German Blue Ram Breeding "Journal"

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nice write up. Mine did the same thing actually. Dug a pit to lay, vs lay on a flat surface. Mine also laid eggs within a week of having them in a tank. Yes, my convicts took longer than the rams. Sadly, the male ate the eggs, and soon after showed signs of parisites and died. Whatever he had, he apparently passed on to the female, and she died 5 days later.

I'm waiting until I get a chance to visit my local breeder to buy more rams. I've just had bad luck with LFS rams.

keep up the journal! I want to see how you handle the wrigglers! Are you going to seperate the eggs from parents and try to artificially raise the fry? Or are you going to see how the parents do?
 
I highly doubt they're easier than Cons. I think I just got lucky, provided the exact things they needed to spawn, and got good stock. And they spawned. Generally, I hear people think Blue Rams are more difficult than Cons (much more), and I agree. I just hit a lucky streak and did too much research for my own good. =P This is the first Wild Caught pair I've spawned.

Now, for the bad news. I woke up this morning, and there's only a couple eggs left. I expected them to eat their first batch, so this is kind of part of the plan for me. =P I'm still very happy to know it's been done, I have the tools to do it, and they're willing. So, like most fish, they should spawn like clockwork now, gaining experience each time.

Either that, or the 10 or 20 eggs left hatch. ^^

And Wizzin, this is my plan: The first batch I'll let whatever happens happen. Second batch, I plan to do the same. Third batch, probably the same If I get bad results this way (ie, parents eat eggs, wrigglers, whatever) I'll seperate them from the eggs, because obviously the parents haven't learned. Then, I'll try to hatch them on my own, or better yet, remove wrigglers from the breeding tank, and raise those once they've hatched. The latter is what I'm more comfortable doing.
 
glad to hear it went well for you. i picked up 3 gbr and i believe i got 3 females. kind of sucks but when i introduce a male theres gotta be a decent shot at a pair. it was entertaining watching the females claim there territory they actualy were going at it pretty well for the first two days. they would each face sideways then face each other, each would take turns swimming towards the other then backing up and every so often they would lock lips and push each other around. very neat to watch
 
smallguy;1087487; said:
glad to hear it went well for you. i picked up 3 gbr and i believe i got 3 females. kind of sucks but when i introduce a male theres gotta be a decent shot at a pair. it was entertaining watching the females claim there territory they actualy were going at it pretty well for the first two days. they would each face sideways then face each other, each would take turns swimming towards the other then backing up and every so often they would lock lips and push each other around. very neat to watch
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Yeah, it's really fun to watch. I had a male/female pair, but sadly the female died the first 2 days in a really bad filter accident. So the male was mate-less for a while. When I got him this female, I put the bag in the water to equalize the tempetures, and he was already flaunting! Fits held tight, with his head a 45 degree angle, wiggling around :ROFL: . I was like "Wow, hold on there Skippy, she isn't even out of the bag yet!". When she did get out, she wasn't stressed at all, was eating within 5 minutes, and never lost abit of her color. I think by that time she was already paired :grinno: . Slight pH change, big water change with rain water, and a good dose of live brine shrimp and bloodworms.. that's all it took for them to get down to business!



As for the update; They aren't guarding anything anymore. Last night, they were fighting off 2 Glass Shrimp.. which I guess they thought posed a threat (even though the shrimp repeated walked over the eggs when there was many, and didn't even try to eat them). I thought there were more eggs left, but there was just ONE egg :screwy: . I guess that shows how badly fish want to spread their seed. They'll guard down to the very last egg. But now, that egg got eaten by the female. However, I did notice them picking clean a couple of leafs off my Amazon Sword plants. So, I'm thinking in a week or so, after a steady feeding of live and frozen foods, that if I do another water change with rain water/RO water, they'll spawn again.
 
That is totally amazing that they paired up so quickly... I think that i am doing something wrong. Admittedly I do not use RO water, and I am noticing that this is something that i need to do to get my guys and gals to breed.
But What an amazing thread... Great work and great research..
 
Thanks for the kind words, donald! It is amazing that they paried off so quickly. I wasn't even expecting it, even granted the (if I do say so myself!) excellent husbandry.

And today, I was talking to some people at my favourite LFS about breeding Blue rams. Alot of them said there's spawning on a flat surface, and out of the ones whose pairs spawned directly on the substrate 5/7 of them were using Flourite as a substrate. I think it may have something to do with camoflauge, and hiding the eggs. Flourite has rather large peices, so eggs slip down into the cracks and you really have to look to see some of them. They light tan of the eggs is also easily blended into the color of the Flourite substrate. It seems on tanks that are only housing the pair of Rams that they spawn on flat "open" surfaces, while tanks with other fish in them, they spawn on the substrate. I think as a defense against predators, again with camoflague.

Also, today I ordered a 24'' Coralife Aqualight 1x65w for this 10g tank. I'll be planting many more plants in the future, and I'm curious if the increased lighting will change the blue rams behaviour, of if the increase in number of plants will change their spawning locations.

They're still getting their "conditioning" food. Live foods, with many frozen, and the least amount of flakes/pellets that I can. I keep the temp at a steady 84.5F
 
Mystix212;1090743; said:
Great to hear updats. How much wattage are you planing to have? 110 would be nice.
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110 watts over 10g would be 11wpg. I'd be growing an Algae farm! 6.5wpg is already over doing it without C02, but I'll manage it.
 
any updates, any signs of a second attempt? my rams have stoped fighting and are getting along now that they know who owns the tank, this paycheck im gonna go pick a nice big male and hopefully kick it off. ill let him settle in then do a big water change to see if i can get any action.
 
Can't say much as been happening, Smallguy. I'm battling a bad case of various forms of Algae. I'm waiting for my Coralife light fixture, and hopefully soon, my ADA C02 Kit, then the tank will become heavily planted and nicely aquascaped.

The rams are still being conditioned, but I'm afraid it may be having a long term negative effect. Not for them, but for me. Their colors are great because of the mass amounts of live food, and their vigor is definately increased, the female is (I hope) filling with eggs quickly... but they refuse anything except live or frozen foods now. So I'll have to ween them off soon, after the next batch of eggs.
 
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