i stripped one of my tropheus females last night who was holding fry. i accidentally grabbed the wrong female at first and she spit out an egg with the little fry attached to it. i put him in the fry tank. what is the purpose of a tumbler...does the egg/fry need to be in one?

The purpose of a tumbeler is to artifically creat the movement of the mother fish's mouth...keeps the eggs moving.

they are no sub. for the mother tho.

do you think little egg guy will survive in the fry tank without tumbler?

eggs no. but if they have a body with egg sac maybe.

but it really depends on why type of fish we are talking about.

he has a body but its attached to the egg still. its a tropheus. it swims around a little bit but the egg is too heavy for it to go anywhere. does it need to eat?

dont feed it until the egg sac is gone. place him in an area where he is alone and with lots of O2. also add some methylene blue to prevent ick and he will make it.

that is a yoke sac not an egg. It has hatched. The fry will live off the sac for food as soon as it is free swimming start feeding.

so i can just let it roam free in the fry tank? the fry are about .5" they wont mess with it. i think your right about the yolk sac. its yellow

yes let it be be sure it has a place like a rock or something to hide in also the methylene blue half dose will help.

If you have a stainless steel strainer that's what I use for an egg tumbler. Set it so its hanging in the tank and put the wigglers in it. Get an air stone and set it under it, adjust it so the wigglers are just barely jiggling from the water movement.