Hi!
My bolivian rams spawned for the first time on November 18th. I wanted to share some pictures with you. The first is the parents with their eggs and the second is the mother with the fry, about a week and a half later.
I'm watching every step with amazement. The parents first cleaned the mopani wood. Then, the female laid the eggs in small rows and the male fertilized each row with care. During the night, there was always a parent awake to protect the eggs from my eager Sterbai corydoras. On more than 100 eggs, there were only 3-4 infertile white eggs and 2 got mildew. The parents ate only those. The eggs hatched about 3 days later (unfortunately I missed that). Meanwhile, the parents had dug many pits in the gravel. My boyfriends father saw the parents take the wigglers in their mouth and put them into the safest pit (the one amongst the plants). Yesterday, the wigglers became free swimmers and are very active. As soon as one gets too far from the group, one of the parents picks it up in its mouth and spits them into the rest of the fry. Right now, I'm feeding the fry frozen baby brine shrimp and they look like they are eating it (and eliminating it *lol*).
As I understand, I've been lucky because my couple is fertile, are very good and protective parents and don't eat their eggs or fry. In my community tank (especially with my lightning fast Black phantom tetra, psychotic Pristella tetra, hungry Sterbai corydoras - heck, even the cardinal tetras could eat the tiny fries), I know it's only a matter of time before the fry all get eaten. Maybe next time I'll raise them in a separate tank.
I'm very happy that for this first time, I got the chance to observe this miracle of nature!
My bolivian rams spawned for the first time on November 18th. I wanted to share some pictures with you. The first is the parents with their eggs and the second is the mother with the fry, about a week and a half later.
I'm watching every step with amazement. The parents first cleaned the mopani wood. Then, the female laid the eggs in small rows and the male fertilized each row with care. During the night, there was always a parent awake to protect the eggs from my eager Sterbai corydoras. On more than 100 eggs, there were only 3-4 infertile white eggs and 2 got mildew. The parents ate only those. The eggs hatched about 3 days later (unfortunately I missed that). Meanwhile, the parents had dug many pits in the gravel. My boyfriends father saw the parents take the wigglers in their mouth and put them into the safest pit (the one amongst the plants). Yesterday, the wigglers became free swimmers and are very active. As soon as one gets too far from the group, one of the parents picks it up in its mouth and spits them into the rest of the fry. Right now, I'm feeding the fry frozen baby brine shrimp and they look like they are eating it (and eliminating it *lol*).
As I understand, I've been lucky because my couple is fertile, are very good and protective parents and don't eat their eggs or fry. In my community tank (especially with my lightning fast Black phantom tetra, psychotic Pristella tetra, hungry Sterbai corydoras - heck, even the cardinal tetras could eat the tiny fries), I know it's only a matter of time before the fry all get eaten. Maybe next time I'll raise them in a separate tank.
I'm very happy that for this first time, I got the chance to observe this miracle of nature!