Caught in the act - Bolivian rams spawned

[Richard McC]

Thank you all for the kind words.

Little enough to report today. Mother still stands guard, but doesn't seem so insistent about the little wrigglers staying in exactly the same place, so that quite a few of them are now spread over an area of a square inch or so. It's hard to tell where they are as they're so small that, to see them, you have to kind of unfocus your eyes and see the movement. She is quite happy to leave them alone for a short while to grab some lunch, but returns fairly quickly. I don't think any other tank inhabitants are aware that they're there yet.

divingne1, your GBRs sound very sweet and feisty.

 

[Richard McC]

The wrigglers have now been transferred to a new home - a deeper pit some four inches away under the leaves of a sword-plant.

This makes sense; they had been escaping from their shallow nest, and it'll be a lot easier to keep them in one place if that place is at the bottom of a deep hole.

Mother knows best.

For the record, this is the first transfer, at 75 hours after hatching.

 

[divingne1]

This is so cool to hear. They should start swimming within a day or so. As soon as they do, start feeding them their baby food. They will be hungry because they lost their yolk sac.

My good pair of GBR just laid eggs again last night. I think I am going to put up a tank divider this time.

 

[rich311k]

Congrats, good luck.

 

[bettagurl]

After a week of flirting, they finally got around to it! And I caught them at it, by accident. A first-time spawn.

For the record, pH = 7.8, GH 7 = 125 ppm CaCO3, KH 5 = 90 ppm CaCO3. Temp. 75 F.

cool 8)
I wish my germans would spawn, they keep digging holes everywhere, but no eggs yet.

 

[ostrangeone89]

My swordtail hasn't had babies yet! lol It's taken her a couple months even to go near the male, she kinda likes him now and flirts with him! I'm glad she doesn't try to attack him anymore and my male isn't always bugging her! He is a gentlemen now! lol

 

[Richard McC]

Free-swimming, six days after hatching. A little cloud of, at a guess, 50 or 60 babies, from maybe 150 eggs (very hard to count). I'd post pics, but the camera doesn't do extreme close-ups very well.

Mother is taking her clutch on excursions. She controls them with complex flutterings of her pectoral fins, and maybe with other signals that are too subtle for me to detect. Some of the more adventurous fry go astray, but either rejoin the clutch at a flickering of fins or are chase down, picked up and spat back where they belong. There is a fair bit of mulm in the gravel and they seem to be eating something - also grazing over rock surfaces.

I'm not deluding myself that they can eat properly in their current environment, , but they may live a while yet. On that subject, there have been no a(witnessed) attempts at predation from any other fish.

Father would like nothing better than to help out, but is refused access.

 

[Star_Rider]

they may have found some daphnia or other small critter( pods)

you may want to consider hatching out some BBS(baby brine shrimp)
they will exhaust the natural food source quickly

 

[irondan]

very cool. i have 4 bolivians and 2 balloons and i've been waiting patiently for spawning but no luck yet. nice looking pair

 

[dieselman]

What a exciting event to witness!