How old do German blue rams have to be to breed? (Pic)

[Tropical Tony]

Hey guys,

I’ve had a female German blue for a while now and I’ve just introduced a male for her. I was wondering how long it will take before they pair up. Every time they see eachother they flash wonderful colours and the female is looking really plump now and showing her belly off to him. Was just wondering how old they have to be before they start breeding. Here’s a pic of the female.

Thanks

 

[Colin_T]

When they colour up and are an inch or more in length, they are old enough to breed.

The female is ready to breed, if she likes the male and he likes her, they should breed in the next few weeks.

Rams prefer to choose their mates and sticking a male and female together doesn't always result in a happy pair. The best way to get happy prs is to put 3 or more prs in a tank together and let them pair off naturally. Then move the pairs into their own tanks.

 

[Tropical Tony]

Cheers for this Colin. They are both definitely over 1 inch so fingers crossed. They seem pretty fond of eachother so I’ll keep monitoring them to see if they pair. Have you ever bred them successfully?

 

[Colin_T]

Yes I have had blue rams breed in tanks. They are like any other cichlid and once they work out what they are doing, you can't stop them

Have some caves and flat rocks in the tank and they will choose a spot to lay their eggs. They guard the eggs and a small area around the eggs. The babies hatch and get moved to different locations each day. When the babies start swimming, you feed them newly hatched brineshrimp and microworms.

The first couple of batches might get eaten and this is common in fish that have been artificially reared at fish farms. They usually work it out after 3 or 4 batches.

 

[Tropical Tony]

Thanks for this Colin . I’ll post any updates if anything happens haha.