Gbr breeding

[Chileno]

My German blue rams started to put eggs today. I know that the first time is very difficult for them to actually have a successful breeding, and I know i would probably wont have any babies from it, but I want to know how long does it take for the eggs to hatch? I have a lot of fish on the tank with them and I'm not going to remove anything on the tank so I won't disrupt them. I'm just hoping they have a couple of babies at least. I'll add a couple pics i took. I'm very exited that the actually are breeding on this tank

 

[Chileno]

 

[Chileno]

Does anybody know? How long does it take for the eggs to hatch?

 

[callylynn]

Does anybody know? How long does it take for the eggs to hatch?

I have read any where from 24-40 hours.

 

[Chileno]

Thank you, the bad news is that I woke up today and found no eggs. there was about 100 last night

 

[callylynn]

The same thing happened to me with my GBRs the other day. I know how you feel I'm sure they will have more eggs in a few weeks

 

[Chileno]

Thats what I'm hoping for. I've read that is normal for then to eat their first eggs

 

[Iamtechno13]

If the fish are housed in a community tank chances are pretty good that the eggs won't make it to the wiggling stage. If you do move them or they are well guarded after about 48 hours you will start to see little tails popping out and them starting to wiggle. The next day you'll probably see the little guys twitching all over the place and by day 4 or 5 they will start swimming around and at this point they should start being fed. As of right now I have about 150 Electric Blue Ram's that have been free swimming for about 2 days now and when I got home from work a few hours ago I noticed all of my German Blue Ram fry (about 200) are now free swimming also. Very exciting. Under the right conditions they will breed every week or two. At one point a pair of my Electric Blue Ram's laid eggs on a rock, I took the rock and eggs out and replaced it with another and two days later it to was full of eggs. If you have any questions feel free to ask

 

[Iamtechno13]

Also, don't plan on them ever parenting any of the young. Because all German Blue Ram, Electric Blue Ram and Gold Ram are all long removed from the wild, some of them have lost pretty much any parenting sense they once had and just eat the eggs or fry. It seems for me the Electric Blue Ram's are all horrible parents as they are so far from wild caught they will just eat all the eggs and/or fry. German Blue Ram's you might have better luck with. The only Ram's that I've had be successful parents are German Blue Ram but then again each fish is different. If you want to keep them most likely you're going to need to remove the eggs or the other fish from the aquarium. Even then you will need to watch the eggs as any that are unfertilized will rot and begin to fungus over which will then spread to all the other eggs unless they are removed. A lot of people will use Methylene Blue or Malachite Green as an antifungal but I prefer to use Hydrogen Peroxide as it evaporates away in about 12-24 hours depending on specific conditions. Water is H2O and Hydrogen Peroxide is H2O2.

 

[Aqualady40]

Also, don't plan on them ever parenting any of the young. Because all German Blue Ram, Electric Blue Ram and Gold Ram are all long removed from the wild, some of them have lost pretty much any parenting sense they once had and just eat the eggs or fry. It seems for me the Electric Blue Ram's are all horrible parents as they are so far from wild caught they will just eat all the eggs and/or fry. German Blue Ram's you might have better luck with. The only Ram's that I've had be successful parents are German Blue Ram but then again each fish is different. If you want to keep them most likely you're going to need to remove the eggs or the other fish from the aquarium. Even then you will need to watch the eggs as any that are unfertilized will rot and begin to fungus over which will then spread to all the other eggs unless they are removed. A lot of people will use Methylene Blue or Malachite Green as an antifungal but I prefer to use Hydrogen Peroxide as it evaporates away in about 12-24 hours depending on specific conditions. Water is H2O and Hydrogen Peroxide is H2O2.

Hi how are u dosing the peroxide?

 

[Iamtechno13]

I like to use the minimum amount and it still be effective which for me is about 4-5ml in my 10 gallon tank. The reason being is I noticed early on if it is not a well established tank or at bare minimum a very well established filter, it can kill a lot if not all beneficial bacteria. I started out using 1ml per gallon but every once and awhile I noticed a drop in beneficial bacteria and at one point lost about 300 fry due to an ammonia spike so I slowly lowered it to where I'm at now. I have two well established sponge filters in my tank and put in about 4ml every 12-16 hours so I only dose it 2 maybe 3 times before the eggs start wiggling. At 4ml per 10 gallons though sometimes I lose maybe 5 eggs to fungus but out of about 300 most of the time losing 5 is nothing.

 

[Chileno]

Ok so the rams just started to lay eggs again i hope this time at least a couple make it. I'm really hoping they do, if not I'm going to put the parents on my 36 gal tank and hope they breed there by themselfs

 

[Chileno]

Here are some pics of the eggs

 

[Chileno]

And now all the eggs are gone idk what happened

 

[Iamtechno13]

In a community tank, I wouldn't ever count on seeing any fry survive. What other fish do you have in your tank? Even if you move them and they are alone, there is a chance they will just keep eating the eggs but hopefully they don't. I have one pair of GBR that are the best parents I've seen. Neither the male or the female will eat the eggs and will both defend them with some fury. I regularly take rocks loaded with eggs from my Electric Blue's and put them in my GBR tank and the female will move them from the rock to a pit she digs and then pretty much just takes them as her own and the male goes along with it. It's crazy. I think I'm gonna cry when she die's. But if you get them to lay them on a rock or something that you can easily move, you could take that and put the rock in a breeding net or something similar, squirt a small amount (2ml roughly) very near the eggs every 6-12 hours. If you see any start to fungus over just remove them with a toothpick or something. In about 48 hours you'll start to see little tails poppping out and them starting to twitch around. If you do use a breeding net, be careful as you'd be surprised how easy it is for other fish to suck the little fry right through. Those little tails wiggling is just to enticing. I prefered something with a solid flat bottom to prevent this. What works for one person might not work for somebody else. I've read what a lot of others have done and tried a lot of these methods, some unsuccessful. You just have to find what works for you.

 

[Chileno]

Thanks for your reply and good information, the tank has 4 hatchet fish, 3 yoyo loaches, 12 tiger barbs, 2 siamese algae eaters, 9 neon tetras, 3 sword tail, and 1 dwarf gourami. But as of today i moved the parents to another tank, a 36g bowfront. It's only them 2 and one female sword tail

 

[Iamtechno13]

I'll tell you from experience that all those fish except the tetra's will just have their way with the Ram's and their eggs. Now that they're alone for the most part you'll see if they are good parents. It may take a few tries to see so don't be discouraged right away if they eat them. If they don't eat the eggs, they also might not eat/remove any unfertilized eggs or any eggs that are beginning to fungus over so you might have to remove those manually if you aren't doing anything for fungus. If you don't do anything for fungus you can be sure that at least a couple if not all of them will grow the white fuzz. Even if you get a few to live, it can be risky leaving the parents in, especially the male as they sometimes, not often, will eat the fry for what may seem like no apparent reason. Also, the fry can be fairly sensitive to poor water so keep up with the water changes. Hopefully you'll see a few before to long. Nothing like seeing a little herd of a few hundred shortly after they start swimming.

 

[Chileno]

Yea im hoping they will on this new tank, now that they are here they are always on one corner of the tank, the female looks awesome with all the bright colors the belly nice and red but the male looks a little bit skinnier, im a little worried because he doesn't seem to eat as good as she does, and he's always on the same corner of the tank

 

[Nicnet]

Your GBRs laid eggs on the 23rd & again on the 3rd? That's like a week and a half apart! That's awesome! I heard it's like monthly, but after reading this post I see it can be even more often. That's great to hear! I got mine on the 2nd of this month and they laid eggs on the 6th. I was expecting to have to wait foreverrrrrrr, but maybe not as long as I thought now! =D

Have you had any more luck lately?

 

[Chileno]

Yea it was crazy! I heard it takes two weeks and mine layed eggs before that, and now it seems like they would soon again too, and it's been about one week