Ram fry in heavily planted tank?

[RoseHawke]

Hello all, sorry to sort of barge in on y'all like this, but I have a bit of a problem :biggrin: . This is a sort of a panic post, I guess. I normally hang out at plantedtank.net, as that's where my interest lies at this time, and I've only fairly recently gotten my planted tank going well. I'd been admiring Blue Rams for some time and when my LFS got some in brought home a pair a couple of months back. I really didn't expect anything, but they spawned a couple of times and this afternoon --- SURPRISE! I've got free-swimming fry!!! I'd wondered where the adults were darting off to the last few days, now I know. I think they moved the offspring from their favorite rock once the eggs hatched and were in the back guarding wigglers.

I was NOT expecting this, and am NOT prepared. They are in a HEAVILY planted (jungle) 55 gallon community tank with a couple of mollies, a dozen cardinal tetras, half a dozen otocinclus and a lone female American-flag fish. The parents are chasing anything that even looks crosswise at their babies. The tank is about 8 months old. By my guess there are at least a hundred in this spawn. Is there any chance at all that there is something in this tank that they can eat since I do not have any infusoria, daphnia, etc. prepared for them? I guess next time I see the parents guarding eggs I'll know better but I kept reading about how difficult it is to get eggs to hatch, and get eggs past wiggler stage, etc., etc., so that this came as a an almost total surprise. Assuming they last even a couple of days, is there something I'll be able to find to feed them and where would I get it?

Any help appreciated!

Cindy

 

[Apistt_ed]

hello there cindy,

I would say that the mollies and flagfish would a pretty darn good job at cleaning the tank of all fry as they along with the tetras should be more than enough to take on the parents. if they do survive the barrage of predators, the tank should have an ample amount of infurosia... but a clump of java moss wouldn't hurt near the area where the fry are. Ram fry have small mouths and they don't take baby brine shrimp well, as i found out on numerous times. I have switched to liquid fry food squeezed through a pipette directly at the general area of the fry and even crushed flake food also is good as soon as they are no longer wrigglers. this should be more than enough to keep them up till they get to the size of taking baby brine shrimp in about 2 weeks or so. best wishes and congrats! oh yeah.. and please feel free to ask questions... we''d all do our best to help you out as best we can.

john

 

[fishgeek]

as the free swimming free ball enlarges the cardinals will just start picking them off
the parents get agitated and swish violently only spreading the fry further apart
once the cardinals start feeding you will be left with none

if you have room then perhasp try to segregate the tank with a divider, the fry are small and can get through most perforated designs
or net the cardinals at lights out so as to cause least disturbance

or perhaps just prepare for when the parents do it all over again

andrew