wot_fan

Last week my GBR male died unexpectedly. I am still not sure what happened. I have replaced him with the male in the pics below. I think my new male may be better looking than the one I lost and he was a great looking fish.


Here is the male I lost.

MeGustaUnaPez926

Wow, he is nice! You take good pictures too.

wot_fan

Thanks . Having a good camera helps a lot .

capekate

WOW.. you sure are lucky to find such colorful quality GBRs where you are!
All the rams you have brought home are/were gorgeous! Lucky you!
I cant find any good ones around here, and the ones I do find are either sick or full of ICH or in one case, didnt even last through the shipment to the small LFS ( I will never go there again)...
Seeing your photos make me determined to find them again somewhere.
Best of luck with your new one...

Lucy

I just love these gorgeous fish.
Darn my hard water!

wot_fan

I feel very lucky to have a good LFS. All of their fish are top notch and obviously well cared for. Their staff is knowledgeable too so I feel very comfortable taking their advice.

In the case of the GBRs I am doubly lucky. Not only are they great looking fish, they are less sensitive to pH & Hardness compared to most GBRs (at least that is what I was told) due to the breeders efforts. Since mine have bred in my tap water (6.9pH and about 100ppm Hardness) I tend to believe it.

Good luck finding some GBRs. The are fun fish .

Lucy: Thanks again helping me with my picture problem. It is working great now .

agabr123

he's gorgeous! i always look forward to seeing your pictures, that camera is amazing (and i guess the photographer is too, lol)

wot_fan

Thank you . I am still learning how to get the pics I want. At this point I take about 50 pics for every one I post . I know I'm improving though since the ratio when I started was closer to 100 to 1 .

Thanks again, comments like yours encourage me to keep at it .

agabr123

you're welcome hey, practice makes perfect and if you have to take 50 to get that one that's really incredible, then IMO it's worth it!

capekate

Im still in love with the GBRs from your LFS. The coloring is amazing and far surpasses any I have seen in my area. My question next would be...
do you have any idea if your LFS would ship out fish? I'd love to be able to get some of them..

Lucy

I'm with on that Kate, I just love the coloring of these little fish. I have to enjoy everyone else's.......darn hard water.

capekate

Hi Lucy, I know just what you mean.. there are a lot of fish that I cant keep due to my low PH. But GBRs is one I can.. and I loved these guys when I had them before and really really want them again for the 125.

wot_fan

I am not sure if they ship fish. I am planning on stopping in this week (hopefully Tuesday) and I will ask. If you want, you can contact them directly. The store name is Aquarium Adventure (Hoffman Estates store).

capekate

thanks so much.. I will have to give them a call. I actually came across their site one day doing some internet searches. Very nice...
It would be great if they shipped. If I dont get a chance to call them before tuesday, would you mind asking them for me?
thanks, ~ kate

wot_fan

Sure, I would be happy to. I have to go out of town tomorrow. It should only be a day trip but if something goes wrong it may take an extra day. Worst case I will get there on Wednesday. I'll let you know as soon as I can.

capekate

Thanks so much, I appreciate the help!

wot_fan

I stopped by Aquarium Adventure today at lunch. I talked with the manager on duty about shipping some GBRs. He wasn't opposed to it, but recommended you try the Long Island store since the travel time would be shorter. He was fairly sure that they bought their GBRs from the same breeders in Florida. He said the reason that some LFS's rams are of such poor quality was due to them coming from overseas. Not only is the trip stressful, the breeders aren't as careful about water quality nor about what they feed them. He said most GBRs from there last less than 6 weeks.

Long story short, I recommend you get in contact with the Long Island store and see where they get their stock from. If it's the same place as the Hoffman Estates store, buy from them. If not, you can get them from here.

Good luck and if you end up getting some GBRs, please post some pics .

MizRamzi

I like you have only one Beautiful male left out of about 10 (lost 2GGR) also. So the other day I bought another (LFS says it's a GBR) and compared to my male it don't even look like a GBR. I love these lil fishes so much though that I won't quit looking. I've set up a new 20 for just this purpose. Good luck to both of us!

capekate

Thanks so much for stopping by the store and checking out the rams for me. Im surprised to hear that a chain store like PetLand would be possibly up to shipping out fish.. I think that is great, as they (the chain stores) dont usually do that.
I talked with my sister in Vermont (mare2009) and she said that the local fish store had some beauties there and she is willing to stop by there and pick up some for me on her way back to the Cape. Which will be hopefully in just shy of two weeks.
She is going to go over and take a look at the GBRs again for me after looking at your photos, if they are comparable to yours, she will pick them up, if not I will call the Long Island Store and talk with them about possible shipping.
Thanks again, I really appreciate your taking the time for me to do this.
~ kate

wot_fan

Your more than welcome. I hope you are able to find some rams you like .

iseefish

what a lost dude.... he was outthere!! but the new guy is standing out, very nice how many of them do you have now??

wot_fan

Yeah, the male I lost was a great looking fish. I was really sorry to see him go since he had already bred with my female once. The new male is working out well though. He is a great looking fish and seems to be getting along with my female. She has been plumping up and the pink in her belly is getting more pronounced. I hope that's a sign that she is getting ready to breed again. If she mates with the new male a couple of times I may setup a tank just for them in hopes of raising some fry.

To answer your question: I have the one male and one female. Right now I only one tank (38 gallon community). I had another pair in there, but the dominant pair killed them . So unless I get a bigger tank, I am only going to keep the one pair.

iseefish

well i couldnt help it and i went out and got 2 gbr and im getting the goldys and the pleco out the tank they are goin to my moms tank. here are mine grb they are pretty sick y got to for my friend two, question again. how do u distinguish female from male?

wot_fan

Good luck with your GBRs. I just lost my new male to gill flukes. I am pretty sure that is what killed my last male too. At least I now know what the problem is and can fix it.

I am sure there are other ways to sex GBRs, but the easiest is to look at the belly of the fish. Females have pink bellies. If you look at the pictures I posted in this thread, you can easily see the pink belly.

iseefish

sad story one of mine started breathing real fast so i made nursing tank for him but it was too late he passed away, the other joker is ok. it seams they are kind of delicate but are really nice!!

wot_fan

I am sorry to hear you lost one of your GBRs. It seems once they start going down hill there isn't much you can do. I hope you have better luck with your other one.

iseefish

i think he came sick from the pet store, i wasn't thinking, i didn't see how he was acting i just told the dude give me 2 grbs and thats it! i was my fault i should have checked on him b4 getting it, but question . do you think i should get a female and have two in there like i wanted?? or is he gonna be ok solo in there?... this is what i have!
55g PALNTED TANK.
plants:
amazonian soard, etc.
fish:
1 African butterfly
2 bala sharks .
1 irresident shark.
8 neon tetras
2 glass fish
3 Head & Tail Lights (witch i already saw school swimming with the glass fish)
2 Serpae Tetras
3 black tetras
2 colombian tetras.
1 GBR
i think i have too much but is moving perfectly!! so far....
this are the new adds..
1 African butterfly
1 GBR

agabr123

you've definitely got some problems going on in that tank. the first thing is the two bala sharks, they get pretty big and having 2 in a 55 is just asking for trouble. an even bigger problem is the ID shark, they get HUGE (i know it's at least 3 feet, but it could be bigger than that). as far as the tetras, are these combos schooling together? if not i'd return some that you have so that you can give them full schools of six (excluding the neons since you already have 8). as far as the glassfish, they really need much larger schools than that and are pretty sensitive. can you get pictures of your GBRs?

iseefish

i am aware of the size of the balas and the irresident , they are babies now and they are quite small, i know they will get huge and they grow up they will go to my moms tank where she keeps large fish!! my two goldys and a pleco that i have were moved to my moms 75 galon bc they grew up.
the 2 glass fish school swim with the 3 Head & Tail Lights they get along and they all go together witch i found pretty cool . here is a pik of my GRB.
the 1 far right went to my friends tank. i bought it for him . i kept 2 the 1 in the center is very active and he does his thing in the tank . the 1 far left died a day before yesterday, it looks like he came sick from the pet store.
do you really think i have a o lot of problems in there?

wot_fan

I don't think there is any problem with keeping 1 GBR. I have a friend who has had a solo for awhile now without any issues. I think the main reason to have a pair is to breed them. I still have hopes of doing that some day. I have read that the fry are very hard to raise though. Judging by how delicate the adults are, I believe it.

EDIT: My GBRs spawned tonight. Here is a thread with a video.