Crazyred's GBR Baby Book

[crazyred]

I should have started this a week ago but better late than never:

*Sunday, August 27th: my rams laid a bunch of eggs on a leaf on an amazon plant in my planted 55 gallon SA-type tank. This is their tird spawn, but previous two were not successful.

*Monday, August 28th: all eggs still there Mom & Pop Ram guarding fiercly...fending off tetras, angels, platies and Apistos

*Tuesday, August 29th: Noticeable color change with the eggs this morning with them turning from a whitish color to a more tan color. By noon I can see the embryo in the eggs and by 5:30 the eggs starting moving on the leaf. Mom & Pop were trying furiously to keep them up on the leaf, but it was not working.

Quickly, I evacuated my 10 gallon ACF tank and took out everything including all water & gravel. I cut a sponge to fit over the filter intake and put in a more efficient heater. I then carefully snapped the amazon sword leaf off of the plant and put it in a submerged cup of water. I hand drained 10 gallons of water out of my 55 and put it in my newly cleared 10. I tranferred the leaf into the 10 with very little egg loss. I can still see movement.

*Wednesday, August 30th: eggs still moving all seems well

*Thursday, August 31st: tails now visible, but babies are relying on their egg sacs for food. Most have moved off of the leaf and are squirming around the entire tank bottom.

*Friday September 1: babies start to swim more vigorously almost off the bottom.

*Saturday, Sept. 2: most babies now free swimming throughout the tank (mostly stay at the bottom though) today was 1st feeding of egg yolk

*Sunday-Tuesday Sept. 3-5: still feeding egg yolk.....shooting for twice a day. babies are very cute and very tiny.

I will update often and provide pics when feasable.

[Lonewolfblue]

Very cool. Can't wait til you can get pics......

[crazyred]

Yeah, you know how hard it is right. These things are SO tiny. All is still going well. They are getting off the bottom more and really swimming trough the tank (well most of them) I noticed that when I fed them last night that their little bellies really got full, so it a very good sign to see that they are eating well. This makes a fish granma so happy!!! LOL I think they're growing, but at this point it is hard to tell.

[crazyred]

Well, y'all are NOT going to believe this, but my ram couple has laid eggs yet again!!! I guess in the next couple of days I'll be fishing them out and adding then to my 10 gallon tank with the current babies. Do these fish ever ever quit? Happy fish dance.

[Lonewolfblue]

Once they start, you are going to be in the fish business, LOL.....

[crazyred]

Okay, quick update on my grow out tank. The first hatchlings are growing. They are swimming really well even if I can't see their fins. LOL I can see most of their organs and I can tell when they've eaten.

Now, I removed the fertilized eggs that Mom & Dad laid on Saturday and put them in there. I've got wigglers that will be free swimming soon. This could go on forever. LOL I'm thinking that I will focus on these two batches and leave the next spawn to chance in the 55. Otherwise.....even as infinitely tiny as this ram fry is, I will soon be in violation of the inch per gallon rule on the breeder tank!! LOL I can see that happening.

[Lonewolfblue]

hehehe... Great job.....

Guess what? I got eggs now too in my 10G planted breeder with my GBR pair. Going to let them try and raise them, as there's no other fish around. Plus my other breeder tanks have ammonia levels in them. But if they don't raise them, then the next time I'll remove them.

[crazyred]

Wow! That is something.....both of us with babies at the same time. We'll have to do a baby swap later when they get bigger to keep from interbreeding. LOL

Everyone says convicts and livebearers are the rabbits of aquaria.....I say it's GBR's hands down. These two have given my tankful of platies a run for their money on prolific breeding!!!

[Lonewolfblue]

That would be interesting, a baby swap, lol....

I agree with the GBR's totally, lol. Once they start, it's every 2-3 weeks, lol. Just like clockwork, lol. And for the platies, well, I still say the GBR's, lol.

[crazyred]

UPDATE: Well the second batch of eggs are now free swimming fry! Boy, it lets me know just exactly how much the first batch has grown as they are quite a bit larger than the newbies. This is so interesting having this many fry and at different stages of development yet. My ram couple look like they might be getting ready to go for it again soon. I will probably have to pass on that batch, but that so hard to do! I want to raise ALL the babies.

Interestingly enough, the fry sort of cull themselves. I had tons of fry in the first spawn and now only about 10-12 are still there, so we'll have to see about this batch as there are tons of them at the moment.