Breeding Blue Rams

let me guess. The eggs "disappear" after about 48 hrs? They are most likely eating them. Blue rams are notorious for it. Normally, I would not advocate artificial hatching of cichlid eggs (generations of artificial hatching are most likely the reason rams are such horible parents), but in this case it might me your only option.

first, you will need a tank with a sponge filter that has been pre-colonized with beneficial bacteria, and a heater (that all you really need). The filter can be "pre-cycled" / "seeded" / "pre-colonized" by stuffing the sponge somewhere in your exisiting tank where some water flows over it. After a couple weeks it will have enough bacteria to handle the modest waste loads created by pinhead sized fish.

You can use this time to practice hatching baby brine shrimp. Google the term for tons of different ways of doing this.

when your're ready for the babies, remove the rock/plant leaf that the eggs are on. Place it in the fry tank with an airstone next to them (no need to add the filter yet). Methyl Blue should be added to inhibit algea growth. Eggs will hatch in about two days. Hook up the filter, and do daily water changes untill blue tint is gone. Feed live BBS several times a day, and do water changes as often as possible (the more often you feed and do WCs the faster they'll grow). Good Luck.

Hey Mooman, I believe he said that he pulled the eggs that last time....

drjdp - what is your gh and kh? It could be that your water is too hard for the eggs to hatch, or get fertilized. Shoot for your ram tank water to have a gh or 4-6... then if the eggs are not hatching or getting darker as you watch you can assume someone is not fertile.

I have pretty much straight RO in my ram tank, and when I pull the eggs they hatch in RO water too.

Now, if I could only get my stupid freeswimming fry to hang out at the bottom of the tank where the food is, I may be able to add to my population...

Cathy

Man, I should have read more carefully. Wasted all that time talking about artificial hatching :rant2: Thanks Cathy.

you might want to try using RO or distilled water to "cut" the water from the tap. household water softeners just exchange one ion for another. The water still has the same amount of dissolved solids (TDS). Basically it takes out the ions that inhibit suds formation from soap. The water "acts" softer, but really is not. Have your lfs do a KH test.

What is the temperature of the tank? What is the temp of the hatching out tank and are you being careful when you remove the eggs?
Cathy

the fact that they are still gaurding the "eggs", which would actually be wigglers by now is good. If the eggs weren't fertile they would have fungused and been eaten by now. Bad news is that they are just as likely to eat them once they go free swimming 6-8 days after eggs are laid. If you've got a fry tank ready to go, and are ready to hatch baby brine shrimp, I would remove them now. Get them to go to bed early by throwing a blanket over the tank. After a few hours, take the blanket off, start a siphon and then block the end going to a bucket with your thumb. have someone else shine a flashlight on the pit full of wigglers. Slowly move the tubing over the pit, remove your thumb, and up the babies go.

Mooman,
Is it normal for new swimming fry to hang out the surface of the tank? I've been trying to find this out for sometime now but my timing seems to be off regarding getting answers... Seems like both my rearing attempts have produced fry at the top of the tank when the food is sinking to the bottom. Same parents for both batches, so I am now wondering if there is something wrong with their genes?
Thanks if you are still here...
Cathy