# German Blue Rams spawning!



## Kerohime

Had these rams for about a week...

This was happening yesterday.









And I peeked into the tank this evening to see this:










Wow... Didnt expect this to happen so soon, the male appears to be chasing the female away.

I hope they hatch! And wont get eaten, since its their first spawn I will let them do their own thing.

Tanks specs: 29g Tall
10 Cardinal Tetras
1 tiny pleco
3 sterbai corydora catfish

I will give updates!


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## SandeepD

looking good...best of luck !!


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## Jebelz008

OH WoW!!! Nice....


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## nightowl1350

Congrats! Nice looking pair. Hope you get to see free swimmers. If they don't make it there will be many more spawns. 

My ram pair never did get it right, but I pulled out the eggs and hatched them myself. If they do hatch into free swimmers you may want to have some bbs or microworms on hand.


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## Tropicana

Awesome! they look good. I noticed my male would guard the eggs the most. I dont think hes chasing her away, but they will both take care of the eggs. they do a switch out thing and flare their fins as they swim by each other. Sometimes the female wont go to the eggs because she is so hungry after spawning. she will just forage.


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## Kerohime

The number of eggs have been reduced to about 60%... I'm guessing these were the unfertilized ones? But the eggs all look transparent and white... not quite opaque. 

From what I've read, I'm assuming they will hatch tomorrow or Sunday? 
I'll give some updates as to what happens... 

@Tropicana The male is totally chasing the female away until she turns a pale colour... I think she is trying to get to her clutch to protect and maintain it but he just chases her away like crazy... he is also chasing anything that comes close. 

Maybe he's just paranoid... I dont know... I just hope the wigglers dont get eaten... and I've bought some brine shrimp... ready to hatch when I start seeing wigglers.


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## Tropicana

Ok well I have heard of some pairs where the males do that. And pretty much you remove the female so she doesn't get beat up. The male can raise the fry 100% himself. She is becoming stressed (pale), and yes she is supposed to take part in egg care. But sometimes males do it all. 

Depending on temp they will hatch in 48hours(82-86) or 56+hours 78-. The hatch rate in an aquarium with new parents is usually fairly low. But they will get better as they mature more.


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## Egonsgirl

Awesome Kerohime!!! you must be so proud....lol I have pair in about the same size tank with similar tankmates. I've had them about 3 weeks, and I don't know if they spawned or not, my floor is a very light colour, so I don't know if I would see them. Congrats!


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## Kerohime

I came home today and saw that the eggs disappeared. Although I'm disappointed I'm not too surprised. I'm making preparations for a rearing tank, next time they spawn I'll take the eggs out... 

Maybe until they get a bit more mature, they are still quite young. 
At least they are getting along much better now.


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## Tropicana

Kerohime said:


> I came home today and saw that the eggs disappeared. Although I'm disappointed I'm not too surprised. I'm making preparations for a rearing tank, next time they spawn I'll take the eggs out...
> 
> Maybe until they get a bit more mature, they are still quite young.
> At least they are getting along much better now.


That sounds like a good plan. Use some methylene blue as an anti fungi for the eggs and you will have a great hatch rate. I usually wait a few hours after spawning to remove the eggs. Make sure to move them while in water.

And when you have one spawn to take care of yourself let them try the next few times as yours grow .


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## george

Excellent advice Kelly.


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## Tropicana

george said:


> Excellent advice Kelly.


Thanks George .


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## Kerohime

So I've been watching them pretty closely and it seems like the male is going crazy chasing the female around. He has become extremely colourful and vibrant, but he just keeps chasing the female whenever he sees her. 

The female will pale and run away, but once she gets some peace she will brighten up her colours. She's still foraging and eating alot as long as the male is chasing her like crazy. 

I dont know whats going, I thought they would calm down after spawning. I'm a bit worried about her getting harrassed to death, but theres quite a bit of space for them and lots of hiding places in my tank. I just worry also because she is like half the size of that male. 

I'm trying to condition the female as much as possible for another possible spawn. The female loves whiteworms/grindal worms so much she is hovering near the worm cup all the time. lol

Is it going to take some time for these rams to calm down and be co-operative?


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## Zebrapl3co

I would take the female out of the tank for a while. It's possible that there might be a few fry around. But the chances are slim if it's a community tank.
Beautiful ram BTW.

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## Tropicana

Yeah I would remove her also, I have had males in the past become very territorial and I had to remove one of my females for a while. The reintroduction went better though. The male will eventually relax a bit.


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## Kerohime

But would he recognize her as the female he paired with? 

would really like them to spawn again! =D


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## Tropicana

I am sure he might but its just a phase like thing. He wont always be aggressive. He will grow out of it. As they mature they will bond better. Being younger fish they are very aggressive over territory and food. And dont know how to spawn properly. Hehe, They will definitely spawn again. Just move her for a couple days, and try to introduce them again. You may see some different behavior.


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## Kerohime

*Round 2*

OK... looks like its round 2 for spawning!

This time they laid on a large piece of slate... should I take the whole piece of slate out somehow or can those eggs be removed without damage?

I'm setting up a tank right now with half distilled water...

Going to try to hatch them out myself... The male is still attacking the female when she's near.. sigh...


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## laurahmm

I usually let my young pair of angels try atleast 6 times before I pull my eggs out. One of my pairs even took 12 times before they got it right. There's nothing more rewarding than watching the parents hord them around. This is just their second spawn... you might want to give them more chances to try to get it right


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## Kerohime

Oh you're may be right, I guess I'm just impatient haha. 

This time they are actually taking turns to guard the eggs, instead of the the male chasing the female away everytime she comes near. 
Unfortunately it looks like there were only 20-30 eggs fertilized as they have picked off all the white looking eggs... I think I'll let them handle this one, but if I see wigglers I will be pulling them out into a breeder box!

Thanks for all the input, will update on their next spawn, etc!


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## Tropicana

Oh congrats again! , good luck with them.


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## Kerohime

So... I have the main breeding pair of GBRs in my 29 g, and I had another smaller pair in my planted 12g, which I didnt think would spawn for a while...

well... last week they spawned, I took the rock with the eggs out into a 5g nursery tank, and the eggs hatched into wigglers on Monday or so... now they are all free swimming, there must be like 50 of them or so.

So far I've been feeding them microworms, and using filter sponge mulm as well... its not a pretty sight at all, but they seem to be doing well!

Crappy phone camera pic. German Blue Ram fry:









I also had some corydoras sterbai fry hatch around the same time, they are in a breeder box floating in the nursery tank.

Corydoras sterbai: They are looking less like tadpoles now! =)


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## df001

Awesome!! thats great!


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## jesse

Sterbai cories look great!


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## laurahmm

congratz on the Sterbai cories. Are they hard to spawn and hatch?


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## Jebelz008

Congratz!!!!


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## Kerohime

laurahmm said:


> congratz on the Sterbai cories. Are they hard to spawn and hatch?


I've been told they are tricky to purposely induce spawning, but mine spawned completely randomly.

Took me off guard. I've read that its the simulation of rain and the spring season that induces spawning, I did do a water change before they spawned. It was probably 3 days or so after they laid that I scoured the tank for eggs, there were probably more that were eaten.


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## DaFishMan

that is awesome, congrats !


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## Jon

WOW that's awesome.
congrats!


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## splur

Aw! Congrats! Let me know if you end up selling any, I'd gladly buy some as I'm looking to add german blue/bolivian rams to my currently planted tank.


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## sudz

When your Cories are ready, I need 2 or 3 more, Drop me a line! 

And Congratulations!


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## Kerohime

UPDATE: GBR fry numbers have halved... not sure what I'm doing wrong here, I put lots of java moss and singapore moss that has been in a jar in the sun for 2 days, lots of algae and growing on the sides of the jar too. I just put the entire jar in the rearing tank, I also supplement with microworms... and doing water changes every 5 days or so (30%). My GBR pairs are still not very good at raising fry at this point, the eggs are around until the 2nd day and everything just disappears, maybe they are eating the fry as wigglers...

In other news, corydora fry are doing great but I heard it takes months for them to get to a good size to be in a community tank.. I think I have about 20 corydoras sterbai fry, feeding them crushed sinking tablets and microworms as of now and just set up a 10 gallon with sand as a grow out tank for the fry. 
I think they look a bit bigger and more catfish like... stilly pretty small though, what do you guys think?









I'll try to hatch out my GBR fry again whenever I get another spawn. I seem to be getting weekly spawns between the two pairs.


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## Tropicana

Congrats on the cories! I have had mine spawn lots before but the eggs were all over the glass, within minutes other fish took advantage. 

With ram fry there is a small window of opportunity I find and thats a vital time to feed the fry before they are to weak to eat. Perhaps it was just a bit too late? I am not sure why your fry aren't doing well. 

The parents are just learning, give them time. Also you might want to try moving their spawning stone or surface to a quieter spot in the tank, that can relieve some stress on the parents and perhaps they will relax more. Of course they may spawn anywhere but its worth a shot. I found that with some of my ram pairs they would eat the eggs for a few weeks then they would make it to wiggler stage and not know what to do with them so they would eat them then. 

Its all a learning experience! Keep up the good work .


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## nightowl1350

The pair may never raise them past wiggler stage  funny after I pulled eggs and raised some GBR the ones I raised went on to parent raise for the people I sold them to. if you d raise a spawn of the very clean water is key. 
Hope they do better next time.

The cory fry look so cute. Never did well with them in any of my tanks.


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## Kerohime

OK... so in the midst of all the Diablo III I looked over to my tank and saw this...










I didnt even notice the buggers spawn this time, but it seems as though they're finally learning how to take care of their hatchlings (ie. not eat them) You can see wigglers below the pair.

I'm pretty happy about this, I wonder if they'll make it to free swimming stage.


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## Fish_Man

Congratz!!


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## nightowl1350

Congrats on the wigglers. If they do keep them it will be great to watch. 

I've had the same problem with my krib pair, they have not got to wiggler stage till this week. They should be swimmers on Monday or Tuesday (not sure when they were wigglers as I was away) so I will see if they get them to swimmers.


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