My Rams spawned HELP!

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J

JeninOK

Gambusia
MFK Member
Mar 30, 2008
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16
oklahoma
Today while i was trying to put the air stone in the tank my male ram was attacking the ^%$#@ out of my hand, but it was dark so i couldnt see why.

Well the lights came back on and I was doing a head count and noticed my female was exceptionally colorful and her fins were in full form.

But HELP!!! what now!!

They are in my south american 55 community, I have a very lightly stocked 10 gallon with 2 male guppies, a totally empty 10 gallon, another nearly empty 6, the 90 gallon I can temporarily put guests in and the margarita green 20 long with only 3 cories.

They are harassing everything that comes near them so they need to be alone or nearly so for now I think.

Do I move them and the eggs they are on a river rock right smack in the middle of the tank under some java moss......... or move everybody else?

Dad is doing a good job fanning and turning(?) the eggs and mom is helping to gaurd them as well.

There looks to be one white one out of a hundred or so, Do i need to methylene blue them?
 
do not methylene blue them! the eggs are very sensitive one white egg out of a hundred is good! usually twenty percent of the eggs turn white, indicating death of lavae inside.
untill the eggs hatch the male will be very defensive so if the rest of the tank is easily transfered then do that as the pair and eggs can stay in their "home tank"
 
fishman taylor;1892050; said:
do not methylene blue them! the eggs are very sensitive one white egg out of a hundred is good! usually twenty percent of the eggs turn white, indicating death of lavae inside.
untill the eggs hatch the male will be very defensive so if the rest of the tank is easily transfered then do that as the pair and eggs can stay in their "home tank"
Click to expand...

:iagree: I'd take the other residents out of the tank until the eggs hatch, ready your empty 10gal for the fry with a sponge filter and once they are free swimming use a siphon to suck the fry into the 10 gal.
 
Well they ate the eggs overnight and are going about their business as usual.

No matter what I stuck 2 zebra danios in the fishless ten to make sure it is fully cycled and stays that way, It has been running with plants for a couple of months and I add frozen shrimp or bloodworms every other day to keep the bacteria going. Now that there is fish in it i will test over the next week or so to see how it goes with the cycle.

Should I fix up the 10 gallon by planting some more plants and adding some coconut caves and flat stones to the ten gallon so I can put the couple in there and remove them once the babies are hatched (if they spawn again). Or do I need a barebottom tank for the fry to make it easier to keep clean?

Would a five gallon bare bottom with a sponge filter be sufficient while the fry are tiny and then moving them to a bigger tank once they have some size?

I assume frozen worms/shrimp are a good pre-spawning food to condition them to spawn again?

Oh and is a sponge over the intake of the HOB ok?
or do I need to set-up and sponge filter to seed as well?
 
Ok here is my new plan,

once I get the water clear again in my 20 long I am going to put both rams in there as the only fish, or with a couple dithers if needed. I have a UV filter hooked up so hopefully it will clear the Lime green algae bloom soon.

Ill keep the ten gallon cycled for the spawn unless they need a bare bottom tank.
 
Caveat -- I've never bred Rams -- that's my full disclosure here.

I would think that (next time) you could move the eggs on the stone to the 10 gal and run bubbles from an airstone across them. This would keep the parents from eating them and would have to be easier than moving everything else out of the tank.

I'd personally be quite peeved if I moved a whole tank of fish and then the parents ate the eggs!!! :swear:
 
They spawned again yesterday morning in the 6 gallon eclipse I moved the betta out of for them.
almost two weeks to the date

So far so good, both of them are being parental and the eggs are slowly looking darker.

My PH is a little higher than I would have liked for the fry, but Im keeping my fingers crossed and bought some fresh peat to try to bring it down in the future
 
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