My German Blue Rams spawned! What now?

[chris_todd]

I have a pair of German Blue Rams I got at Scales a few months ago that have been kept in a heavily planted nano tank (2.5g). For several weeks, the larger fish, which I'm pretty sure was the male, was doing a bit of chasing of the smaller fish, but today I noticed the opposite behavior, found that curious, and then noticed the substrate in a rear corner of the tank had been hollowed out, and there are about 20-30 white eggs there. The female seems to be hanging out over them unless the male comes in the area, at which point she chases him off.

I've never had these fish before - should I remove the parents, or just one of them, and if so which one? Does the male or female of this species generally raise the fry? Also, there are a ton of pond snails in this tank - should I try and remove those (that is, will they eat the eggs)? And what do I feed the fry once the eggs hatch? I've already read several web pages on the subject, including cichlid-forum, but wanted the benefit of local experience.

This is both a pleasant surprise and a bit of an annoyance, as I was going to move these fish to a 20 long today, so that I could break down this nano and re-do it for the GWAPA aquascaping contest, LOL. Now I'm rather inclined to try to raise the fry - it would be cool to have some more of these gorgeous fish.

Any and all help/suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

Regards,
Chris Todd

 

[toddnbecka]

You'll need to move them in any case, a nano tank isn't suitable for raising fry. Since it's their first spawn it's unlikely they'll care for them properly. Ram's are notorious egg/fry eaters, and new parents of any cichlids species usually need practice. If the eggs are fertile your best bet for raising fry would be to hatch them separately from the parents.

 

[George]

I have not had problems with the parents eating eggs or fry. That may be due to really thick cover.

The big problem with Rams is having food small enough. Most cichlid fry can eat live baby brine shrimp. Rams are too small to make this their first food. If that's all you offer you might get a few but most will die of starvation. A dirty old tank provides abundant little creatures for first food. Squeezing well used sponges into the tank is also a good trick. I found Cyclopeeze worked. There are also folks who use microworms but I never tried that.

George

Luck to you.

 

[cmcpart0422]

The female seems to be hanging out over them unless the male comes in the area, at which point she chases him off.



Chris Todd

I have never kept these fish but I remember reading an article some where that in tanks with other fish the parents will take turns guarding the eggs. If you don't have other fish maybe the female is just holding down the fort.

Like I said I only read this in an article so I don't know if its true or not.

 

[UNCLERUCKUS]

congrats on your new spawn.

 

[crazyclowntang]

pics por favor!

 

[chris_todd]

Alas, the day after I posted this, I looked again and no eggs were there. Whether the parents ate them or they were eaten by the many pond snails in the tank, I don't know.

But it's nice to know they're a pair, and later this week I will move them to a 20g long that has no other fish, just a ton of plants and a few dozen Red Cherry Shrimp. So perhaps they'll give it another try.

Thanks to everyone for the information, I appreciate it!

 

[Spine]

Chris,
The parents might have moved the eggs. I've had rams move the eggs on me before and then a couple days later there were fry free swimming.
As George said earlier raising the fry is difficult do to their size.

 

[Lively]

Is that true of the Apistos (hard to feed due to size)? I'm fairly certian one of the girls I got Sat will be laying soon - she is vivid yellow now, chasing the other females away from her cave and displaying for the male. Lots of fun to watch. I read George's post about old tank water and used some to set up a tank for fry (just in case). I picked up some freeze dried Cyclopezze, it looks a bit big for itty bitty fry. Is the frozen stuff better?

 

[Spine]

Apisto fry are a little bigger, baby brine shrimp should do the trick.

 

[Lively]

Guess I'd better get a bbs hatchery

Thanks!

 

[BevN]

If you have the hongsloi in a tank of their own there is not usually any need to move the fry for at least a month. They are usually great parents.

If the rams don't parent raise they don't get to be a pair for long here. We feed newly free swimming rams micro worms and the apisto fry are big enough for bbs but can have the micro worms as well.

We usually try to pull the ram fry before they have a chance to spawn again but that doesn't always happen. We currently have a pair in a 10 gallon tank with two spawns...and yes it's crowded. I'm waiting for the second spawn to get a little bigger than I'll pull them and toss them into a 20 gallon to grow up a bit before they move onto the 75 with the big boys and girls.

They do tend to move their eggs and newly hatched fry around. You could just pull the parents after the eggs hatch and let the fry in the nano tank for a while. There will be lots of little things for them to munch on in the plants. You can also pull the parents and add alder cones and an airstone to circulate the water over the eggs.