We bought this nursery when we discovered 7 very tiny orange fish floating in our tank. It works perfectly. I took out all of the dividers and the 7 little fish have more than enough room to grow safely. I put a piece of plant inside the nursery in case they wanted to seek cover. You keep the box about an inch above water so the little fish cannot sneak out. Very pleased with this product.
The product was excellent although I did not use it with the mother giving birth. By the time I ordered the product and installed it, the mother had already had the babies. I simply took out the pieces and used the nursery as a single isolation container inside the main tank to keep the babies in until they are large enough to release.
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The bottom and side vents are too large. I had noticed that before using; but I had a pregnant guppy which is about to give birth and I didn't have time to look for another nursery container. So I used it. The mother gave birth to more than thirty babies. While I was happily watching them, I noticed a baby trying to hide above a big leave at the surface of the aquarium. I caught it and placed it back inside this container. Then I noticed several others are outside. While I was catching and putting them back, smaller babies were falling out from the bottom and side vents. Finally, I transferred all of them to a food storage container. Those that I couldn't catch became live food for some of the adults.
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I've yet to have any fry survive this breeder. I have guppy and platy fry that survive without the use of a breeder tank in 2 of my other tanks, but one of my tanks has too many barbs and other excitable fish that usually eat up all the fry before I even know the mama has given birth. So in this one tank, I had decided to try this breeder box. I've put swordtail mamas and molly mamas in there, and so far none of the fry have survived. Some get their bodies trapped in the slits of the V, and never make it to the bottom of the breeder. The few that do make it to the bottom of the breeder get their bodies torn in half by the fish on the outside of the tank when their tails dangle thru the slits on the bottom of the breeder. So I wake up in the morning to a bunch of fish heads in the breeder. I put java moss in the box and a layer of gravel in the bottom of the breeder so that at least if the fish make it thru the V of the breeder, it might save them from the fish outside the breeder. This last time, I left out the V partition and just have gravel, a ton of java moss, and the insert that has a bunch of slits in it; only I put that in upside down, hoping the babies will at least fit thru the bigger slits. Also, the V insert is VERY hard to get out. After the last mama delivered, and there were a bunch of fry stuck in the top because their heads were too big to drop to bottom of breeder, I tried taking the V insert out while in the tank so that the babies could be in bottom of the tank. I probably killed more fry trying to take the V out. Very difficult. Also, the box does not always stay stuck to the side of the tank, maybe in a tank full of guppies, but not in a tank full of other larger and more active fish. I've found this box dangling halfway down the tank, being jostled about by the airline. Oh, and the lack of instructions for how to put it together is disappointing. For those wanting to try this, it comes together the right way in the box. Just make sure when you take it out of the box, that you remember exactly how it was put together. That was very confusing for me the first time because my excited 8 yr old unpacked it for me. :(
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This product should get an award for clever and functional design. It is made to keep Mama fish from eating her fry by allowing the babies to drift down to a safe zone below their mother's compartment. Attach an air line from your aquarium air pump to the built in filter, and voila, there's a filtered water flow through the nursery. The filter unit easily snaps on and off and fits either side of the nursery to accommodate your aquarium setup. The nursery is manufactured from clear acrylic plastic, which is strong (but probably brittle), but is absolutely see-through clear. The nursery box hangs in a clear plastic frame which attaches to the aquarium glass by suction cups.
This makes taking the nursery box in and out of the aquarium easy by leaving the frame semi-permanently in the fish tank.
As noted in other reviews, the slits in the plastic floor to allow for water flow are just slightly too large. In my Gambusia (mosquito fish) tank, a few of the tiniest fry can escape through these slits. Not a problem in my situation, as the ones who can wiggle through the slits escape into a babies-only compartment in my aquarium.
I put a little of this in the pond a week before catching the fish to clean it, then I use it after I add water to conditiont he water and further help with getting the fish coat strong. I haven't had any issues with it.
