My spare tank, my jewel record 60 contains two lovely blue rams, and I have been hoping for them to breed ever since I set up that tank. After doing a part water change and adding some esha general health booster, the next day I noticed that they were all coloured up and vigourously displaying to eachother. I corssed my fingers and did a part water change on my other tank, then when I checked back on them, a whole lovely cluster of eggs was waiting for me :D
They seemed to be exibiting all the normal behaviour, fanning the eggs every few minutes, however the next day I woke up to find the male gaurding the nest and attacking the female whenever she went near. She seemed very stressed so I removed her from the tank.
This is my first ever fish breeding, and I have been very much researching them but I was wondering if anyone here has bred them before and has any tips on how to have a successdful brood?
I understand that normally with ciclids they take a couple of times to know exactly what to do and be experienced enough to raise their young.. but I want to make sure im doing everyhting possible to keep the babies alive :)
Below is a pic of the parents above their nest
My german blue rams had babies :D
5 posts
-
Tmercier834747 - Posts: 887
- Joined: Wed Feb 13, 2008 8:33 pm
=O I'm so bloody envious...
Most first-timers remove the mother or father, or sometimes both if they have an effective way to fan the eggs themselves..
my best advice would be to let nature take its course, and have patience. They will get it right eventually. unless you're in my situation with two male rams...bloody LFS people..
congrats.
Most first-timers remove the mother or father, or sometimes both if they have an effective way to fan the eggs themselves..
my best advice would be to let nature take its course, and have patience. They will get it right eventually. unless you're in my situation with two male rams...bloody LFS people..
congrats.
-
dawgtrain - Posts: 62
- Joined: Thu Jun 19, 2008 2:44 pm
CONGRATULATIONS one of my rams just died I had a pair and one always guarded a plant..what does the nest look like? now one ram is dead I wonder if the plant guard killed it..by stress??? Good luck with babies
-
WillowRose7398 - Posts: 8
- Joined: Sat Oct 11, 2008 3:20 pm
Today I woke up to find that most of the egga had turned white.. and I don't know if this is because they have fungus on them or are about to hatch? I have been adding fungicide to try to stop the fungus but im worried that the egga are already dead as the father seems to now have lost interest in the nest :(
Tmercier- Thanks for the advice :) Once the male has settled down and I know for definite that this batch wasn't successful, im going to add the female again and just let them keep on trying!! And that sucks you have two males :( although I do hear females are quite hard to come by, I had to go to three shops to find a female. If I were you I would try and find a home for one of your males and go grab yourself a female, they look amazing displaying to eachother.
dawgtrain- Yes, two males can fight as they get older sometimes so if you had two males one may have killed the other..or yeah, as you say, the other one may have just really stressed it out if they were both males as I have noticed that mine get stressed very easily. Tthe nest looks like a cluster of tan-coloured eggs, in a cluster stuck all over one side of a lava rock. Its impossible to get a pic as its in an awkward place in my tank but kind of like this:
Tmercier- Thanks for the advice :) Once the male has settled down and I know for definite that this batch wasn't successful, im going to add the female again and just let them keep on trying!! And that sucks you have two males :( although I do hear females are quite hard to come by, I had to go to three shops to find a female. If I were you I would try and find a home for one of your males and go grab yourself a female, they look amazing displaying to eachother.
dawgtrain- Yes, two males can fight as they get older sometimes so if you had two males one may have killed the other..or yeah, as you say, the other one may have just really stressed it out if they were both males as I have noticed that mine get stressed very easily. Tthe nest looks like a cluster of tan-coloured eggs, in a cluster stuck all over one side of a lava rock. Its impossible to get a pic as its in an awkward place in my tank but kind of like this:
-
Tmercier834747 - Posts: 887
- Joined: Wed Feb 13, 2008 8:33 pm
Yes...you should see the colors when my two males flare before they fight (happens maybe twice a week)..they never do any actual physical damage, but the less dominant one always ''flushes'' after about 3 minutes of fighting and becomes obviously stressed..then spends the rest of his time simply succumbing to the dominant one who chases him around for seemingly no reason.
I know I have to do something soon or the little male is probably just going to die from stress. I'm just scared to transport him again, even know the LFS guy will definately take him back and probably not give me credit. The credit to me doesn't matter, not even for a $15 fish but its like either he stays here and stresses every day or maybe I stress him to death on the half hour drive back to the LFS.. -.-
I forgot what the coloring meant on the eggs but google could probably turn up some quick answers. I've also read that depending on the ''source'' of the breeder, many asian breeders use hormones to enhance the colors in juveniles to make greater sales. Unfortuantely the hormones make breeding more difficult and sometimes impossible for the life of the fish. So I've read anyway. Kinda pisses me off, really.
I bought them as juveniles so it was hard to tell at the time whether or not I had one female.
I love these fish though. They're not quite as smart as my puffers but they are so beautiful and, well, trusting. I've never had a fish that was so easy to handfeed.
I know I have to do something soon or the little male is probably just going to die from stress. I'm just scared to transport him again, even know the LFS guy will definately take him back and probably not give me credit. The credit to me doesn't matter, not even for a $15 fish but its like either he stays here and stresses every day or maybe I stress him to death on the half hour drive back to the LFS.. -.-
I forgot what the coloring meant on the eggs but google could probably turn up some quick answers. I've also read that depending on the ''source'' of the breeder, many asian breeders use hormones to enhance the colors in juveniles to make greater sales. Unfortuantely the hormones make breeding more difficult and sometimes impossible for the life of the fish. So I've read anyway. Kinda pisses me off, really.
I bought them as juveniles so it was hard to tell at the time whether or not I had one female.
I love these fish though. They're not quite as smart as my puffers but they are so beautiful and, well, trusting. I've never had a fish that was so easy to handfeed.