German Blue Ram Eggs?

[Brahmza]

So, in my 55g tank I have 3 pairs of German rams. Two pairs of German blues and one pair of electric blues. My most dominant pair seems to have laid eggs today. They've been paired for about two weeks, and its my first time keeping rams. Curious about what kinds of food can be fed. Would liquifry work? Just want to be prepared if they make it to free swimming. Any tips to make it successful? My other pair of German blues are getting ready to spawn, too, so any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[MissLori]

For the first 2-3 days after they start moving around they won't need any food because they live off of their yolk sacks.  You don't need to feed them until they are FREE SWIMMING - not scooting around on the bottom, not flying through the water by way of the current, not hopping around...no kidding FREE SWIMMING.  They'll start to be able to swim freely about a week or more after they hatch.
 
Here is what I have personally found about feeding them:
 
I've never bought or tried liquifry but I have made my own from egg yolks and it really mucks up the water.
I've tried Hikari First Bites and while it works fine for other fish, I still think it is too big for Ram fry, so...
 
I feed them two foods - baby brine shrimp that I hatch myself and always have on hand and I also make my own fry powder from a myriad of dry fish foods by running them all through a coffee grinder.
 
One challenge you'll have is to get the food in the water near the fry in such a large tank.  Easily done with baby brine but you might need to mix any sort of powdered food with water and use a turkey baster.
 
Do you still have any fry or were they eaten?

 

[Brahmza]

Sadly, the eggs were eaten. I'm going to invest in a baby brine shrimp hatchery kit as soon as I notice hatched fry. The male is paired with a different female now, and she laid eggs last night. It's their first time breeding, so I'm assuming it's going to take quite a number of tries until they get it right.  I have a long, thin plastic syringe for feeding, should work the same as a turkey baster. Thanks for all the info!

 

[MissLori]

You'll need to rinse the shrimp with fresh water through a fine mesh net to remove the salt water before feeding them to the fry.  The water required to hatch the shrimp is actually much more salty than the ocean.
 
You can easily make your own hatchery if you like.  Here are a few examples:http/www.ehow.com/search.html?s=how+to+make+baby+brine+shrimp+hatchery&skin=corporate&t=all
 
Don't waste your money on "marine" salt either - you can go to any home improvement store (Lowe's, Home Depot, etc.) and buy a 40-lb. bag of solar salt aka sea salt aka kosher salt aka marine salt (it's the same thing) for @ $5.00.
 
I tried the soda bottle method for a hatchery at first and had too many problems with them for various reasons.  I found these nifty containers at my local grocery store:  http/www.arrowplastic.com/store/catalog.asp?item=28 and they work great!
 
I prefer to use O.S.I. artemia cysts (brine shrimp eggs).  It is very important to have all of the water/eggs moving with constant rapid aeration for the best hatch rates.
 
I hope you have better luck with this new batch.
 
Lori