German Blue Ram Free Swimmers!!

[177ichael]

About 3 months ago I set up a 7 gallon heavily planted w/ driftwood Blue Ram Breeding tank. I found a Mom and Pop LFS in San Francisco with the best Rams I've seen around anywhere. I decided to try a pair out. After 3 attempts at the pair laying eggs, they finally got it right on the 4th attempt. Yesterday I noticed the eggs in a different spot than the usual indentation in the substrate. The eggs were on the driftwood and wiggling!! Upon returning home from work, I noticed that the wigglers were now free swimming everywhere!! I've now siphoned the free swimmers into a 2.5 gallon tank and have started feeding First Bites from Hikari. I believe I have somewhere in the neighborhood of 75 free swimmers. There are still a few free swimmers in my 7 gallon breeder tank and the male and female will put the fry in their mouths and spit them back out into a corner when they wander to far from the corner. Very interesting behavior. I wonder how they would have faired if I left all of the free swimmers in the breeder tank.

Now I'm left with a bunch of German Blue Ram fry in a 2.5 gallon tank.. I have another 10 gallon quarentine tank setup in my garage along with a 36 gallon bow-front. My tap water has a very high pH, however, my 7 gallon breeder is significantly lower at about 6.5 pH, due to the substrate and large piece of driftwood. I've been using the water from the breeder tank in my 2.5 gallon tank. I'm not sure what I'm going to do to try to grow these guys out since my water from my tap has such a high pH. Any suggestions on how to grow these guys out?

Thanks,
Mike

 

[Menagerie]

I remember your rams!! They were big guys!
How to grow them out? That's going to be tough. Aside from driftwood, you can use peatmoss as a natural way to lower pH. You put it in your filter. I don't have any first hand experience with it, but I have heard it works wonders (although your tank water will be colored up a bit).

Congratulations on the wigglers!! I wish I lived closer, I would offer to take some off your hands

 

[fishstixs05]

Hey 177icheal, where in cali are you, I know where you can take the fry once they get a bit bigger (see signature). As for lowering the pH, you can either do what menagerie says and lower the pH by running the water through peat moss (put is in a nylon stocking or other container), use chemical, and also use water from breeding tank for partial water changes.

 

[Christmasfish]

Wow if you are so lucky as to get them up to a shippable size.. I am also on the left hand coast and my kid was looking for Rams. But the last batches here in WA were awful.

We lower with peat in a big rubbermaid tub to age the water. We remove the peat when it reaches the target (slightly lower..so as not to have shocks) and we heat it before adding it. My water is a nice 7 anyway.. only the discus, liqourice and chocolates prefer lower.

 

[177ichael]

I'm from the East Bay. I plan on using water from breeding tank for a while on my 2.5 gal tank. I don't know how fast these guys grow, but if all of my fry survive, they will outgrow my tank quickly. I'd like to transfer them into my 10 gal and will most likely try peat. I'd like to stay away from chemicals if at all possible because I have no experience with them and have heard bad things about keeping the pH stable with chemicals. I have a Penguin 125 biowheel filter on my 10 gal quarantine right now and will try to put some peat in nylon.

I didn't expect my rams to breed so quickly! They are only about 5 months old. I was about to give up on Rams after traveling to so many LFS in my area.. It's amazing to finally find a pair of "German" Blue Rams and see the difference between other weaker varieties. Aggressive little buggers. Whenever I do work in the tank, both male and female will attack my hand consistently and vigorously with pretty good force considering they are about the size of my thumb. It certainly is interesting to hear people characterize Blue Rams as shy and timid.. I certainly hope that the European variety remains prevelant, but it seems as though it is becoming increasingly more difficult to find them. Thankfully, the LFS in San Francisco has been breeding these guys for 30+ years.. I don't know where I'd look for Rams once he decides to close shop.

I'll let you know what happens with them as they grow out.

 

[Menagerie]

If they are like my cichlids--brichardi and Mbuna, they will be relatively slow growers. I agree--no chemicals to lower the pH, especially when there are natural ways to do it

 

[medge00]

peat will work well for you. I used it to get my rams to breed. Don't worry if your water gets brownish, its still good!!! and congrats!

 

[bungle]

congrats on the new additions to your tank, 177ichael i stay in the east bay, too. if you decide to let go of some of the little guys eventually, please let me know! i just got a tank this afternoon, so i obviously have some work to do, but when it is ready for fish i was already thinking about adding some rams. somethin' to keep in mind, anyways. also, what lfs did you check out in SF?

 

[krap101]

if i had the tanks id prolly take it but shipping would be a lil im guessing like 15$ (ive never shipped to west coast b4) and i wouldnt feel comfy shipping the fish all the way there. the rams here are pretty much brown with a lil rainbow on their fins.

 

[Cichlidguy]

You should leave some fry for the parents to raise. IME, cichlids can be very good parents. I've bred a number of cichlids including brichardi, trets, and firemouths, and I never seperated the fry with any of them, the parents raised the fry themselves.