German Blue Ram - Pregnant?

[wilchil64]

I have been away for 5 days and my mother was child/cat/fish sitting. I gave specific amounts of food to feed, so the fish have not been overfed (1/2 cube frozen brine shrimp per tank once a day). The female ram is looking very fat and her belly quite pink. Could she be full of eggs?

If she is, what is the best thing to do? I don't have a spare tank at the moment, but want to get hold of one anyway, as a hospital/quarantine tank. But I read that rams can get very stressed if moved, so not sure that would be the best thing to do. I coudl get a floating hatchery but again would be moving the rams, or would have to catch eggs or fry, but have read they are best left with parents.

They are currently sharing a 125 litre tank with 7 rummy nose tetras, 6 cardinal tetras, 2 shrimps and a bristlenose. Would they be likely to eat the eggs/fry?

If by a miracle she lays eggs and some hatch and survive, what do I feed them? And where do I get it?

Thanks very much for your help.

P.S. I have tried to attach photos but am unable to. Will upload to photobucket tomorrow and attach links.

 

[granthoy]

tetras like fry but rams are usually up for a good fight to protect them...one thing to add, if this is their first spawn, the parents will probably eat the eggs/wigglers themselves. It seems to take rams a few tries to get the parenting thing right. I was in the exact same boat a few months ago - all of a sudden my fish were laying eggs - I got soo excited!! I set up a second tank, got everything ready and the wigglers were gone the next day.... So, 3 more spawns later and I still have yet to use the extra tank....I claim no expertise, just personal experience...

 

[wilchil64]

tetras like fry but rams are usually up for a good fight to protect them...one thing to add, if this is their first spawn, the parents will probably eat the eggs/wigglers themselves. It seems to take rams a few tries to get the parenting thing right. I was in the exact same boat a few months ago - all of a sudden my fish were laying eggs - I got soo excited!! I set up a second tank, got everything ready and the wigglers were gone the next day.... So, 3 more spawns later and I still have yet to use the extra tank....I claim no expertise, just personal experience...

Thanks, that fits in with what I've read too, so I think I'll wait with the extra tank - I don't want to stress them so that all the eggs end up infertile or something.

I've turned the temperature up slightly, to about 26 (it was on 25 before). I've never seen the pair look so beautiful before though, I can sit and watch them for hours, their colours are great!

I'm a bit worried how my 7 yr old daughter will react if the babies are eaten.

Here are the photos, sorry they're not very good quality, I'll try and get some more later:

Female

Female

Female

Male and female

 

[saz326]

I doubt it will get to the stage where your daughter can see little fish.

In my experience the eggs will be eaten the day after spawning. I think a lot of the time it is because the male has had so little experience of fertilizing. The fish (even when well practiced at spawning) will eat any unfertilised eggs to prevent fungus etc from affecting good eggs. I recon the males simply dont "squirt" in the right direction the first few times, hence the eggs dont get fertilised and so they all get eaten.

You may see eggs, or the fish may seem to go missing - hiding and looking after eggs. In which case your girl wont be witness to anything nasty.

Just enjoy the colours this time.

Pop a spare bit of filter medium in your existing filter if possible - that way should any babies appear, you can have a tank up and running in minutes.

 

[wilchil64]

I doubt it will get to the stage where your daughter can see little fish.

In my experience the eggs will be eaten the day after spawning. I think a lot of the time it is because the male has had so little experience of fertilizing. The fish (even when well practiced at spawning) will eat any unfertilised eggs to prevent fungus etc from affecting good eggs. I recon the males simply dont "squirt" in the right direction the first few times, hence the eggs dont get fertilised and so they all get eaten.

You may see eggs, or the fish may seem to go missing - hiding and looking after eggs. In which case your girl wont be witness to anything nasty.

Just enjoy the colours this time.

Pop a spare bit of filter medium in your existing filter if possible - that way should any babies appear, you can have a tank up and running in minutes.

Thanks, I always have a bit of spare filter medium in my existing filter, just in case, but unfortunately no spare tank at the moment. If it came to it, would it be ok to take the fry out or would the parents need to go with them, and what size would the spare tank need to be? Would a 28 litre be sufficient? I also read it needs a sponge filter - what is this compared to, say, the Fluval 3 plus internal I have in my Roma 125 litre? Is it the same sort of filter?

Also what would I feed them on? I read somewhere you can place a lettuce leaf in water and leave it a few days then that water will contain microorganisms the fry can eat? Or can I buy something over the net - I saw mention of something called Liquifry?

Thanks again.

 

[Athena]

Liquifry is good to use for fry - you start off with the actual white liquid stuff as the fry are too small to eat normal foods, even crushed foods at that stage. You then progress on to the Liquifry powder as the fry grow and then by about week 3 you can start roughly crushing up normal flake food and swishing it in a bit of tank water before pouring in above the fry (they normally stay close to gravel level, never going above mid-level). They can also eat mashed up frozen foods like brine shrimp and daphnia.

Athena

 

[wilchil64]

Liquifry is good to use for fry - you start off with the actual white liquid stuff as the fry are too small to eat normal foods, even crushed foods at that stage. You then progress on to the Liquifry powder as the fry grow and then by about week 3 you can start roughly crushing up normal flake food and swishing it in a bit of tank water before pouring in above the fry (they normally stay close to gravel level, never going above mid-level). They can also eat mashed up frozen foods like brine shrimp and daphnia.

Athena

Thanks. I've ordered some Liquifry, both liquid and powder, so that I'll have them in if I need them in the future.