Blue Rams Breeding In Community Tank (Help!)

[Hub]

Having just gave my aquarium a good clean out and re-arrange i noticed eggs on one of the ornaments.
These will most likely belong to the 2 Blue Rams who i have since noticed has been closely guarding them.

My tank is a reasonably busy community tank.

Is it standard procedure to let the eggs run there course and most likely get eaten?
or are there any other precautions i can take to ensure they stay alive?

Any help or advice would be appreciated!
Cheers.

 

[Rafael Dilone]

My first advice is to remove the German Blue Rams as soon as possible. They are highly aggressive during breeding and will kill other fish in your tank in efforts to protect their fry as other Cichlids would. I hope you have a spare tank to keep them in. The parents eat the eggs that are bad to avoid pathogens but generally they are great mouth brooding fish. Meaning they carry the eggs in their mouth. The eggs hatch in about 38-42 hours. Once hatched the parents take care of the fry and about 5 days in they will be swimming. Some people feed the babies baby brine shrimp when big enough as well as other small foods like infusoria and so forth. But the parents do most of the care once they are born. I wish you the best of luck.

 

[Hub]

Thanks for taking the time to reply.

Woke up today to notice that all the eggs have gone and there is no sign of any baby fish floating around the tank.
i dont have a spare tank incase of emergency but its the next thing on my shopping list,

Are there any sizes? specs? you could recommend for a hospital tank.

Also

Say the Rams spawn again soon is it advised that i move them to the seperate tank and keep them there for good?
or do i move them back to the main tank when the process is complete?

Sorry for so many questions!

Many thanks.

 

[Gaz_S]

If you have the space and money to set up another tank you can. I was going to do this but after thinking it through i didnt bother as i was losing one of my favourite fish from my community. Mine have spawned about 5-6 times now, first couple of times they were gone by the following morning now they are progressing on to 3-4. I just leave them too it and just keep a lamp on at the spawning site (advised by my LFS to keep a light nearby so they can protect in the dark.). Ive never had any deaths due to them attacking my other fish and they will stay clear (apart from my gourami for some reason but never touchs the eggs).

Personally id leave it for a few spawns until your definately sure the eggs are fertile.