GBR Spawn

[smallfry53]

The eggs were still there around 7:30am. By noon or so there was one egg left... lol this is starting to become a pattern with these two. O well. We'll see what happens next time. Maybe one of these days they'll spawn on a Friday or Saturday so I can keep an eye on them in the am and see what happens.

 

[coralbandit]

I only have rams because I steal the eggs and artificially hatch..
Many say they are slow learners ...Some never learn IME.

 

[smallfry53]

Took me longer to get time to do testing than I thought, and the anticipation was all for naught. The results were pretty much what I already thought. Tds is consistently around 10ppm lower on the 20g. Both pretty much stay a bit over 200 (200-220ish). Ph is 7.4-7.6, kh is 4, and gh is about 10-11.

 

[coralbandit]

It seems as long as you keep it clean they like it.If fry were to survive and grow they likely would also do well in the same water..
I only test when I mix my water ,and when switching the fry from the mix to my tap.
Other then that I just change water as often as possible.
My mix is easy 1:4 so I just have quart ,gallon ,2g and 5g buckets that I mix together. I test for fun but get within 10ppm of 90TDS 95% of the time by eye..

 

[smallfry53]

I was looking at the website where I got my rams. They say the ph of their tap is 8.0 and they keep their tanks at 7.3-7.6. My ph is right there, as it is on the upper end of the low ph test and lower end of high ph test... so somewhere between 7.4-7.6.

I find it really interesting that they prolifically breed rams with ph that high. I'd have to guess (with my limited knowledge) that if their ph is that high, their tds is probably fairly high as well. Head scratcher... I suppose it could be encouraging that I may be able to raise fry in my tap if I choose to do so.

 

[coralbandit]

High ph does not always mean high TDS.
My ph is 7.6 with a tds of 350.
I just met a person one county away whose ph is also 7.6...
His TDS is 120..
That is a huge difference and why I test TDS..
Likely the 8 ph people[in Florida I'll guess] have very low gh and kh which add up to low TDS...

 

[smallfry53]

Naw, California. My rams are well traveled... lol

 

[coralbandit]

I have heard some complaints about Yunite lately if he is your source ?
I used yunite rams about 4 years ago in my line ..Even had a customer [who I tried to dodge] order rams from me although he was within 200 miles of Yunite..I tried to pass him off with the 'You know Yunite is just 200 miles away and he has very good rams I am told".. He said he was not interested in his fish anymore !
A few others have said they heard things also??

 

[smallfry53]

Yes, they are from him. Do you mind telling me what you've been hearing?

 

[smallfry53]

Well, the pair in the 29 spawned again last night. These guys spawn every 10-11 days like clockwork... Anyway, they have been eating the eggs in the 12-18hr timeframe. So.... I took them after a couple hrs. It has now been a little over 24 hrs. Maybe 10-15% of them turned white already so I carefully removed them (a few non-white ones in the process). I'm not really prepared for fry, but just wanted to test and see if any of the eggs are even fertile and if maybe I can get a few wigglers.

 

[smallfry53]

I did end up getting wigglers, but about half the eggs were infertile. Unfortunately I had the breeder box a little too low, and ended up getting an intruder that ate all the eggs/wigglers.

They haven't spawned since then. I changed the substrate and some of the decor, which shook things up a bit. Then I got sick, so the feeding and wc schedule changed a bit, now things are back on track. The pair spawned last night. When I had left the eggs with the parents before they were eaten within 18 hrs. It has been about 26 hrs. now, and the male seems to be doing a great job taking care of the eggs. So far none of them have turned white, however I'm sure at least some will in the next 12 hrs or so. (215 tds)

It looks like they picked a good spot, and they made sure I couldn't take the eggs.... lol