First time with babies about nine days old. They hatched in a plastic shoebox with an airstone. My question is where do I go from here - they're eating swimming and doing the fishy thing. There are so many of them and each day the ammonia spikes and the pH goes down. Is there a way to provide stability without a filter. They're so tiny - a filter would suck them right in. Help!!!

Hey, that's pretty cool that you've got babies. I know absolutely nothing about this but I had the thought that the larger the amount of water they are in, the less the amonnia and ph will be affected by the large number of them. So maybe if they're too small to handle a filter, you can move them to a larger tank or a large rubbermaid container and keep up on water changes. Good luck with them. You must be excited to see what they look like when they get bigger.

Well, they're going to need a tank... depending on how many you have, you may be able to get by with a 10 gallon for a little bit, but they'll def. need something bigger as they grow.
For filtration, get a sponge filter if possible... they won't suck the babies up, and on the plus side, they grow LOTS of bio bugs for your tank!
Water changes need to be done with a piece of airline tubing because their backbones are verrrry fragile, and will break with water being dumped or poured into the container.

what is a sponge filter? I've read that name before, but no explaination. More info, please

A sponge filter is a sponge with a tube shoved down in it. Whatcha do is put an airstone (or powerhead, I'd go with the airstone since you have fry) into the tube, and it creates suction that will bring materials into the sponge. Here's a pic of one. They're a definite neccessity with raisin fry...

Sponge Filter

thank you - simple solution. It's really amazing. So many tiny busy fish.

Good luck!

Just bought a tank for the babies. It's a 10 gal. How do I get them from the plastic shoe box to the tank. I remove water with a measuring tablespoon so I don't pick them up. Can I dump the water into the tank slowly? That doesn't sound good, but I can't figure out how to move them safely. Thanks for any ideas.

sink it gradually ?????????????????/