30 replies to this topic

[mtchye]

Well yesterday our german blue ram pair surprised us with a huge brood of fry, free swimming. They were still in their quarantine tank and were pretty secretive, don't even know where they spawned.

[anchar]

Well done Vincent....now to raising them!

merjo

[mtchye]

Yeah i didnt do much at all this time lol.. they were just on the pellets.. no live foods.. hardly any water changes... good pair this one lol

Raising them will be the hard part for sure!

[Brett]

Must be the weather Vince :wink: ,

I got about 100 free swimming "German" Blue Ram fry 3 days ago.

Caught me unprepared as well with no effective infusoria culture running. Hope there are enough micro-organisms in my 4 foot planted tank to keep them going till they are big enough to take microworms.

Had to remove all of the other fish to give the Rams free run of the tank.
Now have major space issues!!

Brett

[mtchye]

The loyal mum:

[anchar]

What a gorgeous fish!

merjo

[=ryan=]

these fish look awesome. I dont usually like anything thats not from malawi or tanganyika but these are so cool. congrats on the spawn vincent and brett.

ryan

[Kimbo]

i dont think these are malawi or tang i think they mightbe americans or something :? but i know there classified as dwarf cichlids

[mtchye]

THanks guys! From what I know about Ryan, I think he means he doesn't normally like anything NOT from Malawi or Tang lol...

Yeah we like all sorts of fish, not biased towards location.. Guess thats why we never have enough space!

So far the babies seem to be doing fine. I hope to raise quite a few of them and increase the quality of rams a bit around here!

Cheers
Vincent

[Brett]

Well my fry are all gone :cry: :cry: :cry:

At 72 hours old the parents were having difficulty keeping the fry in a tight group. A few of the stragglers were getting picked of by the "dither" fish, a moderately sized SAE, which the parents were chasing away at every oppertunity. I decided to remove the SAE, within an hour the fry had dispersed about the tank, cruising a centimetre or so above the substrate. By 3 hours I couldn't see any fry at all and have not seen one since. Can only assume that the parents gobbled them ... from fierce defenders to persecutors in less than 3 hours. :evil:

Sometimes I hate Blue Rams.

Brett

[JiggyJigs]

man that female is awesome...hopefully you can get a heap of those fry fully grown out and help increase the quality here in perth. The last pair i had were rather average and didnt last long im afraid

[mtchye]

Thats too bad Brett. Perhaps one of the parents rather than both is the culprit. My female is still trying to ward of the guppies on her side of the partition, she seems pretty dedicated, but you never know with rams...

The babies are still alive. There seem to be less now but still a whole cloud of them. They seem to be taking microworms now so hopefully they will be all right from here on.

[Brett]

Good job Vince,

Nice photo of your fish. Looks pretty similar to the pair I have , lot of red in the fins and tail. Spangled are very obvious in photos but don't show up anywhere near as well under aquarium lighting. Females have a gorgeous abdominal red colouration. Both fish have an almost violet hue to the sides when seen at certain angles.

Have had 3 spawns from this pair now. First two while in quarentine and ate the eggs after 48 hours. Was delighted when this spawn got to day3 after free swimming and beginning to think I was home and hosed. Spoke too soon, Again!! :x :x

Pair remain healthy though and will spawn again soon. Any suggestions on a safe dither fish, they were perfect parents until the threat was removed.

Ever optimistic
Brett

[mtchye]

All I had in the tank was a single juvenile guppy about a cm in length. Then again I removed the parents once the fry were fully free swimming so I don't know if they would have taken good care of them or not. It seems the fry don't really gather around the parents much once free swimming so I doubt they really need the parents for anything.. Hopefully this batch will survive.. Its looking good so far.

[KrUsTy]

very nice fish, how much do they normally go for ?

[mtchye]

Hi Krusty,

These imported ones are around the $20 each mark I believe, give or take a few dollars.

They usuall range from around that price down to about $7 ish for local ones.

Cheers
Vincent

[mtchye]

Here are the fry at about 1 week old. They are definitely taking the microworms now..

[ikan]

Mtchye, how are the fry doing?
Did most of them survive so far and how fast do they grow?
Have they started to spawn again?

[mtchye]

Hey Ikan

Yes many of them survived, probably a hundred or so. They are growing steadily - looking more 'ram' shaped now.

I lost the male unfortunately so I'm left with the female. She is still looking good though.

Cheers
Vincent

[Barramundi]

Hey Vincent,

I've got a mate that's establishing an "Amazonian" style tank, couple of elephant nose, clown loaches, that sort of thing & I showed him are oic of your female Ram & was wondering if you'll be selling any of the fryor are they already spoken for?

Regards,

barra