Rams look ready to spawn!

[sinibotia]

Last thursday- less than a week ago!- I bought four rams, two of each gender. Two of them paired up so quickly it caught me off guard, and they killed the other female while I was away for the weekend.

But now the male is clearing out a little bowl in the sand and the female has a large bright pink stomach! I honestly believe they would have spawned already if the corydoras catfish didn't keep getting in the way.

I don't want to move around and potentially interrupt them while they hopefully spawn, but if they do spawn I'll be sure to get pictures of the nest and eggs!

They do seem easily distracted- the male actually started building a nest in another part of the tank but then cam back, but both of them keep wandering. Anything I can do about this?

 

[dalto]

Rams are rarely successful on their first attempt but you never know.

That being said, the corydoras will probably eat the eggs if they do spawn.

 

[sinibotia]

Rams are rarely successful on their first attempt but you never know.

That being said, the corydoras will probably eat the eggs if they do spawn.

I don't mind much if the corydoras eat the eggs or they eat them themselves, I'd just like to see them spawn! I haven't spawned any fish in years except guppies and that hardly counts. I just wish they would pick a spot and spawn and not keep getting my hopes up lol.

In theory I could transfer any eggs to the breeder net and put the air stone under it, but I've still got the exiled male in there!

I've got two flat slate rocks in there. Is there any good way to get them to use them? Maybe if I moved all the fake plants around them? As of right now theyre both prettymuch in the open.

 

[sinibotia]

Something weird happened.... After showing a great deal of spawning behavior- intense aggression, digging a bowl in the sand for a nest, and both male and female guarding the nest intensely.... but I never saw any eggs.

Now they seem to have undone all of it. Both of them have relaxed and spread out. The nest has been filled back in with sand.

Did they spawn, but lose the eggs to the catfish, or eat them themselves? Could there have never been any eggs, or something caused them to suddenly stop before they laid them?

How hard would ram eggs be to see against play sand? Although at times it looked like the male was passing over the nest as if to fertilize, I never saw any eggs, but the nest was at the very back of the tank.

 

[Bloodroot]

Could have been practicing? Lol! I mean humans do...

Does the female's body look any smaller? She would tend to be large if filled with eggs.

Mine did a very similar thing... they did their little mating dance for about 2 weeks then nothing... I don't know if I missed the eggs or what... and Cory cats are little brats too, they will clean stuff up very quickly. I have never heard of a false pregnancy, maybe someone else has. But from what I have read rams suck at parenting for the first couple spawns so maybe they spawned and then left.

As a little extra note I would really concentrate on water and stress levels of the first. From personal experience, rams can suddenly die for pretty much no apparent reason after spawning. I have yet to have a male survive past the first courting/spawning. However, My female is doing amazing... so I'm starting to suspect black widow tendencies on her part... let's see how far she let's her new partner go...

Sent from my SGH-I317M using Aquarium Advice mobile app

 

[sinibotia]

Well, my male has survived, and after a tiny bit of ich that appears to have gone away with a few days of heat treatment (which is still going), they are starting to get nasty towards the corydoras again, so I have a hunch they will start showing more spawning behavior again.

 

[Fishobsessed7]

Hopefully you get some eggs


Fishobsessed7

 

[sinibotia]

Well, still no more real spawning behavior. I added a lot more fake plants to the tank as well as a rock cave, but I also added a large school of glowlight tetras so things are probably too active for them to spawn. It also seems like the male might have intestinal parasites.

 

[sinibotia]

(Edited for accidental double post)