04_si

and yes, lets see some pictures!

id post some, but im sure everyone knows what eggs look like

dking271

Update 9/19

Our one baby from batch 4 has doubled in size this week. We have about 40 fry from batch 5, and they doubled in size this week as well. My female has been gone from the tank since last week, and my male is still actively rearing his children. I believe using the frozen rotifers has made a huge difference with this batch. These fry are more accepting of non live food than the baby from batch 4. I will post pictures tommorrow.

Butterfly

dking271 congrats on the success with the fry Glad the suggestion of frozen Rotifers helped. I have three fry left from the last batch and they are vigorous eaters also. Tried some thawed frozen cyclops tonight and they really scarfed them down LOL Cyclops is a little bigger than Rotifers but smaller than BBS. Now a question... when do they start looking like little Rams?
carol

dking271

I have been away all week, so the growth is even more noticeable. To answer your question, my fry from batch 4 just started looking like a little Ram within the last week. He is just over a month old. I will try my best to get pictures tomorrow. My new batch of fry go bonkers when any food is put in the tank, including food for their dad. I swear they'll eat anything they can get in their mouth.

Butterfly

Thanks Mine are 11 days old today I was just wondering .
Thats always a good thing.
carol

04_si

wow, congrats everyone.

my pair is spawning tonight for their 2nd go at it. going to leave lights on, and i think im going to seperate if I see any eating going on. They do a super job of chasing everything away from that corner. except the Kuhlie Loaches, not one of the other fish has so much as blinked at them.... except fish dont blink so nevermind!

dking271

Here are the pictures promised.



Batch 4 baby.



Another batch 4 baby pic.



Dad w/ batch 5 babies.

The babies are proving impossible to capture in a photo.

Lucy

They're really cute. Thanks for posting the pics.

Butterfly

Thanks for the pics. Now I know what to expect. I'm down to three on day 12 and was wondering when they would look like rams. Right now they look like just about any other 12 day old egg laying fish
carol

04_si

so how long do eggs take to hatch? 3-5 days or something?

Butterfly

Most egg layer eggs hatch (depending on water temp) in 3-4 days and they will be wigglers. then in 3-4 more days they are free swimming and will start eating that day or the next.
Carol

04_si

awesome! They were layed (layed?) friday night. today they have little black spots in them! So until they are free swimming, I dont need to feed them anything? And how do I tell they are free swimming? Do wigglers just kind of sit in one spot and wiggle a little, or do they actually swim?

Butterfly

Those little black spots your seeing are their eyes When they hatch they have whats called a "cement gland" on their heads that make them stick to things and the wiggle(thus wigglers) the rest of their bodies vigorously. This strengthens their bodies for swimming. At this point they will still have an egg sac attached(belly will look big and possibly orange/yellow) for nurishment and don't need to eat. . I have pics of angelfish wigglers but not rams yet
When they go free swimming they will travel in a cloud all around mom or dad
Carol

04_si

this is super exciting! haha, Im like a 4 year old. every 10 minutes I go check on them to see how theyre doing!

care to post some pics?

Butterfly

I'd love to, but don't want to hijack the thread. why don't I start one for egg layer wigglers and see what kind of pics we get. I'll start it in general discussion then if we figure out a better place we can always move it
Carol

04_si

Excellent idea. this thread has already sort of been hijacked! (sorry dking)

Butterfly

He knows we love his Rams
carol

dking271

Babies, babies everywhere!

Update, I have my pair back in their new permanent home. They are currently searching for a suitable spawning site. This will be interesting this time around as I have chosen to include some Cardinal Tetras as a dither fish. I will be pulling the babies instead of the parents this time around.

My baby from batch #4 about doubled in size since last week when I posted the pics. He is no longer transparent, and is looking more like an adult Ram by the day.

I have about 25-30 survivors from batch #5, and they are doing great. They somewhat vary in size, but they are already starting to take the Ram shape.

I have wigglers from my Angel pair, I moved them into the grow out tank with the batch #5 Rams. Probably not the best move, as some of the baby Rams attacked and killed some of them. I have them somewhat protected, so I will see if any actualy make it. I had to give away the non-paired male Angel away, so my pair will be more free to breed.

I'll try to get more pics over the weekend.

DK

Butterfly

Sounds like a busy week keep us posted
Carol

Lucy

You have such great luck with rams especially for their hard to keep reputation.

dking271

We had our Rams spawn (batch #7) yesterday and the female ate half of the eggs. We had to remove her because our male was attacking her ferociously trying to protect his eggs. We still have one baby from batch #4, and only 6 left from batch #5. We lost seven babies from batch 5 since Sunday. Most of them were about 1/2 the size of larger babies.

Our Angels just spawned again tonight. This is their first spawn with the current group of tank mates. We no longer have the other competing male Angel, and have moved in some juvenile Discus and a small school of dithers (Rummy Nose Tetras). It is a much more peaceful environment than before, but I still think I'm going to remove the eggs.

04_si

dumb fish eating their eggs!!!!

dking271

My male finished off the rest of the eggs last night. It appears that the only way for me to keep the eggs from being eaten is to keep them in a specialized breeding tank. For that, I have to keep moving them in and out of different tanks. I have the pair in different tanks, and will probably leave them where they are for the time being. I still have babies that I'm raising, and a btach of Angel eggs that I will be rearing. Unfortunately, I just do not have the time presently to keep up with all of the babies.

04_si

you mean, keep the rams in a breeding tank? or keep the eggs separate from the parents in a breeding tank?

dking271

I can keep this pair in a breeding tank with their fry, but they have proven that they need to be alone. Also, the female does sometimes eat the eggs and babies, then dad beats on her to protect his young. He cares for the fry very well. I have a school of Cardinals and three Otos in the tank they spawned in the last two times. The tankmates seem to ignore the Rams, but they freak out and eat the eggs anyway. I think I'm going to give them a time apart.