My German Blue Ram just lay egg!

**Stitch** · 2nd Mar 2012, 23:19

@Stormhawk, yes i hatched the BBS from eggs.
They are now kept in aerated water. I fed them every alternate day with Liquidfry (commercial food for the eggs-layer fish).
Can I raised them till adult stage? How long would it take? Must do water change or just top with water? How often to change?

**stormhawk** · 2nd Mar 2012, 23:43

I think about 2 weeks from BBS to adult. You must change the water with fresh brine solution (salt + water) every 2 days or so. Not 100% but about 20% to 50%. A bigger tank might be better if you intend to raise these to adults. They appreciate filtration because in a BBS hatchery, the ammonia levels can rise pretty quickly once the majority of BBS start to die. Mine survived from hatch till adult for awhile, before dying. You can keep adult brine shrimp instead if you want, just for fun. In a brine water tank, they survive pretty well and will produce live young.

**Aquanoob** · 13th Mar 2012, 09:05

My GBR pair spawned again last week and I believe the fry will be free-swimming very soon. Will update again.

**Numbskull** · 16th Mar 2012, 02:42

WOW!

That was fast!! Congrats! and hows your fries??? hatched?

**Aquanoob** · 18th Mar 2012, 19:21

Numbskull, I took out the fry on Thursday and Friday and is now keeping the fry in a nursery tank feeding baby food and bbs. The fry are doing well and I hope I can update them as the grow up. Today while checking on the GBR parents, I noticed that the female is once again at her spawning spot. When I look closely, I saw eggs again on the substrate. It seems like the brine shrimp I have been feeding them is working again. I think the egg will hatch on either Thursday or Friday. Will update on the egg and fry by then.

**Stitch** · 19th Mar 2012, 20:42

Aquanoob,

Did you hatch the brine shrimp yourself?
Possible to start a new thread and share with us how you did it and how often you need to change the water and if you feed the brine shrimp?
I would like to hatch the brine shrimp and feed my rams like what you did. See if they spawn for me too

.
Thanks.

**stormhawk** · 19th Mar 2012, 20:47

Stitch, see this webpage for info on how to make your own hatchery:

http://www.killies.com/Brineshrimphatchery.htm
Website by Loh KL aka timebomb

Hatching the BBS is easy, but raising them to adulthood means you need a separate tank with saltwater conditions and a matured sponge filter. Much more economical and easier to just buy adult brine shrimp at LFS that stock them, like C328 and Polyart in the west.

**Aquanoob** · 19th Mar 2012, 20:53

No, I bought the brine shrimp from Y618 at least twice a week to feed the fish including the ram, guppies, apisto, adult kribs and fry. What I do is to pour the brine shrimp into a net and transfer them into a small guppy tank with distilled water and aquarium salt. Never never use the water that come with the brine shrimp as it is very salty and you never know what paradise is in the water. I will also put a small air stone connected to the air pimp into the brine shrimp tank to aerate the water. They can last more than a few days but before that I will have feed them all to the hungry mouths already.
I did exact the same with the baby brine shrimp bought from Y618 too, only that I feed them with syringe to suck them up and feed them to the ram and kribs fry. I bought the bbs egg but I was too lousy to hatch them so I just them from the shop.

**andytan** · 19th Mar 2012, 23:05

You can hatch your own bbs. just buy the bbs eggs from LFS. Pour a quarter teaspoonful into a 1.5 litre pet bottle and add water and 4 to 5 spoonful of marine salt(table salt won't do). aerate with an airstone and they will hatch in 24 hrs. You can see LFS at c328 doing the same. The only problem is that only 50 to 60% of eggs will hatch leaving behind the unhatched eggs. To retrieve the bbs, take out the airstone, let the unhatched eggs settled down then pour out the required amount you need to feed. Add some more water and salt and put back the airstone till the next feeding time. You have to have 2 batches running at the same time. Quite tedious but you save $$$$. Its $1.5 a bag. Good thing is that you need to do this for a week. the fries grows very fast and very soon they can eat frozen bbs.