Bolivian Rams first spawn!!!

[spineylives]

I was extremely surprised today after adding my new prices of driftwood to my tank to find that two off my rams had paired off and laid eggs on one of the pieces. Bolivian Rams are my favorite freshwater fish so i was extremely excited when I made this discovery. This is there first spawn and I hadn't even noticed that they had paired before today. Besides my first tank with guppies, this is my first real breeding experience so I'm looking for a bit of advice on fry care and such. I've read that it takes about three days for the eggs to hatch, then about a month or two for them to be able to fend for themselves. I also read that because this is my ram's first spawn, they aren't experienced parents and will have a low fry survival rate ( usually 0%). However I still want to give the fry the best chance if survival u can

 

[spineylives]

Here are some pics. The rams spawned all the way on the right side of my tank

 

[Samzter]

Yes they look wonderful . Barely any will survive because they aren't experienced. They will eat most of the fry but good luck anyway!

 

[Andy Sager]

I know it's exciting to see your fish spawning but from your pics, a low survival rate will probably be from the other fish eating the eggs or fry. Rams can be good parents or bad parents. You won't know until they try.
If you are serious about saving the fry in the future, you'd be better off spawning them in their own tank or pulling the spawn and hatching them in their own tank. It looks like they spawnd on something rather large so this would not be a good spawn to pull. PM me if you want more complete instructions on doing this. It's not the easiest, FYI

Hope it all works out. Keep us posted

 

[Pckerfreak44]

My rams laid eggs too about a week ago. And none of the fry survived it was their first spawn tho. Just don't get your hopes up like I did haha

 

[spineylives]

Yeah none of the fry survived. I saw the dad eat some of the eggs so I have no doubt that this batch didn't make it. My 20 gallon frog tank is now available so I can try to spawn a pair in there next time. I hope that some day they will manage to have some survivors. btw I saw my cories and botia loaches bothering the spawning area. Would coolie loaches be any annoyance, because I was hoping to keep coolie loaches and other small fish in my twenty gallon and move the Rams in when I want to try to raise a batch of fry

 

[Pckerfreak44]

I personally don't like kuhli loaches. Mine never came out and they are super fast do they might eat some of the eggs or babies

 

[spineylives]

Oh that's interesting, the last time I had khulis they were out all the time and active. If they are a problem I could just keep them in my community tank so they wouldn't be trouble in the breeder. Thanks for the advice!

 

[Pckerfreak44]

Glad I could help