German blue ram fry floating and gathering in 1 corner of breeder box and dying

[Mazain]

For the caves question - a tangent but a good question - with fish like Nanochromis I place several pieces of slate, squared and maybe 10-15cm long, pushed into the gravel close to the bottom glass, and covered. Over them, I place a flat rock of slate sitting on the sand. There are always two of three such IKEA, build it yourself structures in a breeding tank. The fish excavate as part of their pairing ritual, and the flat rock settles onto its supports. They like to have multiple entrances, or with some pairs, the option of multiple entrances.

This is a vicarious setup for the nanochromis having caves to forage and escape predators, bullies and other dominant residents in your fish tank. Like you said GarryE you were accidentally surprised by the spawn but what supprise me is that, having multiple escape getaways why were they only sticking to one cave. Is it becuse they can eagarly spawn.

 

[GaryE]

There's a misread there. I was surprised at spawning in 2 separate caves simultaneously and guarding both, but it was a breeding tank. They were the only species. I was melting snow to get the water soft enough... I worked at those guys!

I always provide digging possibilities for diggers, and multiple spawning sites so they can choose. I just washed my hands after setting up 3 tanks - one for Pelvicachromis taeniatus, one for Nanochromis nudiceps and the third for Nanochromis teugelsi. This is my first time keeping nudiceps after many times with parilus, the fish that often gets mistaken for them.

If they breed, they raise the fry for at least 5 weeks before I intervene beyond feeding their and water quality maintenance.

 

[anewbie]

There's a misread there. I was surprised at spawning in 2 separate caves simultaneously and guarding both, but it was a breeding tank. They were the only species. I was melting snow to get the water soft enough... I worked at those guys!

I always provide digging possibilities for diggers, and multiple spawning sites so they can choose. I just washed my hands after setting up 3 tanks - one for Pelvicachromis taeniatus, one for Nanochromis nudiceps and the third for Nanochromis teugelsi. This is my first time keeping nudiceps after many times with parilus, the fish that often gets mistaken for them.

If they breed, they raise the fry for at least 5 weeks before I intervene beyond feeding their and water quality maintenance.

It would be interesting to see if Nanochromis nudiceps is more challenging then n. teugelsi. I found n. teugelsi as easy as mixing fishes with water; though as is always the case the larger the aquarium the better.

 

[GaryE]

I don't think the group is difficult if you have very soft water. That's a necessity. It then becomes aggression management before the spawning as they test each other out. I got mine as very young wild caughts, all mixed together. I'm sorting them as pairs form naturally. I catch them and move them to tanks set up for them.

Really, like Apistogramma, it seems to be all space, water and luck.

And like rams, the fry aren't hard to raise following the same recipe.