JoeSmo

Ok a few questions for y'all.....
1) Will Blue Rams breed in a pH of around 8.0?

2) If they would breed, would the eggs be fertile?

3) What's the best spawning medium? (I would artificialy hatch the eggs in a 10 gallon tank so it needs to be removable)

4) How long do the eggs take to hatch/When do I need to feed the fry? Right after they hatch?

5) What do I feed the fry? Can I feed them Baby brine shrimp and liquid fry food?

6) What size would they be before they can be sold?

I only have a male and a female in a 20 gallon tank so I know they might or might not pair off, but they are very young, just barely showing tints of blue so I think I might have a chance. The pH is my main consern, as I've read they don't spawn in 8.0 pH.

Thanks!!

suemvb

You could add some driftwood to naturally lower your ph. 8 is pretty high for them to be happy.

JoeSmo

That's what I figured, would peat moss work too?

suemvb

Yeah, I've used peat moss in the past. It does lower the ph. It does need lots of rinsing though before you use it. I put it in a filter bag and then in my filter. Other people like to treat the water in a sperate container before adding it to the tank to avoid ph fluctuations.

Driftwood looks nice and would be a lot easier to deal with.

Is your water hard? When I was looking into breeding mine I think I read that the eggs won't hatch in hard water. You may want to look into that.

I had my pair lay eggs on a piece of driftwood in my big tank. It was fun to watch the male defend the eggs. He was chasing off huge angels and he was so small. I set up a ten gallon tank for them with driftwood, lots of live plants, and sand. They never laid any more eggs in the ten gallon and the female lost all her color so I put them back in the big tank. The female never recovered and after a few months died.

That's the extent of my ram breeding experience... just thought I'd share that with you

TedsTank

I agree a Ph of 8 is too high for them. Another way of adjusting your Ph would be to mix yor tap water with Distilled water or RO water. Figure out the proportion you would need and add that to your water changes. That would slowly drop the Ph as you do the changes. Remember the proportions, and then always add at water change time. I used a gallon of water and started adding one cup at a time and tested to get my Ph., so now I know to add 1/2 gallon of tap water to my RO water. You would be doing the opposite by adding X cups of distilled or RO to your tap water. This could also be an inexpensive way to adjust Ph.

JoeSmo

Thanks, I think I'll just not plan on breeding them, it'd be a lot easier on me and the fish lol.

aquarist48

Hello JoeSmo. See what happens naturally. You never know
Ken

suemvb

Like Ken said you can just see what happens naturally as far as them breeding. (That's kind of what happens with breeding fish anyway lol) You should definitely consider some of the ways we have discussed to lower the ph a bit though. That's pretty high for them to be happy. Good luck with the breeding. Hope you have better luck than I did. Blue Rams are sooooo pretty. Their colors are absolutely amazing when they're happy.