german blue rams!

[chikku]

hi there, i just bough a pair of german blue rams a few days ago (1 male and 1 female).

just wondering what the signs for for spawning. kinda like how discus shake at each other and bow and start peckingon stuff. wats the indication that blue rams are gonna spawn?

[Th0mas]

Very similar, and they're open spawner so they will normally find a flat spot or dig a pit to spawn.

When the female is ready, her ovipositor will be extended and visible.

[Robdog]

And when they finish the job it'll look like this.

[Th0mas]

Unlike apisto - I've found the pair takes turn in tending to the egg (just bought a pair on Sunday for fun and they've spawned on Tuesday and the pair has been busy tending the eggs since).

Apisto on the other hand, the female will goes nuts and can go as bad as killing the male.

[flaggy]

Yes, it seems the male is the normally the main one to look after eggs and fry. mine beat up the female is she is not doing her job.

[gingerbeer01]

The female can tend to be a egg eater so often better to remove the female - opposite from apistos. If the eggs are eaten the male may kill the female.

Also a find first generation in my tank always hasto be artificailly hatched. Don;t know why.

[Th0mas]

Fingers crossed - so far so good. Eggs are still there in good number, and both fish are still keen in taking turn looking after the eggs.

How long does it take to hatch? It's been over 48 hours since spawning.

One interesting observation is the female has started to look for hiding spots (have an apisto pot inside and she's having a good check out of it). Does this mean the egg will be hatching soon?

[fishgeek]

3 days to hatch roughly

often after this they transfert he wrigglers to pits in the substrate

andrew

[Th0mas]

Well they're in a bare tank (under quarantine) - would be mighty difficult for them to find a place to dig any pit :)

[chikku]

wow lucky u thomas!

i got a decent pair last saturday and they've been swimming together and stuff but havent shown any signs of spawning yet i dont think =( oh well i think maybe the water might be too hard. oh wellz =(

[flaggy]

chikku, in addition to the other spawning signs mentioned above, you can quite easily tell when the female is ready - it will have a full belly which is very magenta in colour. Also the rams will be pecking at and clearing the spawn site in preparation.

[Th0mas]

Thanks mate, fingers still crossed. Checked this morning and all are going well with them.

Might try to take a photo before the egg hatch - given today is the third day, hatching should start today.

[Th0mas]

chikku, in addition to the other spawning signs mentioned above, you can quite easily tell when the female is ready - it will have a full belly which is very magenta in colour. Also the rams will be pecking at and clearing the spawn site in preparation.

Well for the pair at home - they spent less than a day looking for a site before they starts the spawn. Probably there's not much option, as the tank is bare bottom (no need to dig around - just find the corner and spawned there).

So the site prep may not give you much warning - the real sign is when her ovipositor has extended and become visible, while the belly has turned magenta as flaggy saids.

[Bubbles]

Hey ThOmas,

We used to have rams & when they spawned we waited 5 days before we saw any fry swimming!

We thought at the time that the undergravel filter had sucked them under & that they were gone or had been eaten, much to our suprize we had fry "5 days after spawning in a ditch in the gravel.

"Your fish spawning" dose'nt suprize me, you have great success with your fish.

Cheers,
Bubbles aka Kare :)

[Bubbles]

Nice ram chickie you have there Robdog, when was that photo taken?

Your tank looks pristine! "do you have too much time on your hands" cause I can tell you now - my tanks are not "that" clean & I spend 1/2 a day on the weekend with Water changes/Maintenance, your tank looks so crystal clear & soooo....clean!

[fishgeek]

i find often the change of water from shop? to home in well fed healthy stock is often enough to get them spawning

i would have said 7-10 days before they do much swimming, that's all abit subjective
what temp is the tank at thomas

do you guys have access to microwrm in australia? or has aqis banned it!

[Th0mas]

We've got microworm down here - but I don't have it at home. It's my wife (not AQIS) that banned it from home as it smells too much (and she doesn't like the idea of cultivating things that can crawl around - BBS on the other hand is confined within it's bottle).

The tank temperature is set to 23 degree, but as we all know the thermo setting on the heater is poorly calibrated and difficult to say exactly how warm the tank is without using a separate thermometer (which I don't have one around).

[Th0mas]

Andrew,

You're spot on once again - all the eggs has hatched and the parent (not sure which one or both) have moved them into the cave.

I can see little wigglers inside - now to wait for free swimmers........

[Robdog]

Your tank looks pristine! "do you have too much time on your hands"

That tank was pretty clean at the time and yes I do have too much time on my hands. Too much time and not one single fishtank in my entire house unfortunately. Going by the file name on that photo it was taken 17/05/2006 and that tank now belongs to Th0mas. It would be an amazing coincidence if it was the exact same tank that his Rams have now spawned in.

Th0mas, I guess it's time to tick Blue Rams off the "To Breed" list!

[Th0mas]

Hey Rob,

The rams was never on the "To Breed" list. Just happens that I stumbled on some nice newly arrived stock from the place in Bondi Jn. while I was picking up the borelli.

My boss always like the rams, so I took a pair to keep her happy. Had them in quarantine by themselves as usual and everything happened two days afterward.

It's a nice addition - just co-incident they like the quarantine area so much and spawned in the tank I setup and had it ready for apisto (soft, acidic, plenty of peat, etc).

BTW - it wasn't the same tank as the photo above, they are in one of my 1 ft cube I've setup for elizabethae.

[fishgeek]

if they get arsey with each other, remove the female, in rams male does most of the parenting

often when not enough space they squabble and female gets a bit roughed up
sometime stress leads to fry eating

[Th0mas]

Thanks for the heads up Andrew.

Have found the wigglers gone missing this morning. The male is still chasing off the female but I'm unable to locate the wigglers. Hopefully the male has found a very safe hiding spot for them (fingers crossed).

[flaggy]

Thomas, found your wigglers yet?

[Th0mas]

Mate, all wiggler went the first time. Not sure if it's mum or dad..... :roll:

However they spawned again last week, and now have wigglers at 3 days old 8-)

Please excuse my photo - they're taken at an angle when dad's on patrol so he looks a bit strange.

And he keeps them safe inside a pot, as the tank is bare so there's no way he can dig any pit.

[flaggy]

Cool! Got many free swimmers?

[Th0mas]

yup -many indeed.

[Bubbles]

yup -many indeed.

Hey ThOmas,

You need to send some of that success by AAE to melbourne - one-way.

Cheers,
Bubbles aka Karen

[Th0mas]

Buggered - the number has been dwindling over the last few days and yesterday when I checked - all were gone.

Now it's in my plan to isolate the female after the next spawn (she's still my prime suspect for fry disappearance).

[Rod]

http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n3/A_H_Sprite/Rams107.jpg

I picked up this pair about 6 months ago as juvies...$10 each
Breed in Cairns from German parents I was told.....Nice colour and great finnage on the male....nice extensions on ventral fins

Bred several times but they ate the eggs....I intend to hatch eggs separately next time :wink:

ps...They didn't look this Good when I bought them (mossie larve/white worms/800micron pellets off the internet):D

[Robdog]

Brilliant finnage on the female too Rod.
In my eyes that is what a Blue Ram is supposed to look like. Textbook pair

[AussieStar]

what LFS did u get them form rod?

[Rod]

Exotic Fish Connections....Rocklea,Brisbane :wink: