German Blue Rams laid eggs for first time, should I remove?

TrickyD119 · Mar 14, 2005

Our pair of GBR laid eggs yesterday (and watching their little ‘shimmy’ action was the coolest thing I’ve ever seen in my aquariums) and the male and female have been tag teaming all afternoon defending their pot.

This is the first time they’ve bred together and I’ve heard it is fairly typical that they will eat their babies the first 3-5 batches they produce before they get the hang of parenting.

My question is…

Provided the eggs actually hatch (both this tank and my QT have a ph of roughly 6.8) would I be best served to remove the pot now to the QT if I want the babies to survive or how should I handle this?

If I do remove the eggs or the babies, will it stress my GBR and will keep them learning proper parenthood?

Thanks in advance!

Oddball~ · Mar 14, 2005

Keep the babies and parents together. As the babies hatch, wisk them away to another tank if you want to, as the parents will keep making more and more.

TrickyD119 · Mar 14, 2005

Thanks for the help Oddball, I appreciate it.

TrickyD119 · Mar 15, 2005

Well I woke up today and the eggs were completely gone

Guess someone got hungry last night.

How often do they spawn? Once a month or so?

knashash · Mar 15, 2005

Tricky......its possible that they moved the eggs to a safer location maybe where you cant see? Bu it is also very likley that they were eaten depending on what you have in your tank. And yes, I believe they spawn about once a month

TrickyD119 · Mar 15, 2005

knashash said:
Tricky......its possible that they moved the eggs to a safer location maybe where you cant see? Bu it is also very likley that they were eaten depending on what you have in your tank. And yes, I believe they spawn about once a month

I had no idea they could move them, I'll take a look around now to be sure. I figure they probably are gone though since neither one of them appears to be guarding anything anymore.

My stock presently includes...
10 Harlequin Rasbora
6 Peppered Cory
2 German Rams
1 Otocinclus

If anything there, would it probably be the Cory?

Should I move the Rams during their next breeding cycle or will that cause them to stress and not lay?

TrickyD119 · Mar 15, 2005

That was weird... there was a reply and then it vanished.

Anyway, the author of the post I was going to reply to said that if they eggs are infertile or they are young parents, the Rams themselves would likely eat the eggs.

My parameters fluctuate from a pH of 6.8-7.0 and nitrates almost always at 10ppm.

Does GH or KH matter in breeding?

OrionGirl · Mar 15, 2005

Cories are notorious egg eaters--they'd be my first bet, especially since it happened over night.

Do you have plans for the fry? If not--I wouldn't intercede. Caring for fry usually requires a separate setup--large enough for lots of 1-2 inch babies, and then you have to find homes for them. If you have this planned out, I would remove both to another setup, and then put the parents back in the main tank after they've spawned. It may take them a bit longer to get comfy in the new setup--I would definitely move the pot, to increase their comfort. Keep the conditions as close to the main tank as possible and they should be fine.

TrickyD119 · Mar 15, 2005

OrionGirl said:
Do you have plans for the fry? If not--I wouldn't intercede. Caring for fry usually requires a separate setup--large enough for lots of 1-2 inch babies, and then you have to find homes for them. If you have this planned out, I would remove both to another setup, and then put the parents back in the main tank after they've spawned. It may take them a bit longer to get comfy in the new setup--I would definitely move the pot, to increase their comfort. Keep the conditions as close to the main tank as possible and they should be fine.

Thanks for the reply OrionGirl.

I have a LFS that will accept the babies once they are a few months old, but I only have a 10 gallon tank that I planned on placing them in. I assume that wont nearly be large enough then. Perhaps I'll have to leave them be until I can come up with something larger.

Emg · Mar 15, 2005

Hello Tricky,

I have a batch of 3-4 week old blue ram fry at present. It was the second spawning that my rams had done. The first batch I didn't even know where in the tank until I noticed them swimming around at about 2-3 weeks of age !!

Lol...I have no idea where mom and pop had hidden them, they did a good job keeping them away from the gouramis that are in that tank, for awhile anyway...the morning I found them, I had to go to work and when I came home they were all gone.

My rams spawned again the very next day...believe it or not...and that batch I removed to the 15 gallon quarenteen tank I have below the main 29.

When you remove the eggs from the tank you have to watch for eggs that are no good..you can tell because they are whitish and opaque looking. If you leave them in the batch they will grow fungus which will eat the other good eggs. You can use a toothpick to pick them off the rock or whatever they are attached to. One benefit to leaving the eggs with the parents is that they tend to this business themselves, and do a very good job of it...unless of course, they end up eating all of the eggs...a risk...

I have a few LFS in the area that will take the babies when they are ready to go, if they survive that long. So far they seem to be doing just fine.

Good luck with yours Tricky !


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