German blue ram breeding

[Steve silbernagel]

I have a pair myself. I got the female first and then I came across two males a month or so later. With in a week she paired up with one of them and spawned eggs which got eaten. Flat rocks are there natural setting to spawn. That's why I got twenty or so spread out in my community tank. If I can ever get away from my salt tank I want to switch my cichlids to my 20 tall and use the 10 gal there in so my GBR's will have there own tank. Get your self a HOB breeder box and seperate the flat rock when the male is done fertilizing the eggs. They will have a yellowish color to them. If there a whitish color there not ready. Good luck hope to see a pic of a bunch babies swimming around your tank.

 

[Pckerfreak44]

That's one of the problems with Rams, unlike a number of other fish, they don't always BECOME better parents. You COULD be waiting a long time for that to never happen
The choice, of course, is your

Yeah I know :/ but I'm gonna give them maybe 3 more batches and if they don't stop eating them then I'm gonna seperate the eggs

 

[Samzter]

Would the eggs be alright in a floating hatchery? What I'm planning on doing is in November I'm going to move the parents to another tank when finished cycling. They can live out their days in there! Then if they lay eggs before that I'll put them in a hatchery? Will that be okay?

 

[Pckerfreak44]

Rams are really sensitive to new tanks so it might be a bit risky but I'm sure the eggs will be fine

 

[Andy Sager]

Would the eggs be alright in a floating hatchery? What I'm planning on doing is in November I'm going to move the parents to another tank when finished cycling. They can live out their days in there! Then if they lay eggs before that I'll put them in a hatchery? Will that be okay?

When you remove eggs from their parents, you need to duplicate what they were doing. In the case of these fish, they were fanning the eggs to keep debris from falling on the eggs and they were oxygenating the eggs by making sure new good water was being passed over them. If you remove the eggs, you'll need to put in an airstone setup so that the bubbles flow in front of the eggs to achieve this. I'm not sure a hatchery box is big enough to do that in. You may need to use a 1 gal bottle or small tank.
In my Albums in my profile page, there is a drawing of the airstone setup I used for pretty much all my South American Cichlids if that helps. This should help you be prepared for the next time

 

[Samzter]

I'm not sure I want to separate the eggs or not. I know it would be better but I don't want to take their eggs away from them. Would it be possible to let's say catch some and leave some with the parents? I don't want to ruin anything though.

 

[Steve silbernagel]

I got a breeder box rhein my LFS and it's got a air bubbler built into it which just plums into my original air bubbler. If your gonna snatch the eggs u should take them all or nothing at all

 

[Samzter]

I got a breeder box rhein my LFS and it's got a air bubbler built into it which just plums into my original air bubbler. If your gonna snatch the eggs u should take them all or nothing at all

Thanks for such a quick reply! I'm thinking of leaving the eggs with the parents but when all my other babies have left the nest I'll start to save some of them.

 

[Steve silbernagel]

Good luck with them. Rite now I'm just letting nature takes its course

 

[Samzter]

Yeah me too . Until I have my other tanks. I would quite like to see them look after their eggs and protect the fry, so I'm going to give them a few spawns.

 

[Steve silbernagel]

Mine get eaten every time although there in a community tank

 

[Andy Sager]

I'm not sure I want to separate the eggs or not. I know it would be better but I don't want to take their eggs away from them. Would it be possible to let's say catch some and leave some with the parents? I don't want to ruin anything though.

What do you mean by "Better"?
Q:Is it "better" to leave the eggs with their parents?
A#1: If you don't care what happens to the eggs or the other fish in the tank, YES, it's better.

A#2: If the parents always eat the eggs, it isn't better to leave the eggs if you want to have fry.

A#3: If you don't know whether they are fertile or not, it is not "Better" to leave them with the parents.

A#4: If you think you are doing psychological harm to the fish, it is better to leave them.

In truth, fish lose spawns in the wild every day. It's why they spawn so frequently and why it's ingrained into them to spawn frequently. Mostly what happens is that the parents resign themselves to another lost spawn and prepare themselves to spawn again. Just like with annual flowers, if you cut off the spent flowers before they had gone to seed (known as deadheading), the plant will produce more flowers. Continue deadheading and you will continue getting more blooms. The same goes with your fish. Fish raising young will delay the next spawning until they are done with the current batch that haven't swum away yet. Once they have gone, the parents prepare for the next spawn having no regard for the babies that just left.

So is it better?
Parents guarding eggs will attack the other fish in the tank to protect their spawn. Is that better?

If you are trying to deliberatley raise some babies, isn't it better to know that this pair can produce living babies than waste a bunch of time and money on a pair that will be better off as an exhibition pair than a breeding pair?


So you tell me.... is it "Better"?

Finally, if you wanted to split the spawn, you'd need to have the fish spawn on 2 separate surfaces so that you could remove one and not damage the other. (HINT: That doesn't happen often with smaller fish like Rams.)

Just something to think about

 

[Samzter]

What I meant was I know it would get more success rate of fry if I was to separate them. It would be better in terms of survival.

 

[Samzter]

ATM I don't have a spare tank available to move them into. What I'm going to do when i have a spare tank is buy another pair and have two tanks with german blue rams. I think answer 4 is correct also for me. I wouldnt want people taking away my babies and rearing them, so I don't want to do that to them. it sounds really odd but I would hope that they could raise a family by themselves. I'll give them another 4 spawns to get it right and if they still havent I'll interfere.

 

[Andy Sager]

ATM I don't have a spare tank available to move them into. What I'm going to do when i have a spare tank is buy another pair and have two tanks with german blue rams. I think answer 4 is correct also for me. I wouldnt want people taking away my babies and rearing them, so I don't want to do that to them. it sounds really odd but I would hope that they could raise a family by themselves. I'll give them another 4 spawns to get it right and if they still havent I'll interfere.

Realisticly, my Answer #4 was more for your psychological well being and not the fish's Once the eggs are gone, they don't really think about them for too long. (IMO) Look at it from a fish's perspective and not a human's. If they were human, they wouldn't be eating their own eggs so you shouldn't carry over human behavior onto the fish. You should be learning fish behavior and understanding why they do what they do. It brings the aquarium hobby into a better perspective. It's a great study of ecological balances and shows how we might save the planet sooner from our human excesses.
Just something else to think about

Good luck with your pair (s)

 

[Samzter]

I guess so... Well, they still have some attempts left before I start to take on the parent role! Lol thanks andy for all your helps. I'll keep everyone updated.

 

[Andy Sager]

I guess so... Well, they still have some attempts left before I start to take on the parent role! Lol thanks andy for all your helps. I'll keep everyone updated.

Not a problem I'm on this site to educate as well as advise

I should have been born a fish.....

 

[Samzter]

Okay I think I'm getting another breeding net an just save them .do you know how to care for the fry?

 

[Andy Sager]

Okay I think I'm getting another breeding net an just save them .do you know how to care for the fry?

I always preferred to remove the spawn to another tank to hatch and where the fry would be for quite a while while they grew (Usually a 10 gal tank with a sponge filter) .
Once the fry become free swimming, you'll need to be hatching out live brine shrinp to feed them. You'll want to feed the shrimp shortly after they hatch so it will be a timing game. You don't want to "pre-make" the shrimp.
I know some breeders who fed the fry of new, young breeder fish infusoria as a first food then switched to brine. For me, (I'm lazy ) and would just add a bunch of a live plant such as anacharis or cabomba so that any fry that are not big enough to eat the live BBS can eat the infusoria found on the plants.

The rest of the time it's routine water changes and feeding and watching the little buggers grow