My blue rams spawned!

[daveamos]

Hello!

I bought a pair of blue rams at my LFS this weekend to go in my 29 US Gal newly planted tank with 8 peppered cories and some harlequin rasboras. They've been doing great but yesterday I noticed they had started chasing the cories around. I thought this was unusual until I looked closer and saw that they were taking turns guarding about 30-40 eggs! They seem to be excellent parents and constantly fan the eggs and keep pesky cories from eating them.

But I'm not sure what to do now. I've never had eggs before and when I've done research on raising blue ram fry it always seems confusing. First of all, the eggs are on a fine gravel substrate, but I read that I should take the eggs out. How do I do that without taking a ton of gravel with? I have a 10 gal that isn't being used, so should I put the eggs in there? With an airstone, sponge filter, both or neither? Should I wait until the babies have hatched or are free swimming until I move them? Theoretically could I raise them in a community tank like they are now? I think that the cories and rasboras might get to the food before the babies, though.

Sorry for all of the questions, I just want to do this right. If anyone has any helpful tips, it'd be most appreciated. I'm quite excited about this! It's neat seeing my rams really protect their future babies.

Thanks,
Dave

 

[cheesemaker]

hello there.

I'm in the same situation as you are. Got 2 pairs of german rams, must have spawned for the 4 times in the last 6 weeks.
Haven't got a spare tank lying around, left the eggs in the community and they're all gone. Once tried taking out all the eggs (on a bog wood) the parents were chasing my hand!

Placed them in a small in-tank breeder (i.e. a small plastic tub in the main tank), the eggs hatched but didn't survive, some escaped and became fish food.


Can't offer too much help, at the moment.

I think it's best to move the spwaning pair to a breeder tank before they spawn. Easier to move the parents after they hatch.

good luck.

waiting for my 10G breeder tank from my brother.

 

[daveamos]

Hi, thanks for the support! It's great to hear that you're having such success with your Rams. I feel like my Rams would chase my hand if I tried touching their eggs, but I might try netting some of the eggs into a breeder tank with an air stone. That's my plan for the moment. I might stop by my LFS on the way home from work and see what they suggest.

I can't wait for them to hatch (if they get that far)!

 

[huntlyfish]

Hi, I have had the same problems. I am now on to my third spawning of my Blue Rams. First time was in the community tank with Angels and cory's and the eggs ended up as food for either the parents or the other fish. I then moved the parents to a small tank that I had spare and they spawned exactly 3 weeks after the first spawning. Again this was on the base of the tank(bare tank bottom this time as opposed to gravel the first time) but they got fungus and all ended up eaten ? by the parents. This time though, they have spawned on top of an upturned flower pot and are vigourously fanning them and last night when I went to syphon out some water and debris from the tank floor they approached my hand and syphon in an aggressive, defensive way. Hopefully, this time the eggs will hatch, I am doing plenty of water changes as I intend keeping the parents well fed in the hope that they wont be tempted into eating the eggs or fry when/if they hatch. I will keep you posted on how I get on, please do the same as any info will help all of us.
Cheers

 

[cheesemaker]

Must be the season for spawning. Everyones' blue rams are getting it on.
let's hope some of us are lucky enough to get a batch of healthy hatchlings.

 

[huntlyfish]

Arrrrrrrrr. Most of the eggs are now gone. Guess I've just got a hungry pair of Rams. Next time they spawn I'll try removing the parents and leaving the eggs in the tank by themselves. Hope you are having better luck.

 

[daveamos]

Well, my eggs didn't make it. I filled a 10 US Gal with water from the community tank where the eggs were and added an air stone. Then I scooped the eggs with a spoon into a little tupperware so they were always underwater and added them to the 10 Gal. The next morning they were covered with wispy stuff - probably a fungus. Needless to say, none hatched.

It was rather entertaining to see the ram parents literally knock the eggs off of the spoon as I tried to scoop them out! And they still guarded the area where I took the eggs out for another day before giving up.

Has anyone ever just left rams to their eggs for the whole time? Mine were excellent parents to those eggs and never ate any. When the eggs hatch are they still good parents or do they abandon/eat the fry?

After this whole situation I'm just happy I got fish to spawn - it was my first time! Next time I hope to see some fry.

 

[daveamos]

Okay, so about 10 days after my last Blue Ram egg ordeal, they spawned again! They did it in the same place, and I decided not to intervene at all. Low and behold, this morning I found that some of the eggs had hatched and I had tiny, tiny little fry wriggling around.

The parents still seem to be doing a good job of keeping the cory cats away and sometimes take eggs that haven't hatched into their mouths and spitting them out. I'm also seeing the male and female rotating between the "nest", and another point in the tank, and it kind of looks like they're moving either eggs or hatched fry. I could be wrong about this, however.

Anyway, in keeping with my experiment, I'm not going to mess with the fry at all and see how long the rams parent the young'uns. I'll let everyone know how it goes!

I think next time I'm going to set up a spawning tank for my ram pair. They're spawning like crazy!

Tonight I'm going to do a 20% water change and scrub some algae off of my glass; I hope that won't hurt my fry's chances!

 

[AmberC]

Ok heres some info for all of you from someone who successfully breeds GBRs.


Dont expect much the first SEVERAL times. It takes them quite a while to get it right. Your first batches will turn white and die and the parents will eat them. Its best to keep them in a tank of their own if you want the babies because your other tank mates will either eat the eggs (especially the cory cats) or the fry when they become free swimming. Rams have a lot of babies and its not easy for them to keep after them all, especially when there are other fish threatening the fry.

Rams make excellent parents so there is no need to remove them from the eggs or fry until the babies are older. They will only eat the eggs if they die. Feed the fry baby brine shrimp you can get a hatchery from petsmart.
HTH

Seriously.. dont get discouraged. Takes them a long time to get it right.

 

[daveamos]

Thanks for the help, Amber. It looks like my Rams moved the eggs and fry to a different place in the tank. I've heard of anabantoids doing this, but I wonder if this is unusual for Rams.

And don't worry, I'm not discouraged at all! After this breeding cycle I'm going to set up a breeder tank and try to do it right!

 

[AmberC]

Yes they will move the fry. Mine moved the fry after they hatched. They dug a pit in the roots of one of my amazons and put the fry in the pit.