German Blue Ram Breeding "Journal"

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
Hi Dread,
I'm glad your breeding projects are progressing well.
I think it is interesting that you just bought the C. regani. I bought six young ones last March and a few were killed by ther "buddies but I still have one large male and three females. These are a species I have not bred. It looks like I am going to have to give them their soft acid water because they seem good to go in all other respects. They are like big Apistogrammas to me. Not all that mean except occasionally with each other. I set them up in a 55 gal where I have stashed my breeder reg., and albino "Guppyostomus" Bushy Nose plecos. I have way too many bushynoses and now let the pikes eat any new fry.
 
Odd, to say the least, as mine are in the same setup! =P I moved everything in my fishroom around to give these C. Regani a chance. I would've purchased more than what I did (only 1m, 1f) however I was short on cash and didn't want to write a check for $30. The store I purchased them told me they could call if they had more next weekend, or any left over.

I was surprised to see a male in the dealer's tank that was pushing 6''! It could hardy even be considered a dwarf. From everything I have read, their breeding sounds really interesting. Many people seemed to have reported that the eggs were dangling from short "threads" hanging from the ceiling of a clay pot.

I'm really hopeing my guys color up abit. The female looks good, but the male is slightly washed out, and both looked skinny. The pictures I've seen of wild ones all looked very emaciated, which makes me wonder if life is that hard for these little guys. He's plumping up well with the female, and so I'm hoping everything goes well. They're currently in a 55g tank with Play Sand as substrate, 2 large amazon swords, and plenty of rocks that form caves. The water is a mix of 20% RO/80% Tap. I haven't taken measurements, but when I try to breed them soon, I plan on a pre-determined mix of 40% RO/60% tap which gives me very soft acid water, with a pH of about 6.
 
Jkoziatek;1230097; said:
this thread was very very helpful./.. cleared up alot of my questions
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Glad I wasn't just updating this for myself! Happy to be of help, and hopefully continue to be.

And a quick sneak of whats to possibly come...




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Definately great little fish. My female is already trying to throw her weight around, and the male has taken up residence in a clay pot. Looks like a new 'Journal' may be on the way.
 
Sweet. Pike cichlids are the coolest.
 
Funny thing is.. and this is true even now.. I can't stand "standard" sized Pike Cichlids. But these Dwarfs are just one of the coolest fish I think I've ever seen, let alone owned! I guess my signature should read "Down with Crenicichla over 7'' '' ^^
 
I want to buy some of the babies from you if(when) you get a hatch. They look cool, but I can't seem to find them anywhere.
 
Dread;1230459; said:
Funny thing is.. and this is true even now.. I can't stand "standard" sized Pike Cichlids. But these Dwarfs are just one of the coolest fish I think I've ever seen, let alone owned! I guess my signature should read "Down with Crenicichla over 7'' '' ^^
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Please forgive me side tracking the Ram discussion a bit.

I have been through what I call my big Cichlids phase long ago but I still find them very interesting. I'm am glad that there are many working with the large Pike Cichlids but Discus are my only large Cichlids.

I do think Pike Cichlids, and particularly the dwarf species have a tough life in the wild. Like the Apistogrammas, I don't think the Dwarf Pikes get to live to ripe old age. in the wild.
I have found that at least my C. regani are not as ruthless predators as their big brothers. I have actually been able to keep Pencil fish with my adult C. regani.
They seem to prefer small fry, frozen blood worms and of course live Black Worms. Mine were about 3-inches in March and now the remaining Male is about 5-inches TL, the females are about 4-inches.
Dread, Do try to feed black worms to your C. regani; it will really put some weight on them and they will grow very fast.

I am in the middle of setting up a proper RO water production and storage system but pretty soon I'll have an ample supply so I can give the pikes and my Heckel Discus the correct water conditions. I grew my Heckels out from rarely available 3-inch specimens. They are all at least 5-1/2 inches now and finally old enough to spawn if they want too. Heckels do not breed very often in captivity. I have to show a gratuitous shot of them. I am unashamably proud of my ten Heckels.
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The C. regani were in good supply here in the Pacific North West this past year but the wholesaler was selling them as C. wallacei despite females' having the prominent dorsal fin ocelli(eye spots). They were very reasonably retail priced at $12 each. Not too surprising as they were also selling Apistogramma iniridae as Apistogramma pertensis. They do resemble one another.
 
Yes, I've been working on getting a steady supply of live black worms. What I have fed of them looks good. They get devoured really quickly, even by my C. Pygmaeus. After two days of power feeding and daily 25% water changes, they seem to have put on some weight with just Frozen Bloodworms, Live Brine Shrimp, Mysis (which seems to be the favourite) and slightly crushed Hikari Bio-Gold+. The male, who was shy for a while, is now out and about like everyone else in the tank. I'm going to try to get more when I go back to the store that I got these from. They looked drab at first so I was hesitate about getting more from the same place, however now they're as colourful as any photograph I've seen of them, so maybe just stress in the dealer tank affected the colours. They're only housed with Apistogramma sp. 'Pebas and Corydoras Pygmaeus however in the future, I plan to add either Rummynose or Cardinal tetras. I'm unsure of which I'd like more.

And nothing wrong with being proud of those Heckels, I would be too! Everytime I see that picture posted, I have to resist the urge to go buy my first couple of Discus! =P
 
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