Ram Spawning Behavior

[joshua]

okay i just got a pair yesterday. after feeding, i noticed one of them which seemed to be scooping gravel like... using the mouth as a spade and pushing some gravel while the other would go chase my cories off. i was wondering if it was possible spawning behavior. i removed my cories as 2 of them already had nips on their dorsals. i wasn't prepared for this as my 2ft tank isnt ready and they're still in my 1 footer

 

[smb]

Yea, sounds exactly like spawning behaviour. Good job. And after only having them a day, wow.

 

[joshua]

i don't know if i may be mistaken as that ram also seemed to dig at numorous places. didn't really expect any spawning as i only wanted to put them there temporarily. keeping my fingers crossed. i'm already happy that they aren't aggressive to each other and eating well.

 

[smb]

Digging multiple nests is normal also. He could just be going through the motions right now but this is breeding bahaviour.

 

[joshua]

ahh already am glad that they're attractive and already eating well. hmm honestly im not too sure if they really gonna spawn as ALL the rams had pinkish tummies so it's hard to see which is male or female just by the tummies. they look pretty much the same only that one's bigger and a bit rounder but maybe it's just due to age. haha my only chance was picking out a pair.

 

[joshua]

damnit... now the one who was digging is chasing the mate relentlessly, seems to mean to injure the other. i removed the other guy. heard its usually the female that''s aggro during spawning

 

[smb]

In most cases with cichlids, the male is the more aggro of the 2.

 

[Auratus]

I have 5 and my female spawned the next day! They usually don't lay eggs in gravelso I don't know why they would do that; unless they were moving them away from a plant leaf or something. You should look for the cleaning of leaves or rocks because I found that those are their favorite places to lay. I find my female is the most aggressive and the male and female take turns watching the eggs. They will both prepare nesting spots but most of the time the bigger ram's spot gets picked. So if they are both being aggressive and building nests it could be two males or a male and a female. But the female will chase away the male to guard the eggs. I recantly moved mine into a 26 gallon show 3 weeks ago and she has spawned 8 times. But every time was a different spot! There is more males then females and I think she's kind of tired! But she always picks a different male. The pinkish rule is so not true! The one that looks most like a male in my tank is my female! So, you can't really tell unless you see who's watching the eggs. I found that the females are usually a bit larger than the males too. The females get black vertical stripes on their tummies and the males don't. I am going to get another female when I get some extra money. But when I bought my original fish, the one big male I bought turned out to be my female! It's super hard to tell! So I thought I bought 1 male and 4 females and I got 2 females and 3 males and one of my females isn't old enough to spawn so the biggest female gets all of the attention. But she is super mean so it's okay!

P.S. None of the eggs she has ever laid (15 sets) have hatched. My water is too hard. Or maybe the males are too young to know what they are doing!

 

[joshua]

hey auratus could u share ur experience when u ram spawned? is it possible for them to spawn in a totally bare tank save some java moss, anubias nanas; no substrate no nothing? or is it wayy highly unlikely that they'd spawn like that. what do they spawn on?

 

[joshua]

woah yesterday after i put them in a 2ft tank, they were really aggressive to each other, lots of lip locking, no obvious damage. both seem scared lol... its like they very hestitant to attack but once one does, the other does not spare anything. but stops after a few seconds. removed the more aggressive one this morning and later put it back and it seems all is fine. looks like no spawning anytime soon lol. gonna be happy if they don't start shredding each other again

 

[whatup]

Could anyone tell me why my rams are going for my other fish.
I was told they were a good community fish by one shop and another shop
told me they were not.

 

[annka5]

I have a pair - the male started digging pits in the sand pretty soon after I got them, then after a further week they laid eggs, which hatched. The fry disappeared overa couple of days. This happened again nabout 10 days later, then again a week after that....