Blue ram babies!

[Dana7859]

I have 2 blue rams I purchased 2 weeks ago. They are beautiful fish with a great personality. I came home from work last night and noticed that I had about 200 baby fry! I was very excited and called the pet store right away. They said that they, unlike other fish, wont eat their young and will actually take care of them. Unless they are new parents they will eat some of them but will learn not to. As I watched them both, the parents would take them into their mouths and spit them out again. Unfortunately some didn't come back out! :frown: I left and came back 4 hours later and there were only half the fry's left. So I decided to remove the baby fry into a vacant glass goldfish bowl. Was this the right decision?

I also have an African Dwarf Frog in the same take as the rams. Is he safe?

[mooman]

With blue rams, yes. I've heard experienced breeders say that they have never had blue rams raise fry to release stage. Maybe after many spawns they might get it right, but as a rule blue rams are the worst cichlid parents around.

Here's your problem now. Your fry need filtration, heater, tank all on the spur of the moment, and you probably don't have a mature filter on hand. If you really want to save these fry, put them in a breeding net with lots of java moss. They'll need live baby brine shrimp a couple time a day untill they get bigger.

Good News, once they spawn, they'll spawn again in a few weeks. If you can't afford a "grow up tank" right now, just go out and get a sponge filter, and run it in a corner of your current tank, in about three or four weeks it will be "cycled" and you can put it in the tank that you have been piecing together for the last few weeks.

ps I've heard rumors that bright light causes spine deformations in ram fry, so skip the light on the fry tank and give your wallet a rest.

Good Luck
Let us know how it goes

[Condor]

Congratulations on the spawn, Dana. If your frog was in the tank with the fry, I'll bet that he was the one eating the fry. (Though the parents may have been the culprits due to the frustration of being unable to ward off the frog) 82-84 degrees F is a good temp for raising ram fry IMO. :)

Adrian

[Condor]

By the way, you might want to look into some microfoods as well while the fry are real small(such as infusoria, which wood be in the java moss that mooman suggested). If don't have anything on hand you might try using liquifry, but do so with caution. It is an egg based food and will foul your water if not careful. If you do use it, do lots of water changes.

Adrian

[Dana7859]

I did lose most of my fry. I wasnt prepared and didn't think I'd come home one day and have tons of tiny fishies!! I got a breeding net and some liquifry, so I'm hoping that the few remaining will survive. Next time this happens I am well prepared.

Dana

[tjd]

I'm currently dealing with the same issue, my female Blue Ram keeps eating the babies once they become wigglers.

One thing I noticed with my male Blue Ram and Aggies is that they will sometimes spit the fry out their gills instead of their mouth. The male Blue Ram was quite effective this morning in using this technique to move the wigglers once they hatched to a new nest, of course the female is treating this new nest as a feeding ground.

Also, my Rams have been spawning every 11 to 12 days. Good luck.

[Condor]

I've had the same issue with my pair as well, tjd. In my case, both parents do a great job if he/she raise the fry without the mate (dad seems to pay a little more attention so I usually take mom out) When the parents are left in with the fry together, they usually get into a custody battle somewhere between wriggler and free swimming stage.

Adrian