GBR/EBR babies!!!

[Bmtiz92]

I just went to feed everyone before I went to bed, and my EBR/GBR pair has swimmers!!! I thought they had eaten the eggs again, but obviously not. Will take pics in a minute, moving out an angel they're picking on and putting panty hose on the filter. They're so tiny!!

[Bmtiz92]

German blue/electric blue spawn - YouTube Here's a video of mom, dad and babies! There are still babies this morning but definitely fewer. They're also keeping them MUCH closer than they were.

[Bearchumjs]

That is so neat! Congratulations! You're a grandparent!

[Bmtiz92]

Thanks, I'm so excited! They're parading them around the tank right now. It's so cool!

[jetajockey]

Are you spot feeding them?

[Bmtiz92]

Trying to. What would you recommend? I wasn't expecting this since I thought they had eaten the eggs again. I watered down some hikari small bites and squirted it right at them but that's all I have, I figured I'd try the egg yolk thing next. I have frozen BBS and bloodworms but that just looks too big, but I have a hand blender I could use to make it all smaller.

[jetajockey]

Sounds good, just try everything you can. I used a mix of microworms, vinegar eels, and greenwater with mine.

[Bmtiz92]

Frozen or live? I'm not sure if I'd be able to get a live kit shipped, set up, and hatched before they were too big for it. I do have some green water so I'll definitely try that.

[jetajockey]

Live is best, I don't think you can get any of those in a frozen state anyhow. The greenwater is a nice addition, whether or not they eat the chlorella is debatable but they definitely do eat the other microfauna that often accompanies it.

Vinegar eel cultures take some time to get going, but you can get a microworm culture in 2 days and it's usually ready to go with in a day or 2.

Feeding live yields the best results, and most go with something like BBS, but ram fry are too small for the first week or two to eat bbs, so you have to find alternatives.

[Bmtiz92]

Oh ok, I thought it took the live a lot longer to get going. I will definitely get my hands on some microworms for them. They LOVE the hikari first bites, the rams, however, think that my hands and the syringe need to die a slow painful death. It actually kind of hurts LOL We have a really good LFS, so I may actually be able to get the microworm culture from them which I didn't think about until now.
It's so fun to watch the parents tag team and swim them around the tank. It's funny, a couple will stray off and you'll see them get all frustrated, pick them up and spit them back with the rest of them.
I wish I had known they still had eggs, I would have moved them to a 20 gallon. Now they're terrorizing everyone. I'm guessing there's no way to move them without stressing them to death? :/

[Cornstar]

I recommend using a medicine syringe, turkey baster or droppers( from science lab) to spot feed if you are not doing so already.

[Bmtiz92]

Thanks I've got a 25 ML syringe that I'm using now, but I'm about to go get a turkey baster since both parents want to eat me when I try to feed everyone.

[Cornstar]

Originally Posted by Bmtiz92

Thanks I've got a 25 ML syringe that I'm using now, but I'm about to go get a turkey baster since both parents want to eat me when I try to feed everyone.

I know what you mean, when I was moving my ornaments around after my kribensis had babies, the male bit me. I started bleeding afterwards and I still have the scar (it's been 2 months already).

They were very cautious every time I went to feed, but eventually they knew what I was doing.

[Bmtiz92]

So I did wind up moving parents and babies to an already cycled, planted 20 gallon tank. They were tearing everyone apart and by the time I moved out everyone that was getting mercilessly beaten there was really no one in the tank but them. Their waste was not nearly enough to keep that tank running as far as the BB in the filter goes, and with as awesome as that tank looks I don't want to have to go through a cycle again. So, I scooped out mom and dad, sucked up 99% of the babies (all that I could find) and acclimated them to the new tank. They were a little freaked out at first but quickly rounded up their babies and are actually much more relaxed then what they were in the larger tank. I was worried they might eat them in the stress of the move so I only gave them back a couple at first, but as I kept squirting babies at them, they kept rounding everyone up in the little cloud.

[Cornstar]

Personally I would have moved the other fish to reduce the stress of the babies and parents. Also, it iss a bit risky to put a lot of fish in a tank at the same time.

[BHead707]

quick question.
did your male chase the female around at all before getting ready to breed.
ive had a male and female together for a couple months and they are always together but recently there has been a little more chasing by the male.

[Bmtiz92]

It was a decision I felt I needed to make for the well-being of all of my fish, and the tanks, not just these guys. These were originally in a community tank with other fish, had I moved out everyone they were picking on, it would have just left them in the tank with 3 otos, and my biological filter would have tanked. Overall, moving them to the already very stable, and cycled 20 gallon, by themselves, was a better decision for everyone. Plus, there wasn't any putting a bunch of fish into a tank at once, the only ones that were really moved were my three dojo loaches and some guppies. It was stress them, or stress all the other fish I had by playing musical tank swap lol

Bhead, I've never noticed any aggression between these guys at all. Even when I introduced the EBR to the tank, the GBR took to him immediately and they've been inseparable ever since. Honestly, they just tag team to keep their little area protected while getting ready to breed, but I've never seen an bickering between them. From what I've read though, I have weird fish since they're supposed to suck at parenting.

Quick question, I'm assuming that they will not lay eggs again until these guys are separated, right? The GBR is getting rather plump again.

[jetajockey]

No they will lay eggs again whether their is fry in there or not. I've never had a successful pair that would keep fry for more than a few days, so I haven't seen it happen with them, but I have with angelfish and other cichlids that I've spawned.

They would either eat all the fry, or sometimes they'd ignore the fry and just keep laying away, having multiple spawns growing out together eventually if you let them. I always pull fry when I see them trying to spawn again, since you'd likely need to pull them anyway because of size difference.

[Bmtiz92]

Wow, ok, sounds like I need a new plan then. Everything I've been able to look up online hasn't really been that helpful, nothing about rams and letting them keep their babies, so should I just go ahead and separate them? It's hard to believe they would go from so uber protective to eating them!

[Bmtiz92]

Ok, I hate these fish at the moment. They've eaten all of their babies and are getting ready to spawn again. Guess this next one is *mine* and not theirs.