On saturday i bought a pair of german blue rams and today (monday) i noticed some strange behaviour from them to my bolivian rams. They were chasing them to a point and the retriveing to a piece of driftwood, when i had a closer look a batch of eggs!!!!!

i cant believe they have spawned in such a short time. what should i do just sit back and watch? i have never bred fish before so some general info would be a great help!!!!

stoked!!!!!

no idea, but congrats how sweet

yeh its awsome! i been watching them fan their eggs together and protect them for half an hour, so interesting! i hope they hatch

From what I remember reading, they may eat the eggs the first few times but after awhile turn into good parents. I'd just let it run its course.

That is exactly what happened to me. I had two german rams lay eggs and protect them, but the next day they were all gone... I hope they eventually become good parents.

Hmm i hope they become good parents, my mate who got a tank at the same time as me has a breeding pair of angles just by luck of buying one female and one male, but with 2 spawns the male has eaten the eggs on both occasions.

well done dave fingers crossed
scot

Wow - lucky you! I hope they do hatch for you - and if so, that at least some of them will survive into adulthood.

I've got a pair of German Blues to collect from my lfs next week - they are in quarantine at the moment, making sure there are no probs.

I can't wait to get them - they are such eye-catching, attractive fish!

Sorry, don't have any experience of GBRs yet so can't help you with your queries. I do have a pair of severums who spawn quite regularly (every few weeks) but only one batch of eggs actually hatched and despite fervent attempts by the parents to protect the little fry, somehow they all disappeared by the 2nd week. I've read that if the parents get tired or stressed from having to put up too much of a fight against other fish in the tank to protect the fry, they will often end up eating the fry themselves! So I guess the less other fish you have in the tank with your pair of rams the better. I've deliberately under-stocked the tank my severums are in in order to give their next batch of fry a better chance (they now only have 3 other fish to contend with).

Anyway, good luck with yours!

This post has been edited by Athena: Jun 30 2008, 10:51 AM

Athena, ive seen people using those fry containers that stick on the wall of the tank keeping the little ones safe have you ever tried this? i no i am getting ahead of myself as they probably wont hatch but am just interested.

dave do you mean just a normal breeding trap?

yep probably i didnt know that it was called a breeding trap, anyway i no now. Should i have one of these at hand just incase they do hatch?

As its very early days i would leave them in if you are lucky enough and they do hatch. Rams can be such great parents so you need to give them a chance at rearing them. If they hatch and it goes wrong you can always take the eggs out next time they breed. (which will be about once a month). You will need some infusoria or micro worms to feed them if they do hatch. Here is a good web site for answering questions on rams and breeding:-

http://www.wetwebmedia.com/FWSubWebindex/ramreprofaqs.htm


My guess is they will eat the eggs and have unsuccessful spawns at least half a dozen times - they need time to get it right. Sometimes they will get into a habit that cant be broken of eating the eggs - if so you can take them out.

Good luck!!

This post has been edited by Gilli: Jun 30 2008, 03:23 PM

whenever any of my fish have fry, I syphon them into a clear container to stop the parents from eating them...some live, others don't. You can put them in a breeding trap too.