My Bolivian Rams have spawned 55 Gallon Tank

I waited for quite some time to get some Bolivian Rams, and the LFS finally have them back in a couple weeks ago. They have five in a tank and I bought four of them (I just couldn't see fitting five in my community tank).

(larger photo here)
 

Anyway, I went away for two days to see my family for the holidays, and returned to see that they had spawned. Unexpected (I've only had them a few weeks) and definitely and interesting turn of events.

I've seen some other posts about sizing/tanks etc. FWIW, I have a heavily aquascaped 55g that has tons of hiding places. The four in there do well together and have each found their own little (well, until this pairing) spots just for them. There's just enough chasing to stay interesting, but nothing I would consider problematic.

Pete

 

congrats grampa!!!!!! what a nice present to come home to!

 

That's awesome! Congratulations and please keep us posted.

 

This evening, one of the rams dug out a depression in a corner a few inches away from the stone that has the eggs. They then moved all the eggs that had any wiggle (the eggs are like jumping beans right now, and I see black dots, so I assume hatching is soon) off the rock and into the ditch.

This 55g tank has:
- 3 danio dangilas (mid-dwellers)  
- 1 long-finned danio (mostly a surface dweller)
- 1 danio glofish (surface, primarily)
- 1 balloon molly (this is a "special" fish, as in short bus)
- 3 ottos (out at night)
- 4 (including the pair) Bolivian Rams
- various snails and red cherry shrimp

TONS of hiding spaces, thick planting etc. You can see some old pics (before the plants really grew in - the wood is covered in moss and the sword in the back already had a baby and the rest of the plants are just thick now) here  

Do I need to hunt the fry down and somehow move them to another tank, or is there a reasonable chance of some number of them surviving? I've never bred rams, so I don't know if the rams themselves are a danger, or if I need to worry about the tankmates.

Pete

 

So today I went to the tank and everything was gone. Took me a bit to realize they had moved everything once again - this time to the back of the tank in a newly dug depression.

Guess they didn't like me staring

Pete

 

The strangeness continues.

The pair (not sure if it was the male or female, but I believe it was the male) redug the corner depression even deeper (glad I have 3" of substrate), and they both moved the tiny wriggling dots back into that hole.

For those of you watching from home:
- Eggs laid on a rock
- Moved to corner depression once they started wiggling
- Moved to rear of tank in quieter spot for more wiggling
- Moved back to (redug even deeper) corner depression for even more wiggling

They haven't lost a single one yet as far as I can tell. It's interesting that they keep moving them around, though.

Pete

 

Wow, I hope that my kribs will be that exciting if. They spawn

 

I woke up this morning thinking I'd be able to get a picture now that they're in the front again. But, of course, they did two moves last night. Back to front, then front to back.

Foiled again!

Pete

 

Finally got a chance to take a photo of the tank. Here it is, with the ram peeking out from the driftwood "tunnel" to the rear nesting spot.

Pete

 

Your tank is beautiful......Congrats on the wigglers

 

Such a beautiful tank. Really gorgeous aquascaping. Wish I could do that with my tanks.
Good luck with the wrigglers!

 

Thanks. It's not hard to do - it's my first aquascaped tank. The things that make it work are:

- Planting substrate (this was expensive, so that may be a barrier)
- 4x55 watts of T5 lighting
- Liquid carbon (Excel) several times a week (never set up CO2 injection)
- Good live plants (got most from local store, some from aquabotanic.com and ebay, but online plants tend to be in worse shape)

I have to do a fair bit of pruning on a regular basis, but otherwise not much extra upkeep. The hornwort on the top is a really fast grower and is good for removing nitrates, providing shade and helping to grow faster than some algae.

Pete

 

Well, last night I looked and saw one of the rams fanning the depression they made, but it was fully of baby apple snails. Today, the two rams are back to swimming around the whole tank. I don't see the wrigglers anywhere.

I assume the snails ate the babies. Bummer.

Pete