Today Is Birth Day!!

15 posts • Page 1 of 2

Discuss all topics related to freshwater and planted tanks.


dizzcat
 
Posts: 648
Joined: Tue Jun 24, 2008 2:30 am

Today Is Birth Day!!

by dizzcat

Wow, today is a big day!!

My Bolivian Ram fry had lift-off today, all are now free swimming. A big bunch of about 100 hovering under papa.

And, my Red Zebra is releasing her fry today too. I saw a little guy in a pile of rocks. Man they have HUGE dark eyes!! Red's are cute! Orange with huge black eyes LOL.

And, get this, my Yellow Lab mama is releasing today in the big tank!!

So in all, I have Baby Rams in the community tank, about 100 of them. (There is a LFS that only does Cichlids and has been bugging me to death wanting Bolivian Rams, he will take them all).

Red Zebra fry in the 10 gallon (so far only one escapee, but I expect she has at least 10 in there still).

Yellow Lab fry in the big tank. (they are getting picked off, but can't keep them, no one will buy them, and I can't even give them away :-(

So I am going from tank to tank squirting BBS into this pile of baby's to that pile of babies LOL.

I will try to get pics after dark. They come out way better after dark because the only light is from the tanks. Right now its too bright in here with the sun in the living room.

Oh yeah, little Jr (Bolivian Ram fry) is a month old now. He's in a 3 gallon by himself until he gets a tad bigger. I have been doing water changes in that tank every day and its helping him grow faster. I just compared and he is the same size after a month as the newborn Red's are. I will move a bunch of the Ram fry in there in the next couple days. Not gonna take the chance of loosing them due to having trouble finding food like before. I think I will buy another 10 gallon setup next Friday. I'll set it up in my room to grow out the Rams.

Happy Day!


dizzcat
 
Posts: 648
Joined: Tue Jun 24, 2008 2:30 am

by dizzcat

So, here are the Bolivian Ram fry. Today is the first day of free swimming.

http://i530.photobucket.com/albums/dd35 ... yclose.jpg

http://i530.photobucket.com/albums/dd35 ... se1-09.jpg

Here's Papa with them
http://i530.photobucket.com/albums/dd35 ... wFry09.jpg

Short video of the free swimmers :-)
http://s530.photobucket.com/albums/dd35 ... -09Fry.flv

Here's my 1 month old Ram fry from my Christmas spawn last month. He's getting so cute! You can see his black dorsal line and he is starting to get the eye stripe now too. You can't see them in this pic tho. He's still too small and he didn't like the camera in his face ;-)
http://i530.photobucket.com/albums/dd35 ... /Jr093.jpg

I wish they would fix the photos on here so I could just stick it in here instead of having to do a link. Oh well.


PhishPlakes
 
Posts: 3
Joined: Fri Jan 16, 2009 9:22 pm

by PhishPlakes

Incredible!! They really do look amazing, what a fatherly figure that papa ram is! Haha. Good to hear the good news. I'm a newbie to this site, hopefully my photo gets approved soon enough but what's your secret in making your rams breed?! I must know =)


dizzcat
 
Posts: 648
Joined: Tue Jun 24, 2008 2:30 am

by dizzcat

I really don't know what the secret is. I have had them 2 years now. They did their first spawn after I had them 3 months, then noting for almost a year. Then they spawned 4 more times, each time mama ate the eggs. They spawned a couple weeks apart those times. Then nothing for another 6 months. They spawned again, mama started eating the fry as they hatched again and I took them away. They died. Then nothing again until last month. These guys lived. Then they spawned again a month later almost to the day. That is this batch. I think the others didn't make it past eggs because the tank was too cold. I had a heater that was "preset" for 78 yet it never got above 76. I replaced it and keep the tank between 80 and 82 now and have had 2 batches live since I upped the temp..

So, how do I get them to spawn? Who knows! They go months with no interest then spawn one time after another, then nothing again. I have not changed the way I do things in all this time, only the temp in the tank.


dizzcat
 
Posts: 648
Joined: Tue Jun 24, 2008 2:30 am

by dizzcat

Mama Red Zebra has released all her little ones. I can count about 9 of them. One was born with only one eye. It was swimming sideways and looked weird. Kind of creepy!

They are so cute, orange with big dark eyes. Here's some pics if you want to see. I took them today, so they are less than a day "old" after release.

http://i530.photobucket.com/albums/dd35 ... CT0002.jpg

http://i530.photobucket.com/albums/dd35 ... 0016-1.jpg

http://i530.photobucket.com/albums/dd35 ... CT0009.jpg

And this is mama
http://i530.photobucket.com/albums/dd35 ... CT0004.jpg


dawgtrain
 
Posts: 62
Joined: Thu Jun 19, 2008 2:44 pm

by dawgtrain

Those pictures are absolutly FANTASTIC ! Thank you for sharing them. I love those Rams . Thanks againfor sharing


Burgerking7679
 
Posts: 112
Joined: Thu Nov 20, 2008 10:53 pm

by Burgerking7679

Mama is a really nice color, wow.

If you're selling the zebra fry you should strip the momma. You'll get a lot more than having her spit. I stripped my rusty female on her first hold and got 13 fry, she spat the next one only giving me 8.

I have two fish to strip so maybe I'll video tape or take some pics.


dizzcat
 
Posts: 648
Joined: Tue Jun 24, 2008 2:30 am

by dizzcat

I prefer to let them spit. I now count 12 in all. I guess a few were hiding.

I love my Red Zebra's, they are beautiful! I thank miami754 for giving them to me. They are the best looking ones I have ever seen! The ones in the stores cannot compare! He gave me 4 little ones. Turned out to be 2 males and 2 females. The dominant male is absolutely incredible! He's now about 4" and swims are all day strutting his stuff :-) Here is a pic of him. His fins are now twice as long as they are in this pic.

http://i530.photobucket.com/albums/dd35 ... T00232.jpg


Burgerking7679
 
Posts: 112
Joined: Thu Nov 20, 2008 10:53 pm

by Burgerking7679

Wow, yah. They're niceies.


kelbri
 
Posts: 118
Joined: Tue Dec 02, 2008 9:24 pm

by kelbri

Do you have any pics of the Yellow Labs? I'd love to see them too. So how is the pround grandpa doing with all this :) Sounds like you're pretty excited.

I need to convince my wife to get a couple more tanks so that we can try having some breeding pairs. She wants to try breeding guppies to start with in our small 5 gallon tank. Don't know what we'll do with any little ones though. Maybe the lfs will take them.

Today Is Birth Day!!

15 posts • Page 1 of 2

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