German Blue Ram Another Question Help

[MarcusTheGreat]

sorry for all the questions but its my first time owning german blue rams and everything moving so fast lolol
 
so i bought them last week male and female they have laid eggs last night. The Female is protecting her eggs but the male is swimming around somewhere else why is that,  also my next question the female sometimes leaves her eggs to go fight the male why is that?
 
 
oh and how long dose it take for the eggs to hatch?

 

[xamy_valox]

So jealous I lost my male GBR today. Him and my female never did lay eggs your lucky!

 

[MarcusTheGreat]

the thing that mostly concerns me is sometimes the female leaves the eggs and goes to the male and starts a fight and then swims back to her eggs  why is that 

 

[r.w.girard]

I have never kept GBRs, M. ramirezi, but I do keep Bolivian rams, M. altispinosus, and that seems to be pretty normal.  Females guarding their eggs become very territorial and will chase everything away, including their partners. Relatively common among South American dwarf cichlids it would seem as Apistogrammas do the same thing, but are even more violent: sometimes the male needs to be removed from the tank after breeding because the female can kill them.  I wouldn't worry about it.  But maybe someone with more experience will come along to correct what I have said.

 

[MissLori]

Congrats Fanatic!
 
From what I've noticed is that @ two-thirds of the time, both parents take turns guarding the eggs, and there is usually a little bit of aggressive behavior when one parent 'tells' the other what they should be doing - to get back to guarding the eggs and quit wandering off or otherwise letting their guard down.  Or, one parent decides it is his or her turn to guard the eggs and chases the other off.
 
As for the other one third of the time, the majority of that time it is the male who dominates over guarding the eggs.  I've seen the females do what you described as well, it's just not as common.
 
The fertilized eggs will hatch more quickly in warmer water - 84 - 86 degrees than say, 80 84 degrees.  They generally take 48 to 72 hours to hatch.  After the first 24 - 36 hours, you'll know which eggs are not fertilized as they will be much lighter - a light cream to almost white color, and the tannish-grey eggs that are fertilized will start to more clearly show little tiny black eyeballs (you have to look really closely to see this).
 
Keep a sharp eye out for any light/white fungus that may grow on the non-fertilized eggs as the fungus will very quickly spread to the 'good' eggs and kill them.  The reason the parent(s) fan their fins over the eggs nearly constantly is they are attempting to keep any fungus from forming on the eggs.
 
I don't know what size tank your rams are in, but if it is a relatively small tank, you might want to squirt some peroxide into the water to help kill any fungas that may grow.  It won't hurt the fish at all.
 
My advice?  If you want to have the best outcome for the eggs/fry, and if you have a tank or tank-like 'thing' you can place the eggs in and hatch them yourself, your chances of having survivors are much greater than leaving them with the parents.  I wish it weren't so, but the vast majority of the time, the parents or other fish will eat either the eggs or the fry.
 
Watching it all is pretty interesting stuff, ay?   

 
Keep us posted!

 

[Gilli]

It may be that you actually have 2 females. I had 2 german blue rams which i thought were male and female because they paired up - I watched one laying eggs and the other fertilizing them and they acted like a couple guarding them etc but they never hatched - turns out the were both female and this can happen!

 

[MissLori]

I took this picture of GBR eggs last night.  See what I mean about fertilized vs. non-fertilized eggs and also the eyeballs?

 

[Gilli]

Looking good! Watch those unfertilized ones dont contaminate the good eggs - the rams usually eat those but looks like you have quite a bit there. Good luck!

 

[MarcusTheGreat]

Congrats Fanatic!
 
From what I've noticed is that @ two-thirds of the time, both parents take turns guarding the eggs, and there is usually a little bit of aggressive behavior when one parent 'tells' the other what they should be doing - to get back to guarding the eggs and quit wandering off or otherwise letting their guard down.  Or, one parent decides it is his or her turn to guard the eggs and chases the other off.
 
As for the other one third of the time, the majority of that time it is the male who dominates over guarding the eggs.  I've seen the females do what you described as well, it's just not as common.
 
The fertilized eggs will hatch more quickly in warmer water - 84 - 86 degrees than say, 80 84 degrees.  They generally take 48 to 72 hours to hatch.  After the first 24 - 36 hours, you'll know which eggs are not fertilized as they will be much lighter - a light cream to almost white color, and the tannish-grey eggs that are fertilized will start to more clearly show little tiny black eyeballs (you have to look really closely to see this).
 
Keep a sharp eye out for any light/white fungus that may grow on the non-fertilized eggs as the fungus will very quickly spread to the 'good' eggs and kill them.  The reason the parent(s) fan their fins over the eggs nearly constantly is they are attempting to keep any fungus from forming on the eggs.
 
I don't know what size tank your rams are in, but if it is a relatively small tank, you might want to squirt some peroxide into the water to help kill any fungas that may grow.  It won't hurt the fish at all.
 
My advice?  If you want to have the best outcome for the eggs/fry, and if you have a tank or tank-like 'thing' you can place the eggs in and hatch them yourself, your chances of having survivors are much greater than leaving them with the parents.  I wish it weren't so, but the vast majority of the time, the parents or other fish will eat either the eggs or the fry.
 
Watching it all is pretty interesting stuff, ay?   

 
Keep us posted!

thanks bud for all the info really appreciate it 

both the male and female finally relaxed the male is guarding  the eggs now and the female is watching him i think they have eat off all the unfertilized eggs and left the white ones will see what happens 

 

[MarcusTheGreat]

I took this picture of GBR eggs last night.  See what I mean about fertilized vs. non-fertilized eggs and also the eyeballs?

thanks for the pic helped a lot 

 

[MissLori]

If they only left the white ones, the white ones are the unfertilized eggs and they have eaten the fertilized eggs.