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Blue Ram Dad of the Year!!!!

vail94

Member
5 Year Member
Messages
42
Location
Salt Lake City
http://s244.photobucket.com/albums/gg30/vail94/fish/?action=view&current=BlueRamDad.flv
Here is a link to my recent sucess of having blue rams parent raise their fry. I once thought this impossible as i have been playing with rams off and on for 3 years and have never seen this happen. I know you want to know water parameters so here they are: 30 gallon bare bottom tank, 28C = mid 80'sF, 6.8PH, GH 9, 0 nitrite, 0 ammonia.

There were 7 rams total, 3 pairs and a bachelor when the one pair spawned they spawned in a flower pot which I could not see into as the opening was facing away from my line of site. Yes rams are substrate spawns but this pair like to do there duty in privacy.:wink: Then the pair moved the eggs without eating them (obviously) to the back corner of the tank all the while claiming almost half the floor space of the 30 gallon tall for themselves. Then they moved the wiggler the next day to the front corner of the tank at this point I was proud of them being able to move there family so well but there only appear to be 10 wigglers left so i was not that hopeful that the fry would actually go free swimming. Went down 2 days ago to feed and fiddle with fish and there were free swimming fry not a lot but enough that i started grabbing every camera or video camera in the house to get proof before they ate them. :eek: Like i said I have been playing with rams for a while.

Yeaterday I go down to feed and the Dad has chased the Mom away and has a swarm of 50+ fry, there must have been some wigglers that were slower than the first ones I saw. My intention with the long thread and link is to encourage other Blue Ram Enthusiast to keep trying, the trick is that I have only had free swimmers for 2 days and the experienced Ram Guy in my head is telling me that the Dad could snap at any moment and the fry will be gone but it is cool while it lasts.:biggrin:
 

Lisachromis

Moderator
Staff member
5 Year Member
Messages
361
Location
Canada
Looks good! I never did get my rams to that point. They dutifully spawned and dutifully ate the eggs! :tongue:

Hope they work out for you. I love rams.

P.S. I have Bolivian rams in a little pit the parents are guarding. Not quite freeswimming yet.
 

viejo

Member
5 Year Member
Messages
330
Location
La Verkin, UT
Congratulations Charles, a rare accomplishment indeed. As you know, I have also bred a ram or two but must admit that I may have given up on parent rearing a tad early on for economic ( read greed :biggrin: ) reasons. That male is certainly aggressive in his defense of his brood. I'll wager to say that the possibility of being devoured by the parents ( or anyone else ) is quite remote at this point. I'm doing a little 'outside the box' thinking here I wondering if the fact that the parents are unrelated has any bearing here. Perhaps fish have a way (pheremones?) of recognizing siblings or close relatives & this is perhaps Mother Natures method of eliminating inbreeding, which might explain why imported wild fish tend to be less prone to egg eating. It makes a whole lot more sense than the 'egg eating is caused by artificial hatching' theory. I've got a number of unrelated breeders & if I desist in setting up female x female pairs, who knows what might happen.
 

samcsd

New Member
5 Year Member
Messages
7
Location
Wales, UK
congrats mate, i had loads of trouble getting my rams to free swimming, the water quality always went funny about one day after spwaning, then when i got free swimmers my heater broke.....

best of luck!
 

bigbird

Member
5 Year Member
Messages
593
Location
Sydney, NSW Australia
cool video and well done
it is great to see the interaction between parents and the fry. it still is a miracle if you look at the size of the egss and fry. wow well done
cheers jk:biggrin:
 

Bev N

Apisto Club
5 Year Member
Messages
159
Location
York, PA
Now you've done it!

Before long you may find yourself overrun with fry. I have a pair that parent raises about 400 fry every few weeks! I just pulled a spawn from them on I believe Wednesday and they spawned again today.

The cool thing is now I have pairs forming from the first generation that are now starting to parent raise. They have not become as good at parenting yet but I'm hopeful they will.

Get to setting up that 75 gallon tank..your gonna need it! :)

Congrats...they are definately some of the most interesting fish in the fish room.

Bev
 

vail94

Member
5 Year Member
Messages
42
Location
Salt Lake City
Update

I had to go out of town for 24 hours with a friend feeding the babies. I don't know if the dad gave up or the other pair that had wigglers when i left hijacked his clutch but he is not guarding any now. But the other couple has a clutch that is free swimming and appears to be a larger clutch than the first dad had. http://s244.photobucket.com/albums/gg30/vail94/fish/?action=view&current=BlueRamPair.flv
It appears that rams that are good parents (Few and Far between) and get there fry to free swimming have trouble a couple of days into it because of the lights going off. They loose track of the group then it is a free for all. I think I need to hook up a siphon and siphon off the babies a day or so after free swimming because when the parents can't keep them in a nice group I think they start fighting and it all goes to heck from there.
I need to actknowledge that a lot of my current success is do to "Viejo" he lives close to me and has mentored me and help with different blood lines for my breeding stock.
Thanks to all for the kind replies.
 

viejo

Member
5 Year Member
Messages
330
Location
La Verkin, UT
Thanks Charles,
Perhaps a night light would eliminate some of the confusion & help keep the brood tending procedure more efficient but you will no doubt end up with more fry in the long run if you rermove them after a couple of days.
 

vail94

Member
5 Year Member
Messages
42
Location
Salt Lake City

viejo

Member
5 Year Member
Messages
330
Location
La Verkin, UT
Update: I presently have a reverse trio ( 2 males / 1 female) of 'Ramerizi' that are guarding an egg plaque. The males are close-in defense & the female patrolling perimeter. I'm pretty sure that both males fertilized the spawn. Also, the breeders are in a tank with a couple of other strains of rams. The female had her choice of some much larger males but stuck to her own 'kind'. P.S. Pardon the water spots/algae but I considered glass cleaning an unwise option ...
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vail94

Member
5 Year Member
Messages
42
Location
Salt Lake City
Cool! That is kind of interesting that both males are guarding, I havn't seen that before. I think one of the keys to rams parenting is being in a tank with other rams that they have to defend their spawns against. I don't know that dither fish work as well as other rams. I have more babies than you can shake a stick at I am probably pushing 200+. :biggrin:
 

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