My bolivian rams spawned (2 pictures)

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Bounette

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Apr 11, 2005
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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! :D
 
Jun 25, 2007
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Hey, that's fantastic! I love GBRs and yours looks gorgeous in their spawning colors.
 
Jun 25, 2007
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But this is Bolivian ram that we're talking about.:confused:
Details, details...that'll teach me to post when I have a migraine. I'm in awe of anyone who never made a typo.
 
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Blairo1

AC Members
Aug 15, 2007
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Congratulations! Always nice to see someone else get so enthusiastic about Bolivian Rams.

If you feel like it, you can make your way through this thread:
http://cichlid-forum.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=138543&highlight=

It's the Bolivian Rams Club thread that some friends and I started and inside of it you'll find just about any and all information you could possibly need to know in keeping, breeding and raising these awesome fish!

You seem to know a bit about them already, but in case you'd be interested, here's an article a friend and I also wrote:
http://www.cichlid-forum.com/articles/mikro_altispinosa.php

Please keep us updated as to how you get on!

Blair.
 

Bounette

AC Members
Apr 11, 2005
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Thank you everyone for the nice comments! :)

Blairo1 --> I actually don't know much, so I bookmarked your pages and will be sure to check them out (when I get a little time for myself! It's end of semester at the university...)
 

irishspy

There is a stargate in my aquarium.
Congratulations! :headbang2:

It's neat knowing you made such a good home for your fish, that they wanted to make more for you, isn't it? :)

You mentioned feeding the fry baby brine shrimp. How do you accomplish that in the community tank? I would think the tetras would rush over to get some, and/or the parents would get upset with you getting close enough to spot-feed the fry.

Good pictures, too! Post more. :grinyes:
 

Bounette

AC Members
Apr 11, 2005
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Blairo1 --> I checked your pages a little (you take incredible pics by the way, I just checked your photobucket extensively - tell me all those fishes aren't yours?). I LOVE the article you made about the ram. Everything is SO true! I smiled when I read about the lip-locking thing - my "non couple" rams started doing that since the fry hatched... That'd be so weird if I had another couple.

irishspy --> What I do is I put the frozen BBS in a shooter glass and pour it upstream the "current" (made by the filter water return - sorry for the bad English *blushes*). The BBS reaches the fry... and the rest of the aquarium of course. But the other fishes eat some, so it should pollute my water too much. I test the water for nitrate levels, and make very small water changes as needed.
 

Bounette

AC Members
Apr 11, 2005
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Just for you irishpsy, cause you asked for it! The parents is their incredibly spawning colours!

 
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