My bolivian rams spawned (2 pictures)

earlier on my post i just noticed that i said 5. i only have 3 i had a typo :/

yeah it looks like i have 2 males and 1 female, or all 3 males. it's hard to tell because 2 of them are very easy to tell but the 3rd one which i think is a female is a little smaller in size in the other 2 so (it's) tail extension might not have grown out yet
 
Unfortunately, I don't think I can answer your question. I have 2 males and 2 females, but only 1 male and 1 female paired up. The other male and female are not a pair, nor do I think they will become one (but I've learned never to say never with these surprising fishes). Like with humans, it depends on the "chemistry" between the fishes and a lot on the aquarium parameters too (if your aquarium is new, there parameters - like ammoniac, nitrites, nitrates, pH... - can vary a lot and the fish don't like that). My aquarium is a 21 gallons and has been cycled for about 2 years. My parameters are pretty good (no ammoniac and nitrites, nitrates less than 10 ppm, pH 7.2). There are a lot of hiding places, with the natural plants, rocks, mopani wood. I know they also have to have a nice place to lay the eggs like a smooth rock, mopani wood or sturdy plant leaves. Also, the rams are the biggest fish in my aquarium. The other fish are: 1 black phantom tetra, 1 pristella tetra, 2 cardinal tetras and 2 sterbai corydoras. If the other fish are too agressive or too big, the rams might not feel comfortable and they might not spawn. If you want to know more, you could ask members Cathy G or Blairo1, as they are way more knowledgeable about these fishes than I am.
 
Just wanted to update you on the 2nd spawning outcome. Most of the fry that I had put in the basket died or were dying. I knew that, because they were on their side at the bottom of the basket and when I put them in the main tank, they swam in spirals, unable to orient themselves. I thought it was the "most humane" way to put an end to their misera, because the tetras quickly darted and ate them.

I think they might not have been eating the frozen BBS after all? My boyfriend's father says that maybe it would have been better to feed them infusories? :confused: However, I have a hard them finding them in fish stores... :wall:

There are still 4 fry left, though. It has been days since the other fry died and they are still very active. Although I still feed them a few frozen BBS once daily (I scrape the frozen BBS with my nail finger and put only this in the basket), I'm not 100% positive they are eating it. Maybe there are eating something that is naturally growing in the tank - infusories maybe?

It has been 3 1/2 weeks since they became wigglers now. Maybe they are going to survive? :) *hopeful* But if they don't start growing faster than this, it's going to take litterally forever before I can put them in the main tank. *sigh*
 
Hi Bounette,
Sorry to hear about your troubles. I've tried over and over to get the breeders nets to work and never once have I had any success. I think there isn't enough water movement or circulation in them. I've even had fungus set in on the net and wigglers! Once I tried to rig my own net system - no go.

Your parents will get better like Blair said. One other thing you need to do is start feeding them with live foods. I've found that they grow FAST the first couple of weeks to a month, then they slow down. It can take 6 months for them to be big enough to sell, even then they are fairly small. (They are slow to mature).

So, your best chances for success will be if you find a microworm culture and learn to hatch your own baby brine shrimp. When you feed them, just turn off your filters for a bit to slow or stop the current, give them say 10-15 minutes and turn on the filters again. I squirt the microworms and/or live bbs just above the cloud of fry, using an eye dropper. I also add food for the adult predators on the other side side of the tank to try to keep them distracted. (Ha, doesn't take them long to figure out what's going on...)

Oh, infusoria is a common name for all those little microscopic munchies that are found in planted tanks. (Amoeba, paramecium's.. stuff like that). Many breeders have buckets of 'green water', or water that is loaded with this stuff. I don't bother with this, I just stuff my breeding tanks with plants and keep the lights on 27/7 for a few days. (Before I add the eggs).

You have to decide if you really want fry or not. If you do, then like Blair said, you'll have to remove some of the predators. Your other option is to pull the fry and give them their own tank. I do seriously want to warn you though, they take a while to grow out. That means lots of water changes, and you won't be able to get much for them when you sell them unless your lfs management and their clients have a good understanding of the difference in quality between SE Asian fish farm fish and locally bred fish.

Good luck,
Cathy
 
If some of you were following my thread, here's an update.

3 babies from the last spawn remain and are doing great. :grinyes: It's weird, because one is much bigger than the 2 others, and one is very small. They are still in the basket. I took the babies out into a glass today, and cleaned the basket thoroughly. There was so much algae, it was disgusting (Algae is like a plague in my tank, even when the nitrates are low. I live with my boyfriend in his parent's home basement, and the sunlight from either windows reach pretty much everywhere in the room.) I bought "Nutrafin basix, Staple food for fry", it's like a powder. It's hard to say if they eat it or not, but they have to be eating something or they would be dead by now. Sometimes, I still scratch the frozen BBS in the freezer and put a few into the basket. I saw the bigger of the 3 eat some of it today.

About the parents... They spawned again! :grinyes: I guess it happened during the night, because there weren't any eggs yesterday. The other fish are going crazy. It like they know fresh food is coming. *lol*

Well, that's pretty much it for now. I'll update again soon.
 
Another update! :)

Like I told you in the previous post, my couple spawned again. However, the babies were too small for the biggest of the 3 remaining babies still alive from the previous spawn, and at great risk of becoming food to his eyes. Therefore, I left them with the parents and they were all eaten by the community fishes eventually. No surprise there.

There are still 2 babies alive in the basket (the 2 bigger ones). The smallest one died probably 1-2 days ago, but I found him dead only this morning because I was pretty busy the last few days. The fact that the biggest of the babies was always chasing him and trying to eat him probably played a role in his death, but since he was much smaller than the other 2 babies, I was kind of expecting it.

I am going to wash the basket today (it's once again covered by algae), so I'm going to try to catch some pictures of the 2 babies and post one here if I get a good one.
 
Ok, a few pictures turned out fine. I only had rounded glasses, so one the pictures is a little difformed, but this give you a good idea of what 2 1/2 months (the eggs were laid on December 9th 2007, and the pictures were taken today February 23th 2007) boliviam ram babies look like. :)

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very cool.
 
That's great! I'm getting some females this week. Can't wait to try to get them to spawn with my male!
 
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