Rams Have Spawned!

[AlexAndCarmen]

We have 3 blue rams, 2 females and a male. They were all getting along till about a week ago when the male started chasing the females around, bullying them. They start off by showing him their bright colours, but end up very dull and grey, with all fins down. He won't let up, and is so bright, almost purple blue with black head. We've had them about 2 months, and he has almost doubled in size, but the females remain the same. We thought one of the females, because of grey colour and stringy white poo had hexamita, so we put him into a breeding net in the tank and treated the tank with Interpet Anti internal bacteria 9. We are 5 days into treatment, and one of the females has become very colourful and is courting by his net. So we let him out last night for a hour or two and he just chased them around the tank, biting and attacking them till they both lost all their colour and looked grey with stripes, so we've had to put him back in the breeding net. We are continuing with treatment and feeding frozen live foods. Any ideas of how we can introduce him back into the tank without losing our females?? We have 2 females because we're read on this forum that it was better to attract some of the males attention.

 

[DarkElf]

take out one female
He apparently can't decide for himself-use the more colorful girl.
Rams are best in pairs, not trios...

 

[michellebradford]

ive have the excat same problem, only difference is that i only have 1 male and 1 female, not sure wot to do im not sure if the female will surive him, though i must say he has amazing colours

 

[AlexAndCarmen]

So you know what I'm going through. Most breeders recomend two females to one male . So I don't think thats the problem. The Males still in his breeding net and the females are looking more colourful. The male colours are incredable Does anyone out there have some ideas? Please

 

[DarkElf]

I will tell you if you leave in both girls, when he does pick-one will die.
With some species 2 females is acceptable, rams form pairs.

edited to add-23 successful spawns of blue and gold rams and counting. All parent raised......I don't know much about many tropicals, but I do know rams pretty well.

 

[AlexAndCarmen]

Sorry Darkelf, I wasn't meaning to say what you said was bull, just that others have advised me to put two females till he chooses one. Another breeder says he uses two females to induce better parenting, the parents are more protective over there fry when another same species fish is in the tank. I don't know myself which is better. I first had them as a pair for six weeks, then he grew and got brillant colours after which he chased constantly and the female looked terrible. Thats when this breeder advised having another female, but i must say it hasn't worked

 

[basia]

I was told by our lfs to buy 2 females 1 male. One female was constantly bullied and after asking on here I realised I should have only bought a pair. I moved one of the females into another tank and I still have her. The remaining pair spawned many, many times but the male always ate the eggs. Eventually, however, the male harrassed his chosen female to death. He lived without a female for a good long time but died just before Christmas. Rams are not easy.

 

[DarkElf]

Sorry Darkelf, I wasn't meaning to say what you said was bull, just that others have advised me to put two females till he chooses one. Another breeder says he uses two females to induce better parenting, the parents are more protective over there fry when another same species fish is in the tank. I don't know myself which is better. I first had them as a pair for six weeks, then he grew and got brillant colours after which he chased constantly and the female looked terrible. Thats when this breeder advised having another female, but i must say it hasn't worked

One thing you can try (works in other cases) is to by 4-5 of a tetra species (smaller ones like neons work well) it gives them somewhere to vent their aggression. I did have to do this with a pair that had problems aftrer laying-the male would beat her up when he considered "her" part over. When I put other fish in the tank, it took both of them to raise the fry........and no-rams are NOT easy fish. But with extremely clean water and a little attention, they are more than well worth it. One of the few small fish with real personalities-they're fun to watch, and every fish has a different quirk.

 

[AlexAndCarmen]

Check out! I've separated the female into breeding to give him a chance to chooses his mate. The lengths us Fishy lovers go to. I'm conditioning them with lots of blood worm and froozen foods. I think I'm going to go buy another 20gal tank specially for a pair of Blue Rams.Hey Darkelf what's your PH and Gh in your ram breeding tank. Mines 7PH,9GH,3KH,0Nitrites,0Ammonia,20ppmNitrates. Thinking about bringing the Ph down But i'm still researching the most stable way.

 

[vivh]

I had 4 rams originally, 2 male 2 female. the male paired with one of the females. he has also grown very big, but the females haven't.

I lost one of the males a few weeks ago, now it seems that both females will colour up to the remaining chap, he seems to be ok that.
What i wanted to say was that having the 2 males originally seemed fine, so wonder if you could introduce a male? maybe that would rebalance things.
I'm no fish expert so that may not be ok, but i do know that my males got on fine.



Viv

 

[michellebradford]

I had 4 rams originally, 2 male 2 female. the male paired with one of the females. he has also grown very big, but the females haven't.

I lost one of the males a few weeks ago, now it seems that both females will colour up to the remaining chap, he seems to be ok that.
What i wanted to say was that having the 2 males originally seemed fine, so wonder if you could introduce a male? maybe that would rebalance things.
I'm no fish expert so that may not be ok, but i do know that my males got on fine.



Viv

my blue rams were doing the same as yours and ive now just found a load of eggs!!!!

 

[AlexAndCarmen]

We let one of the females that the male favored our of the breeding net a couple of days ago. They seem to be in love. They are constantly vibrant and this morning, the female seems to have her ovipositor (I think that's what it's called ) sticking out. She also seems wider than usual. They are cleaning the whole tank, chasing everyone away So hopefully they'll give us a few eggs soon.

 

[AlexAndCarmen]

The pair have spawned They choose the top of the bog wood as you can see from the pic. I had a mager disruption yesterday in the tank, i had the bright idea of putting flourite under my existing sand for the plants. So the tank was still very murky when they spawned at 6pm last night. The doting parents have been fanning and protecting there spawn. I'm going to have to move them as they're right under the inlet pipe for the filter. I was thinking to move them and parents to another tank I hope it the move doesn't end in disaster The micro worms are cultured and ready so hold thumbs

 

[AlexAndCarmen]

When we got up this morning, the eggs were still there and they were both taking turns in fanning them A while later, when we inspected the tank, all the eggs had hatched! Can't see anything apart from the two rams in the tank, but they have made little pits all over. Hopefully we'll have some babies to tell you all about

 

[blitztidus]

Most Cichlids are GREAT parents. I love seeing a new batch of fry/eggs every now and then and I get very excited everytime I see one. I love fry . Good luck, that is a really pretty tank you have their too.