Blue Ram Eggs!!!!!!(Help)

[ronrca]

I have my blue Rams in a 30G and I intended for them to breed. Well, yesterday, the female cleaned a leaf on a plant and layed eggs.  ;D It is exciting! However, I dont if the male has fertized them. How can you tell, if you can? Before the female layed eggs, she was doing the bow in front of the male but the male didnt seem to respond. After she had layed her eggs, I noticed the male would chase the female around and he would not stop either. I left them alone yesterday. This morning when I got when, the male was still chasing the female continously. She had lost all of her color and her fins and tail were clamped together. She was difinitly stressed. Is that normal? I didnt think so, so I netted the male and put him in a breeders net for the time being until I find out more. Does anyone have experience? Will the female lay eggs even if the male does not accept her? I do hope that the eggs are fertile.

 

[SegaDojo]

i haven't kept/bred rams before, so i'm not sure about the parental personalities in this species..

however, to determine whether or not your ram eggs will be fertile, all you have to do is check the colour..

Eggs that aren't fertile, will appear to be milky white... but becareful in determining the colour.. when my Apisto. Borelli first spawned, I thought the egg colour was white.. but under close inspection, it is more of a very light beige/pink colour.

If the current batch does not hatch, or the mother eats the eggs, don't get discouraged cuz a lot of first time mothers will do this (possibly due to stress).  If the male ram is overly aggressive towards the mother, then you MAY consider moving him to another tank for the meanwhile.

 

[ronrca]

Thanx! The eggs are a beige/brown color! The female is truly a mother. She guards the eggs and fans with at night. The male however, I moved him into the breeder net for the time being. He'll probably end up in my 90G with my Discus :-*. The female will follow shortly. Do you think that the mother should stay in the tank with the fry or not? Blue Rams are not suppose to eat eggs or fry!

 

[ryanp15]

Good you have fertile eggs! I'm glad to hear it. I don't think the female will kill the fry as most cichlids are very good parents. That's one thing good about them they don't eat their babies! ;D

 

[ronrca]

No kidding! I did remove the male however into my 90G now! Im still debating if I should move the female also. I turned off the power filter and put an airstone in. At least I dont have to worry about the filter sucking up the fry. I did however put some floss media over the intake of the filter.

 

[ryanp15]

That's a good idea taking the filter off. I wouldn't remove the female if I were you. I have never bred or kept rams though. Maybe you will find out differently. I know most cichlids are with their fry until they grow up. ;D

 

[ronrca]

Well! The eggs hatched! ;D They were free swimming yesterday. Looks really cool especially with the mother is in the tank. Another question, how do you effectively feed the fry? The got some liquifry but the tank is 30G. How do I know if the fry are eating the liquifry. Its a huge cloud that looks like someone poured mike in the tank. Anyone have experience?

 

[ryanp15]

Congratulations! That's great for you. I don't know much about the fry but I do know you can feed them baby brine shrimp. You can find this on the internet. It's not that expensive. I have some at my lfs. I don't know about the liquifry. I know many people use it. I guess they just injest the stuff if it's like a big cloud. Does it settle? ;D

 

[ronrca]

I'll be feeding them brine shrimp tonight actually. My fish get a treat once a week, live fresh brine shrimp. The could does not settle but gets sucked slowly into the filter. I turn the filter off for a few minutes for feedings then back on to prevent overfeeding and spoiling the water. I hope the fry will eat the shrimp however. Like I said before, its a 30G. The fry look so tiny. I hope that they will find the food. I was thinking of putting in a breeders net to ease the feeding but Im not sure yet. I kind of like the idea of the mother taking care of them. Does anyone know if the mother maybe helps find food for the fry too? I still feed the mother flake like normal. I wonder if she feeds her babies somehow!

 

[clothahump]

If your tank is well established the fry will find food directed by mom, they will be able to take new hatched brine shrimp when they are about 1 week old.
Liquifry will promote colonies of insuforia which the babies will feed on until they are big enough to take the shrimp.
8)

 

[ronrca]

Cool! Thanx Cloth! That helps a lot!  ;D
The tank is well established, I think. Over 9 months. So the fry dont actually eat the liquifry? Do you think I still have to feed as much liquifry then? Thanx again Cloth!!

 

[clothahump]

The fry will eat small amounts of the liquifry and the excess will promote infusorians, carry on with your normal feeding regime and everything should be fine.
When the fry are about two weeks old start making small regular water changes but ensure the water you are replacing is of the same chemistry as your tank.
Small water changes promote growth in the fry. 8)

 

[ronrca]

Why first at 2 weeks old? I was planning on changing water every 2-3 days because of the excess food that the fry dont eat (cant find). Is that too much?

 

[clothahump]

Some one else is bound to say I am wrong but I think it gives the fry a chance of putting on some growth before hitting them with water that could be slightly different than what they are used to.
Do not overfeed, especially if the tank is 9 months old, there will be plenty of natural food in your tank already.
I would up the feeding when you begin water changes. 8)

 

[ronrca]

Ok! Thanx for the tips! I will try them!

 

[ryanp15]

Okay I must ask this on this thread. I have heard that newly hatched fry can survive off of the algea that grows on rocks and other things in a tank. Is this true? Of course this is just up until they're old enough to start eating "adult fish food". ;D

 

[SegaDojo]

yeah.. i find that its tough to decide what you should do when it comes to water maintenance..

you want to keep it clean for the babies.. but a water change can perhaps shock them.. and result in the entire batch being dead.

IMHO, you should do very small water changes every other day... like 5% or so... just to keep it maintained, and not have the babies suffer from poor water conditions.

good luck... and let us know how it goes...

 

[ronrca]

Thanks Sega! I'll check the water parameters.

I dont think that fry eat algae. IMO, fry will eat micro bacteria on the decor if in an established tank.

 

[ronrca]

Another very interesting thing I discover yesterday night was:
I came home around 10pm and the light of course were off (timer). I was curious to se what the fry do at night, how they sleep. I turned the light on in the tank and I had a hard time finding the mother. I did find her hovering over her favorite plant where the eggs hatched but could not see any fry swimming around her like normal. Then I looked on the plant. The fry were neatly arranged on the plant as if they just hatched. It looked like the mother but the fry to bed. Blue Rams are such a joy to breed. Dont have to worry about them eating the eggs or fry and they take care of the fry very well. I only have the mother with them. The father is in my 90G with the discus.  8)

 

[ronrca]

The babies are doing great in the 30G. I am feeding them brine shrimp and flake food and they seem to grow everytime I feed them.

However, the mother was not very interested anymore in her babies so I remove her and put her into my 90G with the male. I have read that rams are picky about water conditions for breeding so I didnt think that they would breed. Wrong! This morning they were eggs on a rock. The parnets were guarding the eggs and trying to chase the discus away. Imagine a human butting an elephant, same kind of thing with the ram and discus. Kind of funny. I do plan on removing the rock and hopefully hatching the eggs in a container. Any suggestions?