Malefactor2000
New Member
- Messages
- 8
So, will be putting up an intro post here in a bit, but wanted to toss this out as it's the reason i joined and found this site...
So, i've had varied levels of non success with German Blue Rams and Mikrogeophagus Ramirezi. I use both of these names for the reason that one of my pairs is German Blue Ram bred strain, and the other, if not wild caught is pretty freaking close. The coloration size and behavior is what I am basing this off of. The regular strain is a high end stock of it and not inbred, so I know i'm good there. The wild ones may be siblings, are much brighter and more yellow as well as larger and much more aggressive and territorial. As well, they were not doing good at all when i first got them. For 5 months i had them and nothing happened. I thought they were just poor specimens because they looked so drab and almost brown. The stress bars were so predominant and very little blue at all. No red on their fins ect... It didn't matter what i did. I got an RO/DI unit and started using that and remineralizing it. Over 3 weeks i got the pH from 7.4 - 6.6 and dropped gH from 10 to 5 and kH from 10 to 4... After the final water change when everything was adjusted i did a full 1/2 tank change... They were so bright and beautiful it hurt to know this whole time it was stress. They spawned literally 3 hrs after that water change. Previous to this, i've had other pairs and got them to spawn frequently. I've had about 6-7 attempts at raising the fry with no survivors so far... Here's how this goes down.
Start with the eggs being laid on terra cotta. Move to a giant pickle jar. They hatch, they wiggle, they go free swimming... Attempt 1 and 2 - Death within a day... Appears my food is insufficient Attempt 3 - get fry food... Better success, lasted 3 days. 4 - let parents raise them with divider in the tank (didn't have a separate tank). 2 weeks later all the fry had crossed the divider and gotten eaten by the community on the other side. Attempt 5 - Let fry grow out in a net breeder inside the tank and hope that enough natural food is in there for them... Got about 2 weeks before they'd all managed to get out of that one in one way or another (water changes, bumped into it and knocked it over... I'm clumsy like that sometimes...) So finally, i got tired of half @$$'ing it and went all out... Got a 10G and for the past 6 months i've been breeding assassin snails, daphnia and scuds in it... Got a nice piece of driftwood, only a couple mm of muln / topsoil (stable at this point) a good sponge filter (raited for 55/75g... Wanted to make sure it was gonna be good enough for another 200 egg batch, but it still fits in the corner nicely and is fully submerged). Well, this last batch i put in there and again... They lasted about a week. Bottom / middle of tank is clear except for a little algae attached to the driftwood and filter. Top is covered in floating plants to suck up nitrates fast... There's a good healthy supply of daphnia and scuds. 3 Assassin snails laying eggs (i've found the fry eat the biofilm trail they leave and the snails have never bothered the fry after they're free swimming from what i've seen). This time, the fry lasted more than a week, but i have no idea why... Doing 10% water changes every other day. Using test kit to make sure all water parameters are identical. Got through a few water changes and BAM... Literally over night i went from about 150+ fry to 6... Now down to 2... Any suggestions on this?
For the A. Cac... This one makes me want to cry. I had the boy for about 8 months and he was GORGEOUS. Everyone who saw him couldn't believe it. I'm not exaggerating when i say this was a super red male buck that was 5.5 inches!!! The guy was massive. I don't know if he had a mutation for gigantism or what... Well, about 2 months ago i got 2 females for him... I know one of the females at least mated with him as both females did their little dance and ran off with him. One of them turned the whole bright yellow when i saw her and she disappeared for about a week. He stayed holed up in his cave, but i could not find her /anywhere/. Granted... This is a 55g HEAVILY planted tank... And unlike him, she was a little bitty thing only about an inch if not less. Disappoints me i couldn't get all the water parameters set well enough in the breeding tank for that match up because 2 weeks later... He's gone... Still have both of the females, but i doubt i'll ever find a male like that again to try and breed.
So, i've had varied levels of non success with German Blue Rams and Mikrogeophagus Ramirezi. I use both of these names for the reason that one of my pairs is German Blue Ram bred strain, and the other, if not wild caught is pretty freaking close. The coloration size and behavior is what I am basing this off of. The regular strain is a high end stock of it and not inbred, so I know i'm good there. The wild ones may be siblings, are much brighter and more yellow as well as larger and much more aggressive and territorial. As well, they were not doing good at all when i first got them. For 5 months i had them and nothing happened. I thought they were just poor specimens because they looked so drab and almost brown. The stress bars were so predominant and very little blue at all. No red on their fins ect... It didn't matter what i did. I got an RO/DI unit and started using that and remineralizing it. Over 3 weeks i got the pH from 7.4 - 6.6 and dropped gH from 10 to 5 and kH from 10 to 4... After the final water change when everything was adjusted i did a full 1/2 tank change... They were so bright and beautiful it hurt to know this whole time it was stress. They spawned literally 3 hrs after that water change. Previous to this, i've had other pairs and got them to spawn frequently. I've had about 6-7 attempts at raising the fry with no survivors so far... Here's how this goes down.
Start with the eggs being laid on terra cotta. Move to a giant pickle jar. They hatch, they wiggle, they go free swimming... Attempt 1 and 2 - Death within a day... Appears my food is insufficient Attempt 3 - get fry food... Better success, lasted 3 days. 4 - let parents raise them with divider in the tank (didn't have a separate tank). 2 weeks later all the fry had crossed the divider and gotten eaten by the community on the other side. Attempt 5 - Let fry grow out in a net breeder inside the tank and hope that enough natural food is in there for them... Got about 2 weeks before they'd all managed to get out of that one in one way or another (water changes, bumped into it and knocked it over... I'm clumsy like that sometimes...) So finally, i got tired of half @$$'ing it and went all out... Got a 10G and for the past 6 months i've been breeding assassin snails, daphnia and scuds in it... Got a nice piece of driftwood, only a couple mm of muln / topsoil (stable at this point) a good sponge filter (raited for 55/75g... Wanted to make sure it was gonna be good enough for another 200 egg batch, but it still fits in the corner nicely and is fully submerged). Well, this last batch i put in there and again... They lasted about a week. Bottom / middle of tank is clear except for a little algae attached to the driftwood and filter. Top is covered in floating plants to suck up nitrates fast... There's a good healthy supply of daphnia and scuds. 3 Assassin snails laying eggs (i've found the fry eat the biofilm trail they leave and the snails have never bothered the fry after they're free swimming from what i've seen). This time, the fry lasted more than a week, but i have no idea why... Doing 10% water changes every other day. Using test kit to make sure all water parameters are identical. Got through a few water changes and BAM... Literally over night i went from about 150+ fry to 6... Now down to 2... Any suggestions on this?
For the A. Cac... This one makes me want to cry. I had the boy for about 8 months and he was GORGEOUS. Everyone who saw him couldn't believe it. I'm not exaggerating when i say this was a super red male buck that was 5.5 inches!!! The guy was massive. I don't know if he had a mutation for gigantism or what... Well, about 2 months ago i got 2 females for him... I know one of the females at least mated with him as both females did their little dance and ran off with him. One of them turned the whole bright yellow when i saw her and she disappeared for about a week. He stayed holed up in his cave, but i could not find her /anywhere/. Granted... This is a 55g HEAVILY planted tank... And unlike him, she was a little bitty thing only about an inch if not less. Disappoints me i couldn't get all the water parameters set well enough in the breeding tank for that match up because 2 weeks later... He's gone... Still have both of the females, but i doubt i'll ever find a male like that again to try and breed.
