My incredible blue rams

[thegnu]

On the 25th of May this year my blue rams hatched their spawn and i have grown on 40. Last friday the 10th of august a pair of the fry spawned. I watched the female lay her eggs and the male fertilize them. That made the pair 77 days, or 11 weeks, or 2 months and 3 weeks old. Is this very, very young to be mating!!!

 

[Vic]

wow..
Are your rams wildcaught?(caught in wild)
(swedish..)

 

[thegnu]

hi Vic,
No their not wildcaught, i originally bought them in a shop under the title of East European rams but that was a long time ago as i have bred from them at least four times (these would be the fifth spawn in this blood-line, all from brother and sister)

 

[Apistomaster]

Rams live short and intense lives. Given proper care they can begin spawning at an early age. Mine normally are four months old when they begin to spawn but their initial fertility rate is low. Within a two more months they become more productive.

 

[ste12000]

Yep i can match that, i have grown on rams which were laid on 3rd July 2007. I have recently separated them into pairs for posting to customers and each pair has its own tank, three females are today (19th september 2007) showing their opivisitor and breeding is to be expected with a couple of days, by my calculations that makes each pair 78 days old today(wednesday) and If they spawn on friday they will be 80 days old.
So in theory if well fed and kept in optimal conditions the fish are ready to spawn within 11 weeks.... If mine do spawn before i have to post them out(in fact i may keep these pairs and send some non spawning fish instead) i will post a report about % fertilized and if the eggs are viable at this early age!!
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=A7JDEhMldn4
Adults spawning on the afternoon of 3/7/07

 

[vail94]

Rams Raising Their Fry?????

I have been playing with rams for a while and the posts that are on this thread sounds like multiple people have Rams that raise their fry instead of eating them how do i get a couple pairs from breeders that have good parenting skills? Is this true that your rams raise their fry?

 

[ste12000]

Hi, how old are your rams? if they are young i would leave them with the eggs until they get it right. The Rams mentioned in this thread did spawn and the eggs were fertile, although as soon as they were free swimming the parents decided to eat them, another pair spawned but ate the eggs after the first day.
This is extremely common amongst cichlids, i have a pair of 2 year old discus that have spawned 15 times and the male still eats the eggs. Unless dealing with rare or hard to find species i would advise against removing the eggs and artificially hatching.

 

[vail94]

My rams are 10 to 11 months old and are not spawning currently I lost my male of my breeding pair:frown: and am trying to convince my female that the new guy is just as good. but nothing yet.

 

[Apistomaster]

She will come around. Like it has been said, their lives are short; she can't afford to hold out long. Rams are as close to being annuals as Cichlids come.

 

[nir_tza]

hi guys!
i currently have 10 wild rams (in my opinion 3-4 month old..).
and i was wondering if someone knows the best breeding parameters for them (temp, pH and tds)??
thanks!!

 

[ste12000]

Hi mine are breeding at a PH around 6-6.5 very soft water, they are maintained at 80f and when i notice the start of breeding activity a heaterstat is added and the temp raised upto 85-90f, this never fails to trigger them if everything else is right. Goodluck.