Butterfly Rams

[Dobermann]

Oh well

I guess they are just too young to know what they are doing.

They laid the eggs and now they are swimming around the tank doing their mating dance and if they happen to swim by the eggs will briefly defend them and then off they go again. Are they always like this?

Luckily none of the other fish have eaten them yet but I guess it is just a matter of time.

 

[Z Man]

If you will re-read my previous message you will see that that is the problem most times. That's the reason Rams should be bred in a tank by themselves. When they swim around, there is no other fish to move in and grab a snack. Then once I see the pair moving around, I remove them because they won't be good parents anyway. This is the easy part, feeding the fry is the biggest problem. Most starve to death!

 

[Dobermann]

Ok

So this is not something they will "get right" as they mature?

 

[Z Man]

They might but being a breeder I can't take a chance. Some people I talk to say their's take care of their fry but I wonder. I have 3 pair in a 20 long right now (not normal - just a test). Two pair spawned and they still just left the eggs and swam around. The reason for the test is I had 3 tank raised males and a good friend gave me 3 wild females. I wanted to see if they would take better care of the spawns. They don't! The wigglers are all bunched together in a corner and nobody cares much about them; I wonder how long they will last?

 

[Dobermann]

hmm

This is really sort of interesting. It is not an evolutionarily sound way to reproduce.

Is this just with Blue Rams or other Rams as well?


They seem to be doing a little better now actually.
Before when I got home from work at 6pm when the male came back to the nest to seemingly relieve the female he would act as if he was relieving her then follow her around the tank.

Now he will stay with the eggs while she roams around and she does the same. So in the past three hours they have learned a thing or two? Hopefully this learning curve will continue.

 

[Dobermann]

Lucky me

The eggs are still there. I guess the other fish haven't realized they are sitting on a gold mine.

I wonder how it will turn out. If they can make it too wrigglers maybe that will snap the parents into gear.

 

[jafo]

That didn't fire mine up. Actually that's when they got lazy and the wrigglers got eaten 2 dats ago. That was the 3rd spawn for that pair and they are getting a little better. Hope yours does much better.

 

[Skippy]

This is just an idea.... and I haven't bred rams before so I don't know how the parents would react...

but what about using mesh to make a "containment net" around the parents and eggs since they're in the front corner.

two rectangular squares with mesh, the height of the tank and say 4-6 inches wide. Attach in a right angle formation to make a "column" containment area for the parents and fry.

This would also still allow you to drop food in from the top. inclusing BBS or small foods for the fry.

Just an idea.

I hope to eventually have some of those in my main tank, which will eventually be a lower PH south amreican tank featuring (hopefully) rams, cardinals and POSSIBLY discus. Heavily planted.