German Blue Ram Spawned But....

[rubyfire]

Hello, I have a 55gal community with 2angels, 3cories, and 4 german blue rams. Of those 4 gbrs 2 have spawned (yay!) but the male seems to have fungus or something and I have been treating the tank for that before they decided to spawn. Should I keep treating or will it be bad for the eggs/potential fry? Or does he even have fungas? Is it something else? I've been using Melafix. Also, I plan to catch the fry (if any) and put them in one of those breeder net things.
So far the parents are doing great at protecting the eggs.
I attatched a pic of the male (best I could get) and a video of part of their spawning last night.

 

[Andy Sager]

It all depends on the exact medication you are using. I'd confirm with the manufacturer that it is or isn't safe for eggs and fry.

Hope this helps.

 

[rubyfire]

Ok seems that it's ok to use with eggs/fry. Going to start treating with methylene blue when it gets here (had to order) and that does say its ok to use with fry.
Update- I saw a couple eggs wiggling this morning before I went to work

 

[rubyfire]

Update- checked on them before I went to bed and less eggs now. Don't know if they were infertile and they ate those or if they hatched and the other fish got to them. Hopefully if any fry hatch from what's left by morning, I can catch them.

 

[rubyfire]

Update- well the eggs are gone this morning and I don't see any fry so I assume they didn't make it. Probably best since I still need to get rid of the dad's fungus. And I realized I didn't really thank you Andy Sager I'll be more prepared next time they spawn because obviously this was a surprise and I especially didn't think I had a pair let alone that they would spawn while one was sick (although he doesn't act sick..) happy I got the pair though.
One last question, the female is a regular gbr and the male is an angel or ballon gbr anyone know what would be the odds of the fry being either normal or angel/ballon?

 

[Andy Sager]

You can figure out what you should expect from a spawn using something called "The Punnett Square" Punnett Square Calculator | Science Primer You should be getting some of both types since they both are from the same origin.

2 quick points: Cichlids are known to move their fry once the eggs hatch so you may not have lost the spawn just yet. Observe the fish and see if they are paying a lot of attention to another area in the tank or they are still hanging near the area they spawned on. I've had fish spawn inside a pot and I could only see 1/2 of the pot. Turned out, after the eggs hatched, the pair moved the fry to the other side of the pot About a week later, SURPRISE!!!!!! there were fry to feed
Second, Cichlids ( most fish actually) get a little banged up when spawning so it is not unlikely for a fish to have an injury and still carry on parental duties. The good news is that if the water is clean and healthy ( which is usually has to be in order for the fish to want to spawn in it in the first place ) those bumps and bruises heal relatively quickly on their own or with little outside intervention. Just keep a close watch on the injury for any signs of infection or it getting worse before taking major action.

Hope this helps. Good luck.

 

[rubyfire]

Thanks but unfortunately I came home to 2 dead gbr (one was the female) and the other two hanging on. Other fish seem fine and I checked the water and that's all fine too. I blame it on overdosing melafix. I Was dosing 2xs a day with carbon in the filter and everyone was fine but I wasnt seeing the fungus going away. So I decided to take the carbon out but I kept up with the 2x the last couple days now thinking it would still be fine... I'm So mad at myself :'(
I've done a water change to try and remove some of the melafix but idk if it will do any good now. I'm 100% sure no fry made it now...

 

[doctordamen]

Sorry to hear about the Rams. I have a similar set up to yours. My rams are in the middle of spawning right now actually. My first couple spawns the eggs were eaten by my apistos in the tank. This round I am moving the eggs to a separate tank to raise by hand. For an anti fungus I will be using pimafix. It is more for a fungal infection, melafix is bacterial. You could try pimafix for a fungal infection and it will be safe for the eggs and actually help the eggs.


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[Tommy10]

When I used to have Rams they spawned and I caught my cories eating all the eggs. Wouldn't be surprised if that's what happened to you.


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[Andy Sager]

Sorry to hear this. Unfortunately, this is one of the problems with breeding fish. Their bumps and bruises make us want to fix them while the fish mostly don't need fixing.
Consider this a lesson learned and hopefully you will get another chance with another pair.

 

[rubyfire]

They didn't make it and thanks everyone. I will eventually get rams again but for now I'll do some more water changes over the week to get rid of the rest of the melafix. I Think I'm going to add more live plants for whenever I get the chance to get more rams.
I Wouldn't have thought they would be so sensitive of the meds. I Thought the cories would be the ones to be sensitive.

 

[Andy Sager]

For what it's worth, you'll find that breeding fish are better kept in tanks by themselves. That means even cleaning fish shouldn't be in the tanks as well. Rams happen to be a sensitive fish and are not noted for being good parents either so any distractions can lead to lost spawns. What some people do is use dither fish that swim at the surface 1/3 of the tank so they don't interfere with the Ram's breeding areas ( the bottom of the tank) but do make the fish more "parental" in their duties. Personally, I always bred my Rams in a tank by themselves but in the back of my breeding rooms so they didn't get disturbed by the activity in the room.

Hope this helps and good luck on your next try.

 

[Gillie]

For what it's worth, you'll find that breeding fish are better kept in tanks by themselves. That means even cleaning fish shouldn't be in the tanks as well. Rams happen to be a sensitive fish and are not noted for being good parents either so any distractions can lead to lost spawns. What some people do is use dither fish that swim at the surface 1/3 of the tank so they don't interfere with the Ram's breeding areas ( the bottom of the tank) but do make the fish more "parental" in their duties. Personally, I always bred my Rams in a tank by themselves but in the back of my breeding rooms so they didn't get disturbed by the activity in the room.

Hope this helps and good luck on your next try.

I agree, I've kept several pairs of rams over the years and most of them failed completely as parents and others yielded low numbers of surviving fry. The pair I have now had 20 of 30 eggs hatch and those 20 wigglers were about a day from free swimming, 5 of which remained when I moved them to a rearing tank today. Here's an article that will help a bit http://www.dwarfcichlid.com/Breeding_Blue_Rams.php and I couldn't help but notice that it looked like you had balloon rams, which are notoriously weak because of extreme line breeding for body shape. Your next time around you may try to get wild rams or order them on aquabid or ebay from a breeder named yunite. Getting to be successful in breeding rams can be a long road riddled with failures and not for the faint of heart. You just have to be sure to have sound stock with rams, which makes keeping and breeding them much easier.

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[rubyfire]

Thank you and actually I was looking at aquabid and at yunite too. But I'm afraid to get anymore right now untill I get the tank back to normal and add more plants. Yes I've heard balloon rams aren't hardy but that's what I had locally at the time.