what to do what to do...ram spawn

M

mroth_3

shrimp boat captain
Dec 24, 2008
270
0
0
Iowa
Ive had trouble with rams lately. I bought 3 the first go round and only one survived. After a few posts on here I decided to try it again. This time with 2 small ones and again only one survived past day two. That was a couple weeks ago. Tonight I realized I apparently have a pair as they were spawning. I got a few pics but the 65 is so deep and I dont have a macro lens so no egg pics. IM really suprised the little one is even of breeding age.

My current thought is to leave the eggs in there and see how it goes. The tank isn't planted very heavily, but i can throw in a bunch of java moss. BUT...maybe I should remove the eggs? I just cant decide. Tank mates are 3 golden wonders, a few hatchets, 6 bn, 8 corries, 3 kuhli loaches, and a small angel. I think it is doubtful many will survive but I dont know how well removing them will go either. I just put 10 gardeneri fry in my last cycled tank so it would require moving some fish around to get them their own tank. Even then, they would still have a couple bn as tank mates as i have bristle noses in just about every tank and dont want to disturb them right now...Maybe i could put the eggs in a shrimp tank? The parents are doing a good job guarding the eggs now, but I imagine they might eat them once/if they hatch.

Any thoughts?

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Placing the eggs in the shrimp tank is not a good idea. The shrimps would eat them IMO. I think maybe that you should leave the eggs alone. This will allow you to see if this pairing will look after the eggs, or eat the eggs. They will also gain experience if left to care for the eggs. If they spawned once--they will again. This would also allow you to plan better for subsequent spawnings.

Great pictures BTW!!
 
Thanks for the input. I was kind of wondering about that....Just use this time as a test run.
 
:iagree: with Bubbles! Congrats and good luck to you, pretty pair!
 
what color are the eggs? a breeder i know tells me to be fertile they need to be a gold/amber color
 
Its really difficult to tell. I can barely make out the texture of them to know they are there. As you can see in the photo, they are some what hidden and they are in the back of a 65. I cant really get close enough to them because of the depth of the tank. Whats more, is the color of the rock they sit on. If it was a dark colored rock maybe it would be easier to tell, but the rock is about the same color I would expect the eggs to be before they eye up. Thats about the color my killi eggs are when they are first layed. They get darker as the eggs develop. I would assume ram eggs are similar?
 
On a side note, their behavior is really neat. The bigger ram always comes up to the front of the tank anytime I walk by in anticipation of food. He didnt even leave the rock at meal time this morning. He is very aggresive toward the golden wonders that venture by as expected. When one of the little bristlenoses comes close, he slowly comes up to them and is suprisingly delicate and nice to them. Just a little nudge to send them on their way. Its really neat. Only egg layers i've ever breed were killifish so this is a really neat change of pace.
 
pinkertd said:
:iagree: with Bubbles! Congrats and good luck to you, pretty pair!
Click to expand...


Thanks. The camera really doesn't do them justice. IM not sure if I should put a filter on it or what because everything is so yellow. The big one has a lot of blue on its body and the little one is just starting to color up a little bit more.
 
I have noticed them picking at the area that the eggs are in. Is this normal? I couldn't tell if they were eating eggs or cleaning the rock. I have decent eye sight but dont have a macro lens for my eye.
 
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