blueovalgal

This is either their fifth or sixth batch. I lost the other batches due to the parents eating them. The longest batch I've had to date was 5 or 7 days. This particular batch (I found last night) look bigger than previous batches. Is it safe to assume that, with their increased maturity and experience, that the parents may not eat these babies? I have them in a 40 gallon tank with one other male blue ram (which the parents have been keeping at bay in the corner of the tank), and the parents seem to be very attentive. My boyfriend won't let me set up another tank, and after talking it over to my fish guy, we're thinking a tank divider might be the answer if and when the parents start in on the fry. What do you think? Thanks in advance. Barbara

musicman4567

I looked into breeding blue rams for awhile, and it was my understanding that the parents would help "raise" the fry. Don't quote me on that though. But, if that is the case, then I would guess the fish are stressed and it is causing them to eat the fry. Is the tank in a high traffic area? Sometimes just increasing the number of hides in the tank can help.

Beeker

Congtrats!
I hope this batch is successful.

Any pics?

blueovalgal

Hi, Thanks for the quick response! We live in a small house; the tank is located in the living room next to the bedroom door. I'm home more often than my boyfriend. The only time there's (high) traffic is when we walk from one room to another. I'm a "light" walker while my boyfriend is a "heavy" walker. (You can hear/feel him walking from room to room.) I didn't think about that. I'll have to ask him to take it easy around my tank and see if that will make a difference.

> "I looked into breeding blue rams for awhile, and it was my understanding that the parents would help "raise" the fry."

I was always under that impression, too, and from what I've been able to find and read online from others who bred their rams, they left either one or both fish (male/female) in the tank with the fry until the fry were big enough to survive on their own. The first parent they normally pulled out was the female as the male tended to be the better parent.

The parents have their own little cave in the tank, but they've been bringing the fry out to the center and front of the tank. They recognize me; so I can sit in front of the tank to watch, but I won't stay there long just in case.

Thanks for your help and your quick response!!
Barbara

blueovalgal

The female is on the left and the male on the right for the first two photos:





Male guarding the fry while the female's off looking for stragglers:





I apologize in advance with the photos. They look much nicer in person. If I didn't use the flash, you couldn't see the fry. Anyway, if you look closely, I think you should be able to make out the fry!

Barbara

musicman4567

Beautiful fish! It speaks very highly of your water quality that they are alive and spawning. My experience with GBR's was that if I looked at them funny, they would belly up... Congrats!

Butterfly

Rams are cichlids and are beautiful in their parenting behaviour but.... sometimes it takes them a bit to get the hang of what they are suppose to be doing. many cichlids see their babies as a snack after about a week. In the wild they(babies) may be able to get away from the parents after a bit but in the aquarium they have nowhere to go. If you notice them getting fewer and fewer you might want to remove mom and dad or the babies. Ram fry are so tiny a divider would have to be really fine weave. Hope that helps
Carol

jen82

beautiful babies and parents. Hope everything goes well for you. Congrats. Jen

blueovalgal

I'm headed to the fish store tomorrow. I'm going to look at the divider before I purchase it. I hope the weave is fine; I'd like to try and grow the babies.

When cichlids are good parents, do they still eat their fry?

Thanks for all your nice comments!

Butterfly

You can also use needlepoint plastic to make a divider

I can't speak for all cichlids but the ones I've kept eventually see them as live food not their fry.
Carol

blueovalgal

I purchased the divider, and it looks like needlepoint plastic! It looked fine but not fine enough!! Once we put it together and put it into the tank and moved the parents from one side of the tank to the other, the babies swam right through the divider to the parents!! A friend of mine told me that might happen, and it did!

I took down the divider and am letting the parents gather the fry together. Once they do, I think I'm going to put the divider back up and keep the parents with the fry for now... Hopefully, I'll be able to plump up the babies a bit more so they can't get through it next time. Kind of frustrating...

Beeker

Great pics! I love seeing all those fry! I hope for the best for you, your babies, and your new grandbabies!
Please continue to keep us posted with your progress.

blueovalgal

I thought I'd post an update today... I still have fry in the baby net. I'm not too sure how many, but I'm happy they're still around. They don't rush to the surface for the First Bites, but they are eating; so I'm okay with that.

Last night, I was looking for the parents and found them both in the back corner of the tank. I had a peek and found this:



It's located in the middle top half of the photo. So sorry for the ugly glass but I hope you can still make the eggs out. I didn't think they'd lay the eggs so quickly...

Thanks for looking and for your advice!

Barbara

Matt

MORE EGGS!!!!!!!

Man these parents have been busy. LOL. Raising fry then all of a sudden they are already having more fry. Beautiful parents you got there

Hope The Fry Survive

-Matt

Beeker

WOW!

Fish have too much fun!
hehe

Do you want to leave the fry with the parents this time and see if they know how to properly raise their fry?

Congrats again!

Matt

Yer fish do have way too much fun

Except not those betta's in pet stores.

-Matt

guppywhitecloud

congrads try to put the parents in a new tank before they hach

blueovalgal

Hi,

Thanks for all the quick replies! My boyfriend will not let me set up another tank. I have to make do with what I have. He wasn't happy (or as excited and shocked as I was) when I announced last night I found more eggs.

If the eggs hatch, I think I will try and leave the fry with the parents a bit longer than three days. The first few fry batches lasted about a week before they disappeared.

Thanks again!
Barb

blueovalgal

Thought I'd post an update... I still have babies from the first batch mentioned above. Those babies have grown a bit. I have a new batch of fry from the photo dated Dec. 13. That group of fry are about 3 days old, and I have them all living together in the baby net. I decided not to leave the fry with the parents as they looked larger than the last batch of fry. Too small to try and get a good photo of them... Happy Holidays, everyone!