Rams Spawned

It can take up to a year or better for the rams to fully mature, meaning that they will not be successful raising their own young and eggs until that point, if ever. Your gH is a tad bit on the high side, which may be part of the reason why they are eating the eggs, you probably have a low fertilization rate. I will agree with Dave on the water temp thing, discus and rams are very similar with their needs as far as water temp and water quality goes. Even more so when they have eggs. I would not reccomend using peat or leaves to lower the pH, as pH has very little to do with fertilization, its water hardness. Both of those will do nothing to soften the water. RO water is the only sure bet to soften your water, purified drinking water that you can buy at a store will work as well. That total dissolved solids in RO water is extremely low, doing a 50-50 mix of RO and tap water will lower your water hardness to a level that will allow for better fertilization rates with the eggs. Hard water causes the "shells" of the eggs to harden and not allow the sperm to penetrate them, thus not allowing fertilization. As a general rule of thumb pH and water hardness go hand in hand, but its not always the case, as I mentioned adding peat and such only impacts the pH of the water, not the hardness. Lowering the pH can be used to trigger fish to spawn, but since your rams are already spawning there is no need for that. So I would reccomend doing 50% tap water and 50% RO water with your water changes from now on, which I would also step up to doing 2-3 50-60% changes per week to keep the water quality up, this will help quell fungal infections on the eggs. You can't get water too clean for raising eggs. Avoid doing much around the area where they have laid eggs as well, since this will stress the parents out and may cause them to eat the eggs as a survival technique. The eggs then become a threat to them, since they may be drawing predators, so eliminating the eggs will also allow them freedom and stop drawing the predators. Just give them time and warm clean water, I'd suggest around 85-88 for water temp.
 
Well I boosted my temp up about a week ago to 82. As for the water, I added baking soda to my tank when I set it up and add it to my change water to get the readings I have. Straight from my tap(even after sitting overnight) my GH is 20ppm, KH is 20ppm and PH is 6.2-6.4. Do you think I should slowly let my tank go back to the readings straight from the tap? My water source is from a well.
 
Because i thought the KH was to low and would cause PH swings. I think I should be okay because I do a PWC every 3 days. Am I correct in assuming that will help prevent a PH crash?
 
The kH is fine, fairly stable water. pH crashes really aren't that common, usually see them when you don't do WCs for long periods of time, a month or longer. Doing partial WCs throughout the week is good. Keep things up, just start using the tap water and nothing else provided there is no chlorine or anything like that.
 
I had a few successful pairs and they seemed to like slightly higher PH. My tank was consistantly at 7.8 and htey seemed to love it. They actually stopped spawning almost completely when I gradually dropped it down to 6.8 But that is just my personal experience.
 
labon...I have the same situation in my tanks...high PH 7.8-8+ and have had NO problems getting my rams to spawn and hatch fry. My water hardness is low though...about 80ppm and the GH is 60 and KH is 80.

They seem to like it fine and are doing very well. Just sold off the last of my first batch of fry. They were almost as big as the parents and very healthy and of good color ! I have since had many spawnings with the parents but I'm not ready to raise anymore fry at this point...in fact, I just made the fry tank into a black and white theme tank....lol........I think my rams have another batch of eggs in the 29, but they won't last long..the fry always get eaten when I leave them in there.....
 
My rams laid eggs today after having just been moved into a new 10g home! I thought they were mad because they werent really swimming around much or anything because they had gone from a 75g to a 10g. But... they rewarded me! What to do now? Do I still do water changes, I dont have an RO system and cant afford one. I will get back with you on waters params another day. How long does it take for the eggs to hatch and do I add any anti-fungal type thing? I had heard that one time thanks! Im so excited!!!!
 
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