SOS.....Baby Rams

[georgedv]

My rams have spawned 3-4 times but never had any positive results. This time I removed the eggs and put them in a one gallon plastic container with a tad of methlyn blue....I just wanted to see if they were fertile. Today the container was full of babies. I am semi prepared but not 100%. Last week I ordered rotifers but didn't get a chance to start them and only have some green wateer. At this point I prefer to keep the green water for the babies. I have lots of java moss...I plan to rotate moss bunches morning and evening to ensure some form of food for the babies as well as the green water. I have BBS going everyday for some earlier cac , angel fish..other spawns.

So, ....for how many days do you suggest to keep them on infusoria and then swith to bbs? I will start switching out the blue water with water from the parents tank tomorrow evening...slowly over two days. I know the blue stuff will hurt the infusoria ...should I just change the water in one shot? After that how often should I change water? The water in upstate SC is on the soft side...I do not have exact measurements...but pH is6.9 and the temp in fishroom is about 78-80.

At this point any suggestions are welcome to increase the success rate of this unexpected blessing.

george

 

[sasikan]

i also add metyline blue to the one gallon jar i then start changing 50 % every day after the eggs have hatched (i usually take the parents water ) when they are free swimming i also feed infusoria grindle worms for (at least 2 times a day) you have to really clean all uneaten food after this, i start adding brine shrimps to this mix after the 3ed day dont forget to take out all left over food after every feeding .hope this helps!

 

[georgedv]

Thank you for the input sasikan. I believe fry will be free swimming tomorrow. Got java moss ready any green water has bloomed. I don't think rotifers will be abundant in a few days so i'll skip them this time.

If you (or anyone) think of anything else, let me know.

g

 

[georgedv]

Quick update: Split fry into two groups (those that survived). I put 10 in a 10 gal w/ lots of java moss and kept 7 in the original tapper also w.;ots of java moss. Feed brine twice a day. Change water 50%(using parents tank water) every two days for fry in tapper and 20% evey four days for those in 10gal tank. So far so good. They all seem about the same size.
Thats it for now.

This is my first ram spawn that has made it this far....I am very open to suggestions...thanks

george

 

[Gwendal]

You can use lobster eggs, you can buy them in many shops.





1 saludo

 

[sasikan]

lobster eggs to feed to the ram fry ! wow they would be living off caviar ! the life of luxury.

 

[hedylogus]

george......rumor has it that ram fry are too small for bbs. i'm curious how your fry are doing.

 

[georgedv]

I had both setups full of java moss to provide some form of food for the ram fry. On the third day I started bbs. It was I think the fifth day that i started observing closer the fry and saw their bellies bright orange from the bbs. Thus, I also am unable to shed any light on this mystery. At this stage I have about 7-9 fry in the tapper and over 10 in the 10 gal (as of today).

 

[electric eel]

i think i saw on one of your posts that you did angelfish.if you can get the fry to the point that they can take bbs(as you have) in my experience raising ram fry is very similar to raising angelfish fry other then the fact that you dont have to worry about them getting fin rot like angels.they really are hardy little fry if you can just get them to live those first 3 or 4 days.i found in the past using some of the smaller specialty brine shrimp improved my survival rate.they can take some of them probably a day earlier then utah bbs also they are significantly higher in hufa's but they are expensive and sometimes hard to obtain.if you have read my posts you know i have been struggling to get the fry to live this go around but i have 47 that were freeswimming as of 4/2/2012 that are pairing up now.they grow very quickly.this is in my 390 ppm hardness 8.4 ph tapwater since second day freeswimming .i fed them newly hatched bbs 3 to 4 times a day(up until recently) and changed 75 percent of the water daily(they were in a 10 gallon tank up till about 3 weeks ago) as they got bigger i substituted grindal worms(not micro worms-grindal worms) for one of the daily feedings and they also got some color flake regularly and live daphnia occasionally(maybe 3 times a week)