German Blue Rams Fighting

[Gouken]

Ive got 2 pair in a 125g tank and one pair keep hovering around a rock that I have I dont see any eggs on it but they are very defensive toward the other pair when they come near that area one of the males stays accross from them then once in awhile they start fighting mainly the female raming the other male. Any idea on what I should do since there is plenty of coverage and places for both pairs in the tank.

Edit: They just laid eggs on the rock should I move them and their eggs over to my 20g tank?

 

[Gilli]

If you want to keep the peace and try raisng the fry then I would remove the eggs. Rams are very aggressive when they have eggs or fry and none of them will back down!

 

[Gouken]

how soon should i do this since i think they are still laying more eggs, should i put the parents in the same tank aswell?

 

[minxfishy]

Wait until they have finished, or else you might upset them. You can move the parents if you like as well, they can be good parents, however, if this is their first try, they may eat the eggs or the fry until they get the hang of it. For the sake of the other fish, I would move them and the eggs, less stress on the parents and much less stress on the other fish

 

[Gouken]

ok will do that when they are done, I have read that I need to get fry food for them do you guys have any good suggestions.

 

[minxfishy]

Baby brine shrimp or you can get something called liquifry

 

[Athena]

I agree on the Liquifry - have used that myself on small fry - or you can make your own food for fry by putting a small amount of tank water in a cup (just about 1cm deep), grind up a couple of pinches of good flake food into a powder and add it to the cup of water. Swish it around and then pour this mixture into the tank above the fry.

Cichlid fry are usually extremely minute - when they first hatch they will feed on their egg-sacks. They will be too small to feed on normal sized fish food, so either use the ground flake method or liquifry. The liquifry does make the tank water go a bit cloudy for a while, but then the ground flake method also makes the tank water look messy for a bit but the tiny particles will reach the gravel and the fry can then feed off this.

Regards -Athena

 

[Gouken]

thank you guys for the info on helping feed them any idea of how long till they hatch? I have heard that some fish eggs hatch withing 48 hours after being laid.

 

[Gilli]

Its normally 72 hours from laying. You will know if the eggs are fertilized as they will go a transparent colour and you may be able to see some black dots in them which are fry eyes! Any that turn white are fungus infected and dead and it will spread to other viable eggs so you may want to add an anti fungi med to keep this to a minimum.

Dont be disappointed if the parents eat the eggs - they can take dozens of tries before they get their pareting skills right! Good luck!