how to remove eggs

[awholley]

This is a dumb question, but I have never seen it answered directly. It always seems to be glossed over in favor of where to place the airstone, methylene blue, etc.

I have a spawn of rams that I want to remove and raise artificially.

In order to remove the eggs to a hatching tank, do they have to be kept submerged as they are removed. (i.e. I need to put the rock in some sort of receptacle and remove the submerged rock from the breeding tank.)

Thanks.

Alan

 

[brad]

you can use a tupperware dish or empty cottage cheese container. I`d keep them submersed.

 

[Z Man]

I just picked up whatever they were in or on and transferred it to the hatching tank. Those eggs won't dry out in the few secomds they are in contact with the air. Sometimes when I transferred Apisto eggs and the female was in the pot, I would quickly reverse the pot place a finger covering the small hole and just pick up pot, eggs & female all at one time and place in another tank.

 

[nightowl1350]

I've moved ram eggs with or without a container. It depends on how far. If they will be out of the water less than 30 seconds don't worry at all. If you have to go downstairs or a long distance use a small container and keep them wet. Good luck as a parent ram

 

[apistoireland]

why do you want to hatch them artificially in the first place? Isn't it much nicer to see the parents leading a shoal of young? Young rams might not get it right the first couple of times. It is a learning process. the young will also grow faster when lead by their parents.

 

[awholley]

I definitely prefer watching the parents herd the young. In fact, that's the entire reason I keep cichlids. However, the rams belong to my 10-year-old son, who is now very disappointed that they have now eaten their 3rd batch of eggs,
especially when he has watched me have successes with borelli, honglsloi and caucatuoides in the short time we have been doing this as a father-son thing.

Next time we're going to snatch them up....

 

[Apisto ranch]

I know the feeling. My 10y old boy is saying the samething. LOL he wants to see them hatch and not eatten. They have had 4 times to get it right. But everytime the eggs only last a day 2 at the most. So we are doing the samething but with Cockatoo's the red eggs where pulled on the 16th.

GOOD LUCK with them!!!!

 

[Z Man]

If they were a new pair to me, I always removed the eggs and hatched them myself. I then said to the pair, "This first spawn is mine, you can have the rest!".

 

[nightowl1350]

Not all rams get it right ever. I've had my female for almost a year and would never have seen one ram fry if I left the eggs with them. She is paired up with one of her sons now (I raised him) as the original male is smaller and she picks on him too much.

They layed a spawn about a month ago and I stole it.....only to look in the tank and see they layed on a rock after I removed the first part of the spawn on the plant. I admit I stole the rock to

I have about 150 (not a typo) 3 week old rams. I left the next spawn with the pair and the Male was guarding them. At about 40+ hours he ate them funny how he was not parent raised, but chased away the female who I know was parent raised. I took her out in the end and just left Dad with the eggs.

apistoireland...I would truly love to see Mom or Dad ram with a pack of babies in my tank, but after having her for almost a year and almost never seeing eggs I don't think I will. I give them many chances as I've pulled 2 spawns that didn't make it to free swimmer and 3 other spawns. In the almost year I'm sure they have layed about 15-20 times. She lays eggs about every 2 weeks. Sometimes thye have had a pair of guppies in the tank as dithers, other times not.

 

[apistoireland]

that seems to be a problem with many comercially bred apistos and rams. The breeders take the eggs away from the parents as soon as the eggs are laid. Makes sense for the breeders financially. If the parents don't care for the young they can be bred more often. I have a feeling that caring for their brood is in part a learned behaviour and not genetically inherited. I have never had any rams bred in Asia that cared for their young. The same goes for some apsito species.

 

[lab]

apistoireland wrote:

I have a feeling that caring for their brood is in part a learned behaviour and not genetically inherited.

We don't really know, so this discussion is mostly based on intuition.

If the brood care is partly learned, then you could not get any individuals from a pulled spawn to perform this behaviour. I don't think this is the case. I agree that most asian rams will eat their eggs/larvae. In my opinion the sensitive stage is when the eggs develop a wiggling tail.

There are off course many more aspects to this, especially since rams have biparental brood care. The parents must match up quite well in order to make things work out. Other than this disturbances in the environment might also force the parents to eat their young ones.

I still agree that you should keep away from the Asian bred rams. They are bred for colour, not for behaviour. And that is the main reason, besides cheapness, why they are around. Wild type rams might not look as stunning in the store, but they will certainly develop into beauties in their own right.

best regards,
Lars