crazy blue rams

[aspen]

i had decided to get a new pair of rams and try breeding them. i put my somewhat older female in a 65 tall with the new male, 15 juvenile (2-3") satanoperca leucosticta and 13 lemon tetras. the rams are the smallest fish in there. wouldn't you know, they paired and laid. not expecting much i let them go- in my tapwater. wouldn't you know, over 100 fry are about to go free swimming, quite a nice hatch. you just never know with this fish. sometimes they'll never lay, or not guard their babies or the male will kill the female or whatever.

they are absolutely brutal on any fish that comes any where near the nest. there is no cover, just a bare tank with a piece of slate in the corner and sponge filters.

rick

 

[Konigwolf]

Could be all their friends had have inspired their cichlid parenting skills

Andrew

 

[nightowl1350]

Congrats on the parent raisisers. Mine have never done that.

 

[cichlidacious]

Rams

Hi Aspen!

Do you have a recent update on the little guys? Please tell me more about your rams.


Thanks.

 

[aspen]

z-man has described rams as the worst parents ever. while i've seen brief spurts of excellent parenting behaviour from these fish in the times i've kept them, they generally have earned the 'rotten parent' rep ime.

i was doing ok for the first few days, the parents were guarding their babies valiantly. then i fed the fry. the whole tank of fish sucked into the corner after the fry food and the parents couldn't hold them off. i was watching very carefully, and i don't remember seeing 1 satanoperca leucosticta eat a fry, but i saw the odd lemon tetra doing it. i don't think that the geo's are fry eaters.

anyway, after that display i figured i'd pull the other fish and see what shakes out with the pair and their babies. this was thurs night. last night the male and female were doing their job, the fry's were getting more active, but this a.m., the whole batch was gone- eaten by their parents.

i didn't have much hope for this spawn, the water was plain tapwater, there were too many fish in the tank with them etc, but to have the parents eat them rather than raise them is a little wrong. i will try this strategy again if need be, but i'll do it with much less pressure, say with only 5 of the satanoperca's.

ime, rams suck as parents, if there is nothing else to be nasty to in the tank.

rick

 

[Seb]

My tank is pretty happy with my rams in it, and every month i get a batch of eggs. They used to be eaten as most could fungass due to my hard water, with a high pH to match. So I gradually mkae the water perfect for them. Now none of the eggs fungass- but that don;t stop them being eaten by the rams

would raise them myself, but whats the point, it takes ages and it would mean they will never have parents to learn from.

Do you have any pics aspen, would love to see how proper parents do it

 

[Konigwolf]

It may not be the case of nothing to be nasty to, it may be the stress of you doing stuff in the tank (in this case catching other fish), I've lost a couple of batches of eggs by removing fish as soon as I see my rams have laid. In one case the parents were eating the eggs before I had all the other fish out :frown:

Andrew

 

[aspen]

i think we BOTH shoulda just pulled the fry. lesson learned. next time i will hatch and raise them myself.

rick

 

[kenkht]

Hmm.. I had the same experience with my pair. However I noticed that with every spawn, they seem to learn to be better parents.

My pair spawned again 2 weeks ago and all the fries seems to be doing well. This is their 5th spawn. I have lost all the fries from previous spawn, to other tankmates and ,of course, the parents. Now, they are in a tank with only 2 ottocinclus. So now, if I lose the fries again, I know who to blame.

Keeping my fingers crossed that the fries will survive. So far, 2 weeks is the longest for me. Hope to go all the way

 

[nightowl1350]

If your pair are keeping the fry for 2 weeks.....they are thinking about laying again. I know angels eat the existing fry when ready to lay again....sometimes it is a case of knowing the oler ones will eat the eggs etc or just a feeding themselves a high protein diet to prepare to lay again.

After a week or so I would remove the fry (or pair which ever is easier) and they will lay again and hopefully raise them for a week or more The hard part is the first week.

 

[kenkht]

To date, my rams fries are about 4/5 weeks old. The pair did an excellent job raising the fries. They have the whole tank to themselves BTW.

However this morning, the male began chasing the female away. Won't let her near the fries. Does it mean that the female is ready to spawn again, and a threat to the fries? What should I do?

 

[catfishbone]

i had my gold rams breed few days ago ... and now my fry is abt 6 nights old and they are tiny .... but i already separate both parents so that all the fry have the tanks all by themselves ...

the mum was occasionally munching on some of the fry but the dad did a good job to guard most of them ... but now i separate them in another tank in case that he will start munching on them too ...

 

[nightowl1350]

At 4 or 5 weeks old it is time to pull the pair or the fry. Sounds like you have a great pair