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Electric blue rams

boydvd

New Member
5 Year Member
Messages
46
Location
melbourne, australia
hi viejo
i am suspecting they may shoot blanks too. one pairs eggs fungussed quickly. the other pair i have had healthy looking eggs but got eaten.

so i've removed the dubious pair out of the breeding tank and left what i hope will get me the electric and normal blue cross.
 

electric eel

Member
5 Year Member
Messages
211
Location
camden,oh
hi boydvd,don't give up yet.its not unusual for them to take a few times to get it right.it took me 7 spawns to get my first blues.mostly cause i was'nt smart enough to pull the fry right away and it might be your water.i've had them spawn in my growout tanks on several ocassions(hardwater) but they never have hatched.i've had the best luck when the water was pretty dark(from tannins etc) but have hatched them in clear soft water with a fairly low ph(i shoot for about 5.8) but i don't think ph is as important as the water being soft other then acidic water does have antibacterial properties.they claim bacteria kills the eggs(fertile eggs anyway) then comes the fungus.DON'T GIVE UP! at least give it an honest go first.
 

boydvd

New Member
5 Year Member
Messages
46
Location
melbourne, australia
hi e.eel,

not giving up yet. i'm hoping to give the more likely pair the best chance to get a successful spawn. i use RO water. The hardness is v. low and ph is about 6.5.

i'm not sure how to get the ph lower. (have tried peet moss)

so do u recommend i remove the parents if they sapwn? I've placed more flat objects in the tank in the hope of being able to remove the parents or eggs as needed.
 

Bev N

Apisto Club
5 Year Member
Messages
159
Location
York, PA
Here is a a picture of the ones I just got in. I haven't looked really close but I think there are males and females in there. They are not going to be easy for me (bad eyesight anyway) till I put my glasses on and really look at them. I will definately keep a few pairs for myself.

They are selling locally for $40 each! I can't believe they are going for $50 and $60 in some places.

electricbluerams.jpg
 

electric eel

Member
5 Year Member
Messages
211
Location
camden,oh
hi boydvd,different people have different methods.i have always had the best








luck starting the fry in gallon jugs(you have to have a good feel for how much to feed in a small container though).i suck them out of the parents tanks as soon as they are free swimming with a piece of 1/4' rigid tubing with a piece of airline on the end.if you wait very long even if the parents don't eat them they quit staying in a tight group and it is very difficult to suck them out.when i first started succeeding i was very excited and i counted every spawn because i wanted to know my survival rate.i sucked them into a medium sized plastic bowl and counted them with an eyedropper.out of a spawn of say 150 to 175 i was losing 5 maybe 10 fry tops(remember i did'nt get any till the 7th spawn so they were already having larger spawns)i just tried darrels method of putting them in a heavly biofilmed 10 gallon tank that had been set up for 4 or 5 months with lots of stuff growing in it.i lost almost a whole spawn of 75(a handful did survive)in my opinion putting 100 ram fry in a 10 gallon or even a five is like throwing 100 neon tetras in an olympic swimming



pool.its to hard for them to find their food and invariably a lot of bbs don't get eaten and die and foul the tank.they grow much quicker if you keep them contained so they can find their food.move them to bigger digs as they grow into them and do it incrementally as they out grow of what they are in.i was beginning to think i was an idiot from some of the feedback i got on here about starting them in gallon jugs but i just went to a lecture by a very sucessfull rainbowfish breeder(keeps and breeds over 23 different varieties) and low and behold he uses gallon jugs keeping some of the smaller slower growing ones in them for up to a month.besides for me the proof is in the pudding.it takes a little work(it really does'nt take very long) changing some of the water in the jugs every day or every other day but if you can sucessfully raise as many fry from 1 spawn as some people do from 3 or 4 i think time wise you come out ahead.sorry i got off on a tangent but if you want to hatch artificially i use a 3" airwand in a gallon jug,a couple drops methyline blue per gallon and a couple alder cones(i've had better luck with alder cones then acriflvine and other chemicals)check some angelfish websites for more details and methods or pm if you like.
 

boydvd

New Member
5 Year Member
Messages
46
Location
melbourne, australia
hi e.eel

thanks for the advice. i have put flat objects and now with only the pair in the tank, I'm hoping they'll spawn on somethign solid.

i've been feeding them live food hoping to condition them for breeding.

i'm also thiking of changing their tank to a unit with a back trickle filter.

I buckled on the weekend and bought another female panduro and a trio of agassizii... this is my last ditch effort for breeding the panduro. if they don't hatch and raise this time i will take it as they are beyond my skill.

do u think the rams will like white sandy gravel?
 

electric eel

Member
5 Year Member
Messages
211
Location
camden,oh
hi boydvd,i use pool filter sand on mine and its pretty light.mine spawned again yesterday afternoon.i put in a new piece of smooth slate right behind the sponge filter but did'nt wrap the base of the sponge filter with anything and the buggers spawned on the filter base again.the eggs don't look quite right to me so i've got a bad feeling.they have'nt gone white but they don't look quite right.i guess i'll know by tomorrow night if they hatch or not.i heard panduro could be tricky.at least i know a couple really good breeders in my club that had no luck with them.good luck you never know.i've spawned a couple kinds of fish that by all rights probably should'nt have been able to(from what i've read) so you never know unless you try.
 

electric eel

Member
5 Year Member
Messages
211
Location
camden,oh
hi boydvd,got wigglers.found them this morning before i went to work about 6am.i know exactly when they spawned and they only took about 40 hrs to hatch which is pretty fast.there are about 50 or 60 and they are really dark and tiny.thats why i thought maybe the eggs were bad cause they looked like little dark specks of sand.usually the wigglers of blue rams are hard to see against the poolfilter sand but the group of these guys stand right out in the middle of the sand pit that the parents have dug.at least i know they are'nt sterile but i'm guessing that the fry are going to be dificult to raise cause they are smaller then normal.
 

boydvd

New Member
5 Year Member
Messages
46
Location
melbourne, australia
wow congratulations!
since i left the ram pair in the tank by thmeselves they don't seem as interested in each other any more? maybe they need 1 dither fish?

i am thinking i may set up a ram tank at work as i have run out of room at home for the little buggers! :)
 

electric eel

Member
5 Year Member
Messages
211
Location
camden,oh
got free swimmers boydvd.they should'nt have freeswam till tommorrow.just fed them microworms at 11pm(and they were feeding).i know i'm messing up but the wife took my stepson to see kid rock and i promised my 5 year old i would take him to a movie and spend the whole night with him so i won't be able to take them tonight.he gave me a hard time for leaving him inside while i fed.they look healthy too hope the parents can hold off on eating them till i get home from work tomorrow(the male seems awfully attentive and won't even let mom get close and she's passive enough i don't think she'll try to take them from him-thats usually when trouble starts) or i can drag my behind out of bed at 5am and take them tomorrow morning.wanted to take some pics but i don't think they'll show may try tomorrow.i've never used dithers and always maintained them pairwise by the way.try earthworms.i'm telling you they are almost magical seems like fish well con ditioned on them can't help but spawn.i have'nt had a ram spawn of over 100 since i let my earthworm culture crash.got a new one going that should start producing in the next couple weeks.i just sucked them out at 3pm thursday lucky i got them when i did too.mom was picking them off one at a time.don't know how many she ate but i've still got 40 or 50.she was'nt trying to steal them she was downright eating them cause i watched her snag one and she did'nt take it and spit it out.
 

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