Blue Rams And Breeding

[§tudz]

Hi,

The why
I recently upgraded one of my tanks, and I bought 4 blue rams to add, as I had kept them before, but the tank they were in was over crowded (the pains and aches of being a newbie) since then my tank collection has grown to around 5-6 tanks, and I have plenty of room now.

I bought 1 male and 3 females, in a hope to breed them, I have been breeding my pair of bronze cories, I'm yet to have any fry survive, but the last batch was only their 3rd spawning so they are still a little weak, had 63 fry hatchm, but loost them all within a week.

The Setup
Any how back on track, I'm looking at breeding these rams. The current setup is a 15gal tank, with a white & bronzed quartz substrate, I have a small clay pot hlaf buried in the subtrate, there are a few fake plants and another large clay pot.

The Things I've read
I've read on the net about the water hardness being a high parameter in breeding these fish, and my water in the ok scale, well at least I think it is, having read a water report for my area.
The fish are just under an inch long, so they are not mature enough yet (or is this a lie?) so I have a month or so before they will be able to breed.

The other trivia
They are sharing the tank with a juv' platy, a L001 plec, and 3 juv' upside downcats fish.
The tank is currently running an airstone, which I will more than likely remove.

So can anyone here shed some light on my quest?

Many Thanks,

 

[jayjay]

they need a well established tank?? poor water quailty and they won't last long. they like peaceful tanks with other peaceful fish. how long has you tank been set-up.

make sure you definatly have male and female and don't go by the lfs do your own research unless you really trust them.

add more caves as there may be quarrels and they all need somewhere to go when this happens so i reccommend having more then 1 cave per fish.

the lower the water hardness the better with these fish.

i'm not sure of the exact size they will breed but they probably need to grow abit more yet IMO.

as for the other fish in the tank i would remove them all except the L001 personally as the platy might try and eat the fry along with the upside down cats would definatly go after fry.

do you know what you were doing wrong with your cories? as you may do the same with rams which are probably harder to breed.

do you have somewhere to keep the fry after the adults stop protecting them? another tank(s)? what size grow out tank do you have if you have one? are you looking to keep the fry or sell them?

 

[§tudz]

The more caves is a good idea, I did think about it, and will give that a go. The fry will be moved from the tank into a breeding tank.

As for doing anything wrong with the cories I've been told I'm not doing anything wrong, its just that cories have only come into spawning age over the last severak months and their first few broods are not very strong.

the fish once large enough will be purchased along with any cories I've bred by my not-so-lfs. I spent a while looking at the rams before purchase, and then spent some time with a guy I always go to in the n-s-lfs and we decided between us which were male and which were female. as they are young it is harder to tell.

but we went on the following factors:

Pink belly = female
longer more pointed fins = male
higher 1st dorsal spine = male

The place I buy my fish from are a great retailer and I always consult them on any problem I have, if I get chance to get ther, as its a long drive lol.

It was suggest feeding whiteworm to the cories as this produces larger egg sacks on the fry, but thats for a different forum thread

As for size of the fish I have read on several documents regaurding spawning of rams that they reach maturity at around 1inch.

 

[jayjay]

another tip for sexing them is females have pointed heads where males have rounded heads this can even be done at a earlty age unlike the pink belly method.

good quality food is always going to lead to more, stronger eggs. try live bloodworms or other things along those lines.

 

[§tudz]

another tip for sexing them is females have pointed heads where males have rounded heads this can even be done at a earlty age unlike the pink belly method.

good quality food is always going to lead to more, stronger eggs. try live bloodworms or other things along those lines.

cool thanks, I have been feeding with frozen blood worm, along with what ever isn't eaten by the other fish.

oh and for got to mention the tank has been up n running for only a week, but it has been setup using the water, substrate, filter etc from the old tank, so really it is slightly matured. just no benificial bacteria on the glass yet even the pots are from the old tank.

 

[jayjay]

oh and for got to mention the tank has been up n running for only a week, but it has been setup using the water, substrate, filter etc from the old tank, so really it is slightly matured. just no benificial bacteria on the glass yet even the pots are from the old tank.

you said you had fish in the tank didn't you? if not that tank will not be mature for much longer with no fish in it as the bacteria will have nothing to live off.

benifical bacteria on the glass new one to me ??? but it's good you got the other stuff from the other tank as that just clones your old tank so cuts out all cycling.

 

[§tudz]

oh and for got to mention the tank has been up n running for only a week, but it has been setup using the water, substrate, filter etc from the old tank, so really it is slightly matured. just no benificial bacteria on the glass yet even the pots are from the old tank.

you said you had fish in the tank didn't you? if not that tank will not be mature for much longer with no fish in it as the bacteria will have nothing to live off.

benifical bacteria on the glass new one to me ??? but it's good you got the other stuff from the other tank as that just clones your old tank so cuts out all cycling.

lol, yeah I have the fish in the tank.

The bacteria grow on all surfaces, I was just pointing out the only part of the tank that isn't cycled properly would be the glass as that was new... erm oh well forget I said that

 

[§tudz]

on another note about identifaction or sex.

The male also has only 1 black mark on the dorsal, where as the females have two. is this anything to go by? or is it like CL stripes they are normally uniform between all fish, but you do sometimes get them with different stripes.

 

[jayjay]

no your right about the black spines in the dorsal fins it's normally the first two spines are black and bigger in the male.

 

[§tudz]

no your right about the black spines in the dorsal fins it's normally the first two spines are black and bigger in the male.

Thats good, I've only been in the hobby 11months. and I know quite a bit about alot of the normal and a few of the oddball tropical freshwater fish, and now on to learning about cichlids lol#

I'll post when I have some info about the broods

 

[kamanut]

I'm new to breeding/owning blue rams, but I only got mine 5 days ago and they've already laid eggs (I took them out, since they would certainly be eaten by all my other fish, but I don't know how hard my water is yet--but I will check it when I get time. Anyways, I just wanted to mention that I've read you shouldn't put Blue Rams in trios--only pairs. Good luck with yours!

 

[xxBarneyxx]

You can keep 1 male to 2 females but pairs often work better.

My water is pretty hard but my rams have laid two batches of eggs since I got them (about 1-2 months ago). They haven't got the hang of not eatig the eggs and protecting them afterwards yet but I'm sure they will get ther ein the end.

Personally I think stable high quality water is the most important factor when breeding any fish.