Parent Rams Mouthing The Fry Back To Safety

[Rorie]

Here is a video of two parent Rams catching the fry as they move away - several at a time - and spitting them back out into the group.

The quality is a bit rubbish as i couldnt focus while so close, but you can see the action! You can also hear my parrot saying 'hello, good boy' and 'i love you' haha.

They have lost just about all of their colour. Below is a photo of what they look like pre-spawning. So will be exciting to see if i get good looking fry!!

Video here

 

[coldcazzie]

like it

 

[L_Plates]

Thats fantastic

 

[Inchworm]

Very nice, Rorie. Thanks for sharing it with us.

 

[Geoff-]

awesome!

 

[DAMON91]

Nice vid.I used to have a pair but they died

 

[L_Plates]

Rorie, just out of interest when did you plave the paent rams into the breeding tank ?

I have rams and i am waiting for them to pair up, Fingers crossed. I would love to have them breed so any pointers would be great.

LP

 

[Rorie]

Rorie, just out of interest when did you plave the paent rams into the breeding tank ?

I have rams and i am waiting for them to pair up, Fingers crossed. I would love to have them breed so any pointers would be great.

LP

I added 4 rams to my main tank about 3 months ago. Two quickly paired up, and spawned about 3 times, geting the fry to 4 days old each time. The fry would grow and swim under the parents for protection. But after 4 days of free swimming they would vanish!

So the 5th time they spawned, the did so on the slate again, so i took the slate and parents, and moved them to the breeding tank. I was happy to see that 2 mins after being moved, the parents were back over the slate fanning the eggs!

 

[L_Plates]

Cheers for the reply mate, hopefully over time my rams will pair up and now i have an idea on what to do if they spawn

Thanks Again

LP

 

[Athena]

Love the sound of your parrot! LOL

Anyway, back to the fish - most probably your rams have lost colouration because they have been stressed by being moved from their home into that bare tank. Personally, I would have left them where they were and waited for the fry to hatch, then after a few days move the fry out to a fry tank. That way it keeps your parent rams happy and less chance of them becoming ill due to the stress of being moved about. Rams are quite sensitive cichlids and if their surroundings are not just to their liking they will "sulk" and the stress causes them to lose colouration. They will naturally have a level of stress, anyway, due to the pressures of parenting, so best to try to keep those levels as low as poss. They must have been quite happy where they were originally, to be spawning regularly.

As with most cichlids, the parents are likely to eat some/all of the fry within the first two weeks, so even though you have moved the parents plus fry into a separate tank, you still need to separate them if you want to rear those fry. I'd put the parents back where they were originally.

Just my personal views from experience of various cichlids.

Good luck with them all - Rams are gorgeous!

Athena

 

[Gytas]

very cool i love those fish

 

[Rorie]

The rams lost the colours in my main tank. But they were getting harassed by every fish there, so not much wonder!

Now that the fry are all free swimming, i am going to move them into a small tank so i can keep a better eye on them. I'll keep the adults where they are just now and see if they spawn again If not, then i will know they are not happy and i'll move them back.

I am worried about the fry - never had fry get to this stage (as they have all been in community tanks) so dont know how to ensure they are eating, without polluting the water. I fed live brine shimp yesterday, and powdered today as per the instructions of a very established breeder up here. But i have no idea if they are eating or not! I guess the next few days are the vital ones!

The breeder up here keeps his fry in ice cream tubs, floating on the top of his water. He says this makes water changes much easier etc.

Any advice from anyone?!

 

[Athena]

Hi Rorie

How are the fry doing today? I've been offline for a few days so only just catching up with previous posts.

For feeding fry, I would say tiny amounts but more often than feeding your adult fish (About 3 or 4 times a day). If the fry are not venturing up to the water surface yet (as many fry tend to hang around near the bottom) you can add their food to a tiny cup of tank water and pour the food in directly above them so that the food is forced downwards and the fry have more of a chance of getting it. If you feed only small amounts then they are sure to have eaten it before the next feed time.

The water shouldn't get polluted if you are doing very regular water changes during this time (small amounts daily or every couple of days).

If you are going to keep your parent rams in that tank for now, it might be an idea to add a few plants (silk will do) and hidey cave etc for them.

Regards. Athena

 

[Rorie]

I tried an experiment. I took about 75% of the fry out of the tank, and put them in an icecream tub floating on the surface. The rest i left with the parents. Sadly loads from the ice cream tub died, but the ones with the parents are doing well, and growing a lot more than the remaining fry in the tub. So today i moved the remainder back into the main tank to increase their chances of survival.

We'll see that happens!

 

[Athena]

Hi Rorie, Glad to hear some of the fry are still alive and doing well. I would monitor the fry numbers on a daily basis and if you begin to see them dwindling dramatically it could be that one or both of the parents is eating them (I found it was usually the male convict that ate his fry - I think accidentally when on playground duty LOL, you know if the fry stray too far the parents suck them up and spit them back where they ought to be, like in your vid clip, well sometimes they forget to spit them back out - not sure if it's the same for Rams) and that is probably the point at which you would be best to save some of the fry if you were wanting to rear them, before they all disappear.

Another thing I forgot to mention is that if the parents see that their fry are not getting enough food, they will usually physically bring food to them! Yes, I have seen this done plenty of times where the female will dash up top to suck the food in and then blow it out over her fry. Cichlids are amazing parents and mesmerising to watch!

Keep us posted - would love to see if some of your little guys survive.

Regards, Athena