well....gonna do another ram spawn.....

[Emg]

Stingray, I tried some liquid fry food once...made with egg yolks...and didn't like it at all. It made a mess of the water. But go ahead and try what you have, just be careful about how much you put in...just a drop or two at first..see what it does. You could order some micro worms at this time. They're a good first food and easy to keep and feed. They stay alive in the water for a good while and the fry will be very interested in thier wriggly movement. It's not that expensive to order..I got a culture from somewhere for about 5 $ shipped.


Bawlsy....maybe you will just have to get another tank...lol.....stop by and pick up another pair if this batch works out well.
The parents of this batch are a pair from that spawn you got yours from. The male is much bigger than the female, though you can't see that in the pic I posted of them, because the female's in front. Females are usually smaller than the males...though my original female is quite unusual I think in that she is the same size as the original male...and bigger than the male she's with now.

 

[stingray4540]

Ok, I'll try to find some first bites or micro worms.
Update, the eggs hatched last night and the parents moved them to the gravel. I siphoned them into the 10 gal were they are wiggling around like crazy. I can't wait to have little baby rams!
How are yours doing Emg?

 

[Clurin]

Quick question for you guys. How long do your rams go through the mating dance before they actually lay eggs? I've been intently watching mine for a week, and the female is displaying her gorgeous colors. They've been cleaning a spot off and on, but they still haven't laid eggs. I know I should have them soon, but I'm getting impatient.

 

[Emg]

Ray...Congrats !!!

The fry are doing well. I think they've started to munch on the powdered fry food I've been sprinkling in there....so I'll be sprinkling a bit 3 times a day and cleaning up the bottom of the tank...(I'm so anal about clean tanks..the gunk on the bottom is driving me nuts..lol) I can see tiny white worms crawling along the inside sides of the tank...good as far as I'm concerned. I watched while one fry swam along the sides picking at them...but they're too big for them to tackle just yet.

Clurin.....don't worry...they'll get at it. Sometimes it takes awhile..but watch for her ovipositor to begin showing prominantly. When you see that and her belly getting a nice red rosey color...it'll be pretty soon. The ovipositor really begins to hang out just before she's ready to lay.

 

[stingray4540]

Clurin, Emg is probably right, I only had a female for a long time that was getting really fat and was showing her ovipositor, but I thought she was just eating too much because it had been a few weeks and she hadn't laid. Well, finally I got a male and put him in and 2 days later she was laying eggs. I didn't get to watch any "dance" of any kind. She must have been holding on for a male, or it just takes a long time for them to lay the eggs.
Emg. Cool, I hope mine do as well as yours.

 

[Clurin]

It's just barely starting to show. Hopefully that means tonight or tomorrow night. I've been waiting for this spawn for over a month. Got a hatchery and growout tank all ready, and a sponge or two across my tanks to help out. Last spawn I was prepared as well, but they decided to use the substrate instead of the terra cotta (which they had used twice previously) and I didn't think of syphoning the eggs off the sand. :mad2:

Here's a pic of her from a few minutes ago:

 

[bludevil12]

Emg...very cool!!

I am looking into a pair of rams, encouraged by your beautiful pair! Where did you get yours from?

Interested to see how the rest of the process goes!

 

[Emg]

Clurin....that ovipostitor will show even more than that when she's ready. I'll have to get a pic of what it looks like, or look through the ones I have to see if there's one that shows it well.

Thanks Blud ! I acutally bought my original pair from PetCo in Manchester, Ct. I had seen them at the "liveaquaria" website..and really liked them. When I saw them at the store I bought some right up. I have the original female, lost the male just a little while ago and have 1 pair and an extra male from the first spawn I did. The extra male is in with my original female in the 29 right now.

 

[Emg]

Here's a good pic of my female as she's laying....the ovipositor is VERY obvious...the closer your female gets to spawning...the more that will protrude.

 

[Emg]

I've been noticing every day one or two fry sinking to the bottom of the tank the last couple of days.....usually right after I do a water change. The water I add is the same temp as what is in there.....could be I'm not being careful enough about adding it slowly, though I do pour it slowly over my hand to keep it from stirring things up too much.

I'll do the syphon method I've done before with other fry tanks....put a bucket with the clean water up higher than the tank and just let it syphon in slowly using an airline tube. See if that helps.

I started up a batch of brine shrimp...just to give them something wriggling around in there to chase after....and I'm still not totally sure they're eating much of the powdered fry food I've been sprinkling in. By the time the batch is ready the fry should be large enough to eat the bbs. They're still finding tiny floaties in there to munch though.