into the spray bottle and shake well.

+ Keep the spray bottle REFRIDGERATED and USE WITHIN THREE DAYS (I was told you can use the egg yolk for up to a week, but after about five days it starts to smell, so I prefer to keep it shorter).

The accessories

+ Three days is what is recommended as the max time to feed before the water quality becomes really poor. I’ve fed for up to a week without problems, but it’s probably best to keep the egg yolk diet short.

FEEDING EGG YOLK TO FIGHTING FISH FRY

From when the fry are about three days old should be able to start feeding with egg yolk. Feed small amounts, look closely and be patient to see if they’re big enough to eat it.

Feeding is a bit tricky and I haven’t got 100% control of it yet. You want the egg yolk to spread throughout where your fry is, yet you do not want to overfeed. Overfeeding badly affects the water quality and can kill all your fry. FEED NO MORE THAN TWO SPRAYS, TWICE A DAY!

1. Adjust your spray container so that it sprays a mist of water rather than a beam.

3. Fill the ice cube container with water

2. Shake well and then spray, max 2 times, so that the mist covers the areas where your fry reside.
3. You may only need to spray once if you’ve got a small spawn. The trick is to look closely at what’s being eaten and what’s not, and then of course use some common sense.

+ By shining a light from the side of the tank you will notice the egg yolk as tiny white dots covering the water.
+ As fry only eat live food (or moving particles that look like live food) it’s good to have some movement in the water. I don’t, and it’s still worked fine, but the fry are definitely more interested in the egg yolk particles that are moving slightly than the ones that are still.