How Big Or Small Is The Size Of Ram Eggs?

[NEONCORY]

I would appreciate if anyone who have bred the Blue or Gold Ram before can educate me.
How big/small is their eggs? And are they really start pair up and breed from around 3 months old and 1"?

The reason I seek answer is I recently got 8(it was suppose to be 6 but he sent me extra) tiny Gold Rams from some hobbyist who bred them. And I had been doing research and reading about them. And I read somewhere that one person was saying that his Ram offspring of 3 months old(well actually he mentioned like 80 days old) start their own family already. And I also read that somewhere that they could start around 1"(although I am not sure it is SL or TL 1").
So I asked the person who sent me about those tiny guy with little pecking attitude, and he told me that they are about 3 months old and will start breeding shortly.

And last few days I notice about 2 have some pink belly(I assume they are the females) and the one have really colored up to show the blue sparkly marking which I assume a male.

I have them in 20G high tank with 2 young Angels and several young Corys. When I put them in there, I have sometime to grow them out. But now I am not so sure that how long is the (sometime) really is. Especially I think I see the little tip of tubing is sticking from one of the female. And I read about the C*Chlids and that is the sign of pre spawning.

Should I try to move them to their own tank or leave them and learn(guarding and protecting) from their first spawn. I mean they are still small. They can't be much bigger than big fat female Glowlight tetra or big Neons. Which I have in my another tank, BTW.

Any experiences, tips or suggestions would be appreciated. Oh I do want them to raise their own if they can. I raise enough Corys since their parents do not take care of their young.

 

[Waterbox]

I would put them in their own tank. A 20 gallon tall tank is too small for all those rams and the angels, and they would never have success spawning in there. If you could get them maybe a 20 gallon long to themselves it would be perfect for a breeding pair of them, or larger even and you could just put all the Rams in there.

The ones with fatter pink bellies should be females, and if you can see the little white tube showing near their anal fin then they will most likely spawn very soon. In that tank I doubt any eggs or fry would survive though.

The eggs are very small. Whenever mine spawned it was hard to tell if there were eggs or just grains of sand on the rock. So they are a little larger than a grain of sand, and they have a pinkish orange kind of colour to them.

Good luck with your Rams and if you have more questions just let me know.

 

[NEONCORY]

Hi Waterbox,

Thanks for taking time to answer my questions.

I will try to give them(the Pair) their own tank soon. But I know it will be a challenge to catch the right 2 fish out of 8. As I mentioned they are still small but I am sure they will be quick. And some are still tough to tell them apart.
Eventually I think I will keep 2 pairs out of 8 and pass the rest to other aquarium society member I think.

Also I am kind of curious about how they do in not so family raising friendly situation. Also that would give me the idea of who is really the pair and if they can produce any good eggs.,etc. So I think they will stay in this tank for now.
And meanwhile, I will try to remove some actually many Corydoras frys from 55G.

You don't think the 5G(8 x 16") is good enough for small pair of Rams(they are still like 1"), do you? Which I could remove the current occupants immediately. I mean they are still like 3 and 1/2 months old according to the person I got them from.

Anyway, thanks again for your help.

 

[Chops126]

Hi Neoncory,

I've kept Rams before and was able to get a few recently when I got back into the hobby.

I now have 6 Rams in a 50gal with a 15 Corys and about 13 Black Neon tetras. Advice from other people in the forum was that I was at full "bioload" - for Rams the suggested size given to me was about 2 Rams per 20 gal. I'm considering putting together another 50gal just to move the other Rams (and I'll move some of my Corys as well).

With the 6 I have now, I noticed that there are 2 pairs that have established their territory with the remaining 2 being constantly driven out of each side of the aquarium. If you can, I suggest moving some of them to a bigger tank - this may also induce them to spawn if there isn't much competition and "fighting". They form pretty distinct pairings so you won't have any trouble identifying the "couple" - swimming together and "defending" a territory in the tank.

Ram eggs are very small. They seem to prefer laying eggs on a flat rock (slate usually works well). After a week I already had a pair spawn (when I got them and they were barely 1" long) and they consistently lay eggs on one of the flat rocks in my tank - unfortunately they tend to eat their eggs (I don't know if it has anything to do with the other fish in the tank). If they spawn on a rock you can also take it out and put it into a fry tank to hatch (I never did this myself).

Good luck with your Rams, they're great fish to have.

 

[NEONCORY]

Thanks Chops126,

That I would do. At first, I thought I have more time to grow them out and pair them up but I guess I don't have much time. They maybe more ready than I realized. I do have many tanks. Just I have to shuffle things up and raise some temperature for Rams and make it better fitted for them and move them around.

Thanks for your advice, I will try to separate them in pairs if I can.

If they spawn, I prefer them to do the work. I do enough babysit for Corys and Tetras. Hopefully they can raise their own children.

 

[NEONCORY]

Now I know how small the Rams eggs are. Actually I got 1st spawn from them last Tuesday but the Mom re-cycled on the 2nd day. I don't even know the eggs were any good since I never see any color change or the sign of the egg development.

And tonight, I just saw my little tiny Gold Ram pair are laying eggs. All the places they can pick in the tank. They pick the plastic part of top of the sponge filter. And those eggs are so small and placed no gaps in between the eggs. I have no clue how many there are. Not to mention the plastic is white and the eggs are clear white.
I am hoping I can get some swarm of frys around the parents or even some wigglers. Last time the Dad was doing good job fanning and protecting. Untiil Mom ate them on 2nd day. I just hope the Dad is mature enough to fertlize the eggs. I guess I have to wait and see.