What is the lifespan of rams?

[Tomsfish18]

I have seen rams spawn as early as 3-4 months old.
Most catch on and do well by 6 months.
I have lived in the capital district my whole life.

 

[GaryE]

Hello ex-coralbandit from ex navigator black. I do believe we met on ancient forums, back when the pterodactyls flew.

 

[Tomsfish18]

Hello ex-coralbandit from ex navigator black. I do believe we met on ancient forums, back when the pterodactyls flew.

Hey Gary~!
Glad I stumbled upon you again.
This seems like a nice active forum.
They are harder and harder to find.

 

[gwand39 155]

Will G. pygmaeus eat Ram eggs?

 

[Back in the fold]

Very interesting thread with lots of useful information . This is good stuff !

 

[Tomsfish18]

Will G. pygmaeus eat Ram eggs?

I have heard stories of apistos terrorizing cories or even taking eyes out~!
Not sure if that is the rule or exception but IMO cories are pretty dumb and don't take subtle hints.
Possibly the guardianship of the parents will be enough of a deterrent or the size of the pygmy will keep them from being bold.

I kept plenty of cories with juvenile rams . They make an excellent clean up crew.
Always Sterbai or Orange Laser.
The Sterbai for heat tolerance and the OL in a feeble attempt to breed.

 

[gwand39 155]

I have heard stories of apistos terrorizing cories or even taking eyes out~!
Not sure if that is the rule or exception but IMO cories are pretty dumb and don't take subtle hints.
Possibly the guardianship of the parents will be enough of a deterrent or the size of the pygmy will keep them from being bold.

I kept plenty of cories with juvenile rams . They make an excellent clean up crew.
Always Sterbai or Orange Laser.
The Sterbai for heat tolerance and the OL in a feeble attempt to breed.

Any tips on breeding powder blue rams?

 

[Tomsfish18]

It is the same for any color variation.
First trick is having a pair that get along through all steps. If things go wrong it is usually the male abusing/killing the female. This can happen at almost any stage during breeding and raising the spawn before pair is considered confirmed.
I went as small as 5g tanks for a pair and fry.
I artificially hatched all first eggs to confirm pair. You can look for just 1 good egg that hatches. That all you need to confirm.
After that I would give pairs a few chances to raise fry before artificial hatching.
In the beginning parent rearing was very rare for me and I earned my name bandit.
I used a terra cotta pot tray for the eggs to be laid on.
Every pair I offered a 3 inch tray to used it consistently. They had some java moss for plant material and a piece of wood in every set up. It doesn't take much to fill up a 5g.
I would feed a small amount of BBS to parents after the eggs were laid. I fed well and changed water daily or every other day at a 50-90 % rate.
After they eggs hatch, they will move the wigglers to a clean safe spot.
For my set up with tray up front that usually meant back corner in a bare bottom tank. I always breed and raised in bare bottom tanks run on air driven sponge filters,
If you have substrate I would offer trays in different locations. The rams like 'pits'.
1-3 day being wiggler. They need no food then as they feed off their egg sack.
They feed as soon as they free swim. If they are with the parents, the female will offer them food through her gills as they swarm around her or she hovers over them. Cool to watch.
The fry really doesn't seem to benefit much being kept with the parents more than 3-4 weeks some sooner. If the recognized prepared food, it was in the safe zone but still benefited from a little more time with parents.
My tap water is 7.6pH/2-3KH/9GH and a TDS of 350+
I would RO that water to 20ppm without DI resin and then mix my tap back to get 100ppm.
Temp 80-82 usually for me but also bred pairs with discus at 86.
Some say higher heat causes shorter life span and I did have on customer who kept my rams at 78 and said they loved it.
IMO they crave the heat. It accels breeding times.

 

[GaryE]

I never had any fry predation issues when Apistos bred in tanks with Corys, but I always had to remove all corys as the dwarf Cichlids weren't asking about their behaviour on forums. They judged them to be a threat and tried to kill them.

I've watched a couple of videos of Apistos in the wild guarding fry, and the corys around kept a very good distance when they saw them. They didn't hang around as the walls of an aquarium force them to.

 

[Back in the fold]

I never had any fry predation issues when Apistos bred in tanks with Corys, but I always had to remove all corys as the dwarf Cichlids weren't asking about their behaviour on forums. They judged them to be a threat and tried to kill them.

I've watched a couple of videos of Apistos in the wild guarding fry, and the corys around kept a very good distance when they saw them. They didn't hang around as the walls of an aquarium force them to.

Another argument in favor of species only aquariums . I’ve seen a few videos of wild fish guarding fry and those parents were vicious and ruthless .

 

[gwand39 155]

Another argument in favor of species only aquariums . I’ve seen a few videos of wild fish guarding fry and those parents were vicious and ruthless .

It depends on the species. My community tank of Mollys, endlers and platys could care less about guarding fry. My dither fish in my Apistogramma cacatuoides tanks and in my tank with P. taeniatus don’t challenge the parents or the fry.

 

[Back in the fold]

It depends on the species. My community tank of Mollys, endlers and platys could care less about guarding fry. My dither fish in my Apistogramma cacatuoides tanks and in my tank with P. taeniatus don’t challenge the parents or the fry.

Okay , livebearers don’t give a hoot about young except to occasionally devour one and , as far as I know , tetras and barbs and killifish and almost every other fish eat their own eggs and young but those meek and mild dither fish you trust will have a go at your cichlid fry if they feel lucky . You’re just lucky that they haven’t felt lucky .

 

[GaryE]

A lot has to do with tank size. It's a step away from rams for a moment, but my last group of Pelvicachromis kribensis Moliwe were one pair in a jungle planted 55 gallon with surface fish they chased enough to protect the fry, but no more. Several pairs of those fry reached adulthood in that tank when I wasn't able to catch them all.
You can have a different species in the same set up, and have a radically different scenario. I never had great luck, or honestly, never liked rams so much that I tried many set ups for them. They are among the milder fry defenders, but they can do the job.

I had some South American Pterolebias longipinnis killies in a Moliwe tank once. They spotted the fry and formed a tail to tail 'star' formation that drifted over the fry. 2 would peel off and draw the parents over while the others would dive into the fry and feed. Then they'd go back up, reform the star and the deadly game would recommence. They let each other feed equally and methodically, taking turns as the decoys. These are short lived annual killies, with no time to learn. It had to be behaviour by instinct. It cost me an entire brood of unlucky fry. The parents were African wild caughts, and I did wonder how Peruvian Cichlid parents would have reacted. Maybe they have counter moves.

 

[Back in the fold]

@GaryE That’s amazing ! Fish do some things that totally blow me away at times . This is why you should spend time just watching the fish . You will see things that are incredible in the fishy kingdom . That sounds like hunter instincts to me , almost like Killer Whales and what they do .

 

[gwand39 155]

Mikrogeophagus ramirezi grazing.