Ram Breeding Thread

[DeniseF]

So, for 2020 I decided to start a new Ram Breeding Thread, goals for this year are.

1. Produce some quality GBR, nice size and colour.
2. Improve on the EBR I have, better shape, quality and longevity.
3. Get some of Marco du Toits rams start breeding DK Knights and Blue Knights for the UK Market.
4. Further my own trials with the dark gene.

I'd pretty much run down the ram breeding during the latter part of last year, due to other work and also not wanting to fill up my tanks with too many rams that needed selling at the same time (am hoping that I will finally get my hands on some of Marco's rams soon and need some space).

Anyway, below is a video of my latest pair of GBR that are descendants of this ram

I'd always thought he was a dark gene ram, but all of his offspring were regular in colour.

However, I now have these two offspring

Who have - as you can see from the video - given me gold and black fry (how black is another thing) if you look at the container in the tank that's their older fry.

I have another pair from the same ram in the adjacent tank, they have wrigglers, so we will see if it was just a fluke or they also produce gold and black fry (that pair are darker than these ones.)

 

[nicholasrjohnson]

I got two Bolivian Rams from a good aquarium store. I saw the guy that picked them out twice. He claimed both times he picked out a male and female, but I’m not sure. The bigger one is most definitely a male, but I’m not sure about the smaller one. He/she is chased by the bigger one. I saw them lip lock once and at a time, they were swimming together. Now, the smaller one surfs the glass and just does not seem to be happy

please help

 

[DeniseF]

I got two Bolivian Rams from a good aquarium store. I saw the guy that picked them out twice. He claimed both times he picked out a male and female, but I’m not sure. The bigger one is most definitely a male, but I’m not sure about the smaller one. He/she is chased by the bigger one. I saw them lip lock once and at a time, they were swimming together. Now, the smaller one surfs the glass and just does not seem to be happy

please help

HI Nikao and welcome to Fishlore. I'm afraid I don't know much about Bolivians since I haven't kept them myself, have you created your own post about it. I know when I first started out on here, people are very helpful and there will surely be a Bolivian Ram nut or two on here, that can help you.

What I can tell you is that even getting one male and one female does not necessarily guarantee that they will pair up and certainly with my rams, the males and females do fight which can result in injury and even death. Anyway, do create your own post and I'm sure you can get some more info on Bolivians.

 

[Thedudeiam94]

coralbandit

 

[coralbandit]

Denise knows what she is doing .
Excited to see her working on improving lines .
That is the name of the game with ram breeding .

 

[DeniseF]

Denise knows what she is doing .
Excited to see her working on improving lines .
That is the name of the game with ram breeding .

All thanks to your support for getting me started!

Update on the fry: definite Black/Gold mix of Fry, around 70% black and 30% Gold.

 

[DeniseF]

I've spent the weekend thoroughly cleaning all my tanks after various efforts in trying to worm my fish! Let me explain:_

I decided on Flubendazole as I'd always found it pretty safe, but this time I bought a bulk powdered version, rather than the NT Labs liquid. At first I just measured out the right amount and dosed the tank itself.. which I don't think was particularly successful since the snails that I hadn't managed to re-locate seemed to be doing just fine afterwards! I then soaked the powder into some Tetra Pro Colour crisps for two doses in each tank and that seemed to work a treat, all the fish ate it and I've been checking their poop under the microscope and no sign on any worms! The only problem is the tanks were a mess afterwards as it was difficult to soak just the right amount of food.

I've also moved a lot of fish and am trialing some different size tanks with the fussier Electric Blue Rams who seem harder to get into the breeding mood.

I finally have some EBR fry that - after many episodes of the EBR eating their free swimming fry - I took them at wriggler stage and am raising them manually.

I've got a few batches of black/gold fry off my black gene GBR, I'm excited to see how they turn out and I think I've perfected my timing on the brine shrimp so they are small enough for the fry to eat on day 1 of free swimming.. its all about the timing and hatching them so they are truly newly hatched when feeding. In order to do this I have set up new batches of BBS every 12 hours when I know that I will have fry free swimming. I then compare the BBS and pick the smallest ones. I've not had to revert back to crushing up dried food since.

I thought I'd show a video I took of a pair of Rams spawning in my tank where I have about 50 rams. They are spawning happily then another female comes along and tries to eat the eggs, I cut the video just as the free for all began and about a minute later they were gone. About 2 days after this, the female that had attacked those eggs spawned and the same thing happened to her eggs.

 

[coralbandit]

Dog eat dog huh !

 

[nicholasrjohnson]

I think I am going to start breeding GBRs and EBRs.....I was thinking Angelfish as a start, but rams are smaller and I already have been taking care of some Bolivian Rams.

I think I'm just going to get a 50 gallon breeder tank soon and get all set up. I am going to put in a Fluval FX6 and a couple of sponge filters. I need to get my hands on an RO unit. I'm super excited. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[FishMart]

Hello everyone - this is my first post.

What does everyone use as a first food for Ram fry and how do you judge the quantity? I used to breed a lot of Rams in the early '90s and they took BBS straight away. The ones I've started to raise again recently are too small to cope with it or even vinegar eels.

Thanks for any suggestions!

 

[Cale24]

Hello everyone - this is my first post.

What does everyone use as a first food for Ram fry and how do you judge the quantity? I used to breed a lot of Rams in the early '90s and they took BBS straight away. The ones I've started to raise again recently are too small to cope with it or even vinegar eels.

Thanks for any suggestions!

I'm surprised vinegar eels are too small? I use microworms, and feed from the time they are wigglers.
As to feed quantity, it's trial and error really, using TDS and NO3 testing if you want to track things besides actual fish growth.

Welcome to Fishlore, and good luck with the breeding. There are a lot of good threads around too...

 

[FishMart]

I'm surprised vinegar eels are too small? I use microworms, and feed from the time they are wigglers.
As to feed quantity, it's trial and error really, using TDS and NO3 testing if you want to track things besides actual fish growth.

Welcome to Fishlore, and good luck with the breeding. There are a lot of good threads around too...

Thank you - I might give Walter worms a try!

 

[jake37]

It is odd that you don't get a certain percentage that looks like the parents ?

All thanks to your support for getting me started!

Update on the fry: definite Black/Gold mix of Fry, around 70% black and 30% Gold.

 

[DeniseF]

So its been a long time since I posted. Covid 19 shut down the UK and with it my newly acquired retailer to sell my fish to! As such I took the decision to shut down about half of my tanks. My hope of getting Marcos rams this year faded into dust as they are also having their own issues in South Africa, but I have been raising my own few babies. The Black/Gold mix grew up into Regular Rams and Golds, and I have about 16 EBR that are 2nd Generation from my originals.. I'm now looking to pair up two with EBR/GBR crosses to try and strengthen the line as they are just so weak and frankly the stock you can get here in the UK is pretty bad! My retailer said he wont buy EBR from his suppliers as they just dont last.

So, even though I dont have any of Marco's fish I am making it my mission to get a hardy EBR line.

We also bought some angel fish before lockdown and they have just spawned, I'm pretty excited to get that going too.

Anyway, I hope my fishy friends have come through round 1 of lockdown in good shape and speak soon

 

[coralbandit]

Good to hear from you Denise !
I may be getting some half black angels from my buddy in Hawaii soon as a gift .
He is an old time angel breeder and says what he has is very nice .
The half blacks are old school !

 

[DeniseF]

Ahh is that what the female is then, we just saw her, thought she was really pretty and the other angels were picking on her! When we got her all her fins were battered. Now she's beautiful! I think they've eaten the eggs, I did see 3 wrigglers on a leaf this morning but now they are gone.

Good to hear from you Denise !
I may be getting some half black angels from my buddy in Hawaii soon as a gift .
He is an old time angel breeder and says what he has is very nice .
The half blacks are old school !

 

[Cale24]

So its been a long time since I posted. Covid 19 shut down the UK and with it my newly acquired retailer to sell my fish to! As such I took the decision to shut down about half of my tanks. My hope of getting Marcos rams this year faded into dust as they are also having their own issues in South Africa, but I have been raising my own few babies. The Black/Gold mix grew up into Regular Rams and Golds, and I have about 16 EBR that are 2nd Generation from my originals.. I'm now looking to pair up two with EBR/GBR crosses to try and strengthen the line as they are just so weak and frankly the stock you can get here in the UK is pretty bad! My retailer said he wont buy EBR from his suppliers as they just dont last.

So, even though I dont have any of Marco's fish I am making it my mission to get a hardy EBR line.

We also bought some angel fish before lockdown and they have just spawned, I'm pretty excited to get that going too.

Anyway, I hope my fishy friends have come through round 1 of lockdown in good shape and speak soon ****

Good to hear you still have some tanks still going - Covid derailed everything, everywhere, it seems.
I'm also still hoping to get some Blue Knights from Marco - that waiting list seems to stretch a long way!
Such beautiful fish. I'm emigrating next year though, so may just stick with the stock I have.
Raised up and sold my last few EB yesterday (grew into beautiful fish, glad to say). They were only about 10% smaller than the 4 month old benchmark fish I got from Marco last time, so was pretty pleased (I don't have all the special foods, nor can I follow a 6x a day feed schedule). Out of 70 fish, I had 7 runts. Unsure of what to do with them, I set up a 20litre/ 5gal for my girlfriend and she's now the custodian of these 'microrams.'
5 Weeks since the pic and they're a little bigger and the alpha male has coloured up properly, looking like a miniature example, just with slightly bigger red eyes. I almost prefer them to normal sized fish now haha- and their signature 'aggression' is hilarious downscaled.