EBR spawning again!!!

[Russ_gibbo1985]

EUREEEEEEKA!
So my ebr pair tried to spawn in their old tank but had no chance with all the greedy little corys and pitbull plecos around!
So i set them up their own 20gal. The tanks finished cycling and had some vietnamese mountain cloud minnows living in there to check it can support fish and all was well, i removed the minnows and added my ebr pair on sat. I did a 10% part water change on sunday and have the tank a little warmer at 25.5 degrees. Ive been feeding live brine shrimp to help condition the pair she was looking pretty good yesterday nice and round and slightly pinkish in the belly. Sure enough on the money at 7 o clock tonight i went in to check them and they started laying before my eyes!
Well happy just hope we see some wigglers in the next couple of days!

 

[Russ_gibbo1985]

Ive just got in from work im on earlys this week been itching to get home all day to check out the eggs lol!
Sooo i git home and this is the scene i was met with, 2 proud looking parents guarding their eggs, GREAT!
Just wondering if any one has had any experience with breeding these?? If so how do the eggs look?? Do they look fertilised?? Just asking as the last time these two fish mated the eggs looked pretty much the same (to me, i think they look fertilised) but nothing hatched in the end and the eggs turned white. :-/

 

[Russ_gibbo1985]

Anyone?!?! :-(

 

[Russ_gibbo1985]

Anyone with ram breeding experience.

 

[jetajockey]

They look fertilized, the amber color gives it away. If they were unfertilized they'd be all turning white within the first day. I bred rams for a while and could never get them to raise their spawn for more than a day or two, every batch that I grew out was done artificially.

 

[Russ_gibbo1985]

They will be jeta im gonna pull out the parents as soon as they are free swimming or is this too late do you think??

 

[Russ_gibbo1985]

They will be jeta im gonna pull out the parents as soon as they are free swimming or is this too late do you think??

Also roughly how many fry were you getting per batch?

 

[jetajockey]

It's your call, if this is one of their first spawns then just let them have it and see how they do. I've had some pairs that will keep fry till they are free swimming and others that eat them on a whim.

One other thing I believe that plays into the equation is that the rams aren't necessarily all bad parents, but feeding the fry is very difficult in an aquarium setting because they are tiny, only slightly bigger than anabantid fry. An aquarium doesn't have a myriad of microflora/microfauna like in the wild, so that complicates things also. They are too small initially to eat BBS, and even large microworms and vinegar eels.

My best results have been inoculating the growout tank with green water culture and adding vinegar eels/microworms.

Usually there would be 30-50 fry and about 25%-50% of those would make it more than the first 2 or 3 days free swimming. That number got higher as I got better at feeding them.

 

[Russ_gibbo1985]

I am all ready feeding liquifry is this suitable do you think. Do i have to turn the filter off when they are free swimming?

 

[jetajockey]

I've heard that liquifry helps build microorganisms, so definitely keep it up. The filter isn't a big deal as long as they are in a spot where there isn't a ton of flow. If they are near the filter intake it needs to be covered with a sponge or filter floss.

 

[Russ_gibbo1985]

It is an eheim sponge filter does it still need to be covered? It's their second spawn by the way. There's quite a lot of flow in the tank not really in the corner where the eggs are though, will the fry hang out in the corner or will they move about as i dont want them to get washed about. Do i need to be adding anything else other than the liquifry? Thanks jeta.

 

[jetajockey]

No, sponge filters don't need to be covered. The parents *should* keep them all in a certain area. If there isn't a steady water current in the tank I wouldn't worry about that too much.

As far as feeding goes, I'd probably still try to culture some green water, but the liquifry sounds good. I'm not sure why, but they don't stock it here in the states. You could also attempt to feed some mashed boiled egg yolk or powdered flake/pellet, it just needs to be completely pulverized, mix it with water and then feed with a pipette.

You'll get an idea of whether the fry are eating or not, you can see them doing it, plus you'll be able to see if the food you are feeding is too large and if it needs to be reduced in size.

 

[Russ_gibbo1985]

The only think im I little concerned about the filter is that its rated up to 160l and its a 20gal tank.

 

[Russ_gibbo1985]

Also I'll bear that in mind either the feeding thanks jeta. But surely won't i need to take the parents out of the tank once they are free swimming?? If so the parents won't be there to round them up surely??

 

[jetajockey]

Well its your call, cichlids in general are supposed to be good at guarding and caring for their fry, but it seems like rams have lost a lot of that instinct. Some of my pairs did better than others.

 

[Russ_gibbo1985]

Soo if i DO take the parents out will the fry stay bunched up or should I turn off the filter?

 

[jetajockey]

The fry will school on their own for the most part.

 

[Russ_gibbo1985]

How likely are the parents to eat the fry do you think jeta?

 

[Russ_gibbo1985]

Grrrr jeta! Im gutted just got in from work and no eggs! :-(

 

[kdpuffer]

So I guess the answer to your question is fairly likely. That sux man, I'm hoping to get my gbr to breed and hearing that they tend to eat babies doesn't help my confidence. How big were they when they started spawning?