My German Blue Ram just lay egg!

[Aquanoob]

This morning, I suddenly noticed that my recently bought German Blue Ram lay egg on the substrate. There are about 50 eggs from my visual calculation and the female is directly on the egg while the male is patrolling the surrounding and chasing away other tank mates like Mollies and Platy. This is the 2nd time that I have GBR laying egg, the last time, the female ate the egg it lay on the driftwood overnight. I am thinking of removing the nosier tank mate like Mollies and Platy and leaving the endlers and cory inside the tank, is there anything else I need to do?

[Aquanoob]

Some picture that I managed to take, the male will charged at me when I am pointing the camera at the egg. Aggressive parent.

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[bernie]

Congrats. Will get myself a pair next time.

[chris168]

Congrate bro... On the light through out the night or place a small lamp at the side of ur tank. This will usually prevent the parents from eating up the eggs or fries overnight...You should remove the fry after a week or two though. Their good parenting usually does'nt last forever. You can place them in a 10 gal. With a sponge filter and feed them with BBS. They love it. Good Luck !

[jeffteo]

Care to enlighten what is BBS please?

[jeremiahtan]

Congrats! Hope my electric blue ram will start some hanky panky too....

[Aquanoob]

BBS is Baby Brine Shrimp.
@Chris168: Thanks for the advice. The parents are aggressive to other tankmate fish now. I will remove the Mollies and Platy tonight.

[jeffteo]

Thanks. Will try that next time if mine every go the chance to lay eggs.
Mine too many "predators" in the tank.

[Aquanoob]

My tank got "predators" too, so have to remove them and leave the smaller endlers and cory inside the tank. Anyway, I read that they will hatch in about 40 hours which is about tomorrow morning. Will update their status.

[chris168]

Sorry for the short form. Live Baby Brine Shrimps.

[jeffteo]

Can't wait to see the off springs.

If selling later, reserve a few for me. Mine 1 of 2 died and look so lonely. it doesn't mixed around with the Electric blue...

[PKB]

Start preparing a Small Tank, probably a 1ft tank, fill it with water from the main tank. Put in a sponge filter (I use an air stone).

Siphon the fries out once they are free swimming. Use a cane or stick, tied one end of the tubing (those use for air pump)to the stick. Use your finger to control the water flow at the other end where water is flowing out. Aim at the fries and suck the fries out. For food, feed them BBS.

The parents can't protect the fries for long especially with other fishes in the tank. For water change, I also use the air tube to suck out water, dirt, dead fries and dead BBS. Then top up again using water from the main tank, again use the small tubing to minimize water turbulence.

They will have in around 2 - 3 days.

[Aquanoob]

Thanks for the advices. Hope to see the egg hatch tomorrow morning.

[stormhawk]

The survival of your spawn primarily rests on the maturity of the pair. Some pairs are prone to being easily stressed and when faced with hungry tankmates like mollies and platies, they will just gobble up their eggs. These small cichlids spawn like clockwork on a regular basis IF they have no fry. If you remove their free-swimming fry to raise in a separate tank, they will spawn again within a week of losing their fry or eggs. The fry are bottom hugging, so food like microworms and BBS are a must for their survival. They will take finely crushed flake food at a certain point. Once they start on grindal worms or Tubifex, they will explode in size in the appropriate sized tank with regular water changes.

I don't know what Corydoras you have, but they are a bad idea for a tank with fry. Corydoras are excellent egg and fry hunters, especially when the lights are out. Also, because they are bottom hugging fish too, the parents will continuously attack them. This can be bad for the Corydoras.

[PKB]

Hi Stormhawk,

How old is your German ram when they start feeding on tubifex worm? Mine was coming to 2 weeks old now.

[stormhawk]

At around 1 cm or so I start them on a worm diet for protein. Tubifex worms or grindal worms will do. As long as the fry can swallow the worm, they will grow fairly quickly. You can mix this diet with some flake food or crushed pellets. Note, not all fry will take the dry food willingly.

[PKB]

At around 1 cm or so I start them on a worm diet for protein. Tubifex worms or grindal worms will do. As long as the fry can swallow the worm, they will grow fairly quickly. You can mix this diet with some flake food or crushed pellets. Note, not all fry will take the dry food willingly.

I have been feeding my fries with BBS and I switch to decap BBS, wonder if they will take it. Fries is around 1cm in length now.

[bernie]

At around 1 cm or so I start them on a worm diet for protein. Tubifex worms or grindal worms will do. As long as the fry can swallow the worm, they will grow fairly quickly. You can mix this diet with some flake food or crushed pellets. Note, not all fry will take the dry food willingly.

Hi Stormhawk, is grindal worm readily available from LFS? Or do you culture it, do have a guide to it?

[Aquanoob]

It has been about 1.5-2 days and the eggs are still not hatched yet, from what I read from web articles and forum, it should hatch in about 40 hours. I have removed the Platy and Mollies to a spare 1ft cube tank and bought the Interpet Liquifry No. 1 in preparation of the ram fry. Quite a coincidence that the picture on the package is a German Ram.

[chris168]

No worries bro , Guess the eggs will hatch by tonight...