My Bolivian Rams with Pics......

[Lonewolfblue]

Just a few pics of my Bolivians when they were asking for a photo-op the other night.....

The big male. just under 3 inches now, not including the tail.

The big male with the female.

The small male, still just under 2 1/2 inches. The big male's growth has boomed, and the other male seems to have stopped.

The big male again...

The big male again...

The small male....

The big male again...

 

[rich311k]

Beautiful fish and fabulous photos. I guess they are adjusting well to thier new home.

 

[Lonewolfblue]

This pic was taken in the 75G a few days ago. But yes, they seem to be adjusting somewhat. They do need more plants though, need to get more for the tank. They are hiding quite a bit behind the driftwood. And the big male and the female are near inseparable. Which is a good thing.

Edit:
Here they are in the 29G...

 

[Zagz]

Great pics! How in the world do you get such good clear close ups?

 

[Devilishturtles]

Wow...amazing!

 

[Lonewolfblue]

Great pics! How in the world do you get such good clear close ups?

A great camera, lol....

I just zoom in with the optical zoom, and get as close as possible. IME, digital zooms are more grainy. My camera only has optical zoom via different lenses. Then after I take the pic, I take it into Photoshop 7.0 and clean it up and resize. I have the Nikon D70s Digital SLR. My pics out of the camera are 3008x2000. So I just crop the pic to what I want in the pic, and then adjust the brightness and contrast, then resize so the pics are 650 wide, and sometimes 800 wide if I want to show a bigger pic. With my old camera, I used to use Macro, but with this camera, I don't need to anymore. And I use auto-focus. This camera doesn't focus on the glass.

 

[Lonewolfblue]

Well, they did it. Eggs are layed....... How many are there? LOL

 

[Jaybird]

That is so neat! I've two male bolivians. I hoped for a male/female mix, but I have not yet found any others.

Congrats.

 

[Lonewolfblue]

I first thought I had 3 males, til 1 stopped growing as fast. Then I thought someting was up, and then 2 hooked up. This is their 7th spawning. They did 6 in the 75G. But didn't make it with all the other fish. Now they have a home of their own.

 

[Jaybird]

both of mine are about the same size and have started growing the long extentions on their tail fins. The dominant male is much more colourful, but both are pretty neat.

I hope that I can end up with luck like yours and have some cichlids spawn in my tanks. I just always seem to end up with all males: bolivians, keyholes, firemouths. Grrrr.

I hope the eggs hatch. Do you trade the fry back to the LFS?

 

[Lonewolfblue]

I think I'm going to raise the fry, and possibly sell the small Bolivians back to the lfs, but not sure. I'm hoping to have another big tank in the future, and if that happens, will keep all my babies for a larger breeding tank. Will plant it out as well. I would love a 125G with nothing but GBR's and Bolivians. But I think my next tank will be the 265G for the fire eels.

 

[Jaybird]

Yeah, I wanted a 125, but had to settle with a 90. I've tried GBRs, but they never lived long for me. Maybe the LFS where I go just never gets good stock. They always seem to thrive for a while and then *poof* one of the pair ends up dead and then the other follows shortly after. The bolivians have always done well in my tank.

I wish I was closer, I would offer to buy some of the fry.

 

[Lonewolfblue]

What I've done here, which is probably why the Rams are thriving overall, is 50% water changes weekly, as well as fairly heavily planted, and CO2 injection driving my ph down to 6.4. My initial ph is 7.2 in my other tanks, and 7.6-7.8 out of the tap. The driftwood drives the ph down to my 7.0-7.2 level, but over time. it took nearly a month before my tanks were stable at 7.2. So it's a slow change, and the fish are happy with it. I do that with all my tanks, at least 2 pieces of driftwood in each. In my 29G, I'm maintaining a temp of 79. In my 75G it's 89, due to ick treatment, which is almost complete. Then will lower that tank to about 80. And the GBR's really seem to be loving the high temps as well.

 

[Friendly]

Wow it seems like your Bolivians are breeding constantly lol. How long has it been since their last spawning?

 

[Lonewolfblue]

3 weeks, lol

 

[Friendly]

3 weeks, lol

That's crazy, you must be giving them perfect conditions to spawn in. Congrats!

 

[Lonewolfblue]

Only the best, LOL.

 

[Friendly]

Only the best, LOL.

 

[Jchillin]

Congrats Wolf, not only did they spawn, you've discovered a new (and undocumented to my knowledge) breeding behavior of the male. That is a rather large clutch mommy has laid.

Good luck!

 

[Lonewolfblue]

From what I've read on bolivians, they can lay from 100-200 eggs. I might try counting myself with a full-res pic, but someone else says I have 187 eggs.

But the interesting thing is, since being moved to the new tank, the female will not let the male near the eggs, period, lol. And neither of them have eaten, to my knowlege. I use a turkey baster to try to get a little food near each of them, but won't touch it.