blue ram eggs

[CyberDrgn]

One of my blue rams laid eggs on a leaf, and it seems one male and one female are staying very close to the eggs. The tank is a 45g and has loaches, gouramis, one pictus cat, 3 other rams besides this pair, and zebra plecos. What are the chances that these eggs will not be eaten by my other fish, and then what do I do if they do hatch? I don't know whether it is best to leave them and hope some live, or take them out after a certain amount of time, or something else that I haven't thought of. I wasn't trying to breed them. I just raised the temp from around 78 to 80 because I just added the zebra plecos two days ago and thought they need hotter water, which i guess ended up making the rams think its time to breed.

Any advice would be great, thanks,
Chris

 

[CyberDrgn]

Ah, now I have discovered the leave the house for 8 hours and when you get home no more eggs. Wonder who ate them.

 

[ewok]

most cichlids i know of are generally excellent parents, but if this is the first time they have bred it might not be very succesful. i wouldn't even really consider moving the eggs personally, it just seems too "iffy" to me. some of those other fish would happily snack on eggs, but the parents should continually guard them so losses *should* be fairly light. after the eggs hatch and the fry are free-swimming might be the time to consider moving some. i am guessing there will be like 3 days with eggs, around 3 days as wigglers and then you should see a little cloud of free-swimming fry near a parent. at this point it might be a good idea to siphon some of the fry out if you are trying to keep them, otherwise let the parents work it out. i wouldn't suggest "taking" all the fry, i would leave a few with the parents so they don't think they are total failures and fight.

another option to try that i have used somewhat succesfully was actually a breeders net located in the main tank. i collected the fry and placed them into the net and the parents actually guarded the net..... in this case i would catch them all as the are still accesable to the parents and the effects of this aren't the same as totally removing all the fry from the parents.

this info is mostly based on convicts and jewels, so feel free to correct me if you think i am wrong.

 

[ewok]

that sux, sorry.......

it could have been anything, but i might suspect the loaches or maybe the cat if the lights were out.......

the parents could have also eaten them, sometimes if they decide it's too much work to guard them they will. also new parents are somewhat noted for this, it just happens.....

on the bright side, once they start breeding they will probably do it again.......... and again.......... and again...........

 

[AsahiToro]

Originally posted by CyberDrgn
Ah, now I have discovered the leave the house for 8 hours and when you get home no more eggs. Wonder who ate them.

Look around, they may have moved them. Mine do that. The fry don't have a chance though with the other fish you have in there.

 

[CyberDrgn]

If they moved them anywhere it would just be a worse spot, they picked the best spot really. I've been thinking of moving the rams to their own 20g tank...only problem is I would have to buy the tank, hood, heater, couple fake plants or maybe real plants. I'm not ready to spend $100 to try to get ram fry. At least not yet, damn fish tanks are addictive.