ram fry

[pcrawford1044]

keep losing ram fry with and with out parents was feeding hikari first bites but i dont know if they were still starving to death or what im doing wrong very frustrating does it help t oleave tank lights on ? any suggestions ?

 

[Bev N]

Ram fry are pretty small. I have not used to the first bites so I'm not positive but I don't think that is small enough for them. I feed micro worms the first few days and then start adding bbs.

If live food is a problem you can get a product from kensfish.com called golden pearls. They have it in different sizes and the smallest would be suitable for newly hatched rams.

Bev

 

[pcrawford1044]

thats what i thought thanks bev for the info

 

[georgedv]

How about green water or infusoria? Is thet too small?

 

[electric eel]

infusoria,green water,microworms or vinegar eels will get them to the point where they can take newly hatched bbs.i much prefer vinegar eels myself as they will live until eaten unlike microworms.the fry should be able to take bbs by the 2nd or 3rd day.you can also squeak by in an emergency with the squeezins from a cycled sponge filter(it will be full of infusoria)i have the best survival rate when i put them in a gallon jug or a 2 1/2 gallon aquarium for a week or so(this keeps them contained and makes it easy for them to find their food)change 50% or more of the water everday.they are pretty delicate until they are 2 maybe 3 weeks old.after that in my opinion they are hardier then a lot of angelfish fry.adding some hydrogen peroxide to the water also helps cut down on bacteria(i use 2 or 3 drops of 30% pure per gallon)i've found that using dry food is tricky.any uneaten food will cause the water to go bad QUICKLY.once you start losing them to bacteria unless you sort out the dead ones with an eyedropper and change the water you will lose them all most of the time.sorry so long winded good luck!

 

[pcrawford1044]

thanks eel i think thats what was happening i was fouling the water how or where can i get vinegar eels ? and can i just lower the water level way down in the tank ? or do you put the jar of fry in the heated tank ?

 

[Bev N]

Ok..I'm the queen of lazy fish keeping. That is all way to much work for me..lol. Actually almost all of the pairs I have parent raise so they stay in there till either I think they are looking tasty to the parents or I get around to moving them. I currently have two spawns in my 125 community tank (one wild and one german blue) and will wait till they get them to free swimming before I pull them. Then I have to hurry so the rest of the tank doesn't have a feast.


I'm just now culturing vinager ells along with some infurosia. You'll need a culture for the vinager ells. You can often find those on aquabid. Up till this point I just added micro worms for the first few days. I really have not had a problem with losses or with fouling the tank but I do have a sponge filter in there also. If I pull eggs I do use the peroxide but I'm in the process of buying alder cones in a larger quantity. I have been using those in the cory tank and they do much better for me. The tanks I put the eggs in also have gravel and plants. There is a lot of tiny food in amoung the plants for the fry also.

It may take you a while to find something that works for you but you will. For me personally simplicity is a must. Then again I'm not working with one spawn but 5 or so at a time. I just pull them from the parent tank and toss them in a 20 to grow out. They go from a ph of 5 to one of 7 without any acclimating. You have to be a tough fish to live in my fishroom. Wimps don't stand a chance.

I know it's frustrating at first but don't give up. Once you get them growing up it will have been worth it all.

Bev

 

[pcrawford1044]

wow! thanks a ton for bev for your valuble info

 

[electric eel]

you can lower the water level down in a tank.works well.as bev said the fry aren't sensitive to water chemistry(but i assume they are to temp. like angelfish fry but i haven't tested this).i acclimate mine to my tap water as quickly as possible(its about 8.2ph and in the 800s as far as hardness)i never pull the eggs but keep them with the parents until they freeswim and suck them out with a piece of 1/4"rigid tubing and a length of airline.they are pretty unpredictable though.i've had pairs raise the fry to 1/2"long one time and eat them on the first day freeswimming the next.so if i care about a spawn now i pull them right off the bat as soon as they freeswim. there are many ways to do this.no right or wrong.find out what works for you.it took 7 spawns and around 2 and a half months before i suceeded the first time and ended up with 1200 rams from that first pair before i started feeding them to my other fish(you can quickly end up with more then you know what to do with if you suceed)

 

[georgedv]

Hi Bev N,

Can you direct me to your source of alder cones. I have seen these but always thought them too big for dwarfs or corys.

By the way any updates in your fish room ....loved the last pictures you put up.

thanks

g

 

[Bev N]

Hi there,

Actually I'm looking for a source now to buy in bulk for my use and resale. I found one place that sells them in 42 lb bags That is a lot of alder cones.

For the corys I've found that one of those breeder nets for livebearers works great. I hang that in the tank and put the eggs in there with the alder cones. I don't get any fungused eggs and virtually 100% hatchout. When they hatch I just take the net and emptied it into a 10 gal tank to grow out a bit.

There are a number of places in the North West that have alder cones. Just do a search on the net. It will be sometime in January till I get them and have them repackaged.

I'm working on getting the pics of our fishroom up on our website. With the expection of needing a few more filters the room is now finished. Oh and we are looking at getting one of those new heaters by edenpure. It's supposed to be extermely efficient. I'm hoping that will cut our electric bill back a little. Anyway...we have finally gotten to the point that there is absolutly no more room to put any more racks of tanks without expanding into what is to become our downstairs family room. I think we should start on that as quickly as possible so we cannot expand any more. Actually we already did kinda. There are three large tanks of daphnia in there now.

Bev


Since you asked that gave me the motivation to sit down and put those pics on the website. I have tons more to take for all those species profiles but it takes me 50 pictures to get one good one so that will be a work in progress for a while