Breeding Rams II

A Success

The Rams soon came into condition again, and spawned exactly one week after there first attempt.

This time the male was far more active with  his displaying and digging , so I was far more opimistic. They once again chose to spawn in a pit that they had dug in the gravel. They had in fact dug five pits in all. But eventually they spawned in the same place as the first time. But once again they lost interest in the eggs after spawning, and the following day the eggs were gone.

A Clown loach was then put in there tank, ( See Target Fish )another member had suggested this having already been through this scenario with his own Rams. Two weeks later and they showed all the signs of another imminent spawning, Both fish actively digging, colours intensifying, and the female becoming very plump. I missed the actual spawning, but I could see that it had happened due to the size reduction of the female. I checked all the little pits that the pair had dug. But no eggs, I assumed they had been eaten quicker than ever this time, and had decided that next time I would remove the parents and raise the fry myself. 

The next day I noticed the Clown Loach was keeping a very low profile, but din't think much else about it. Then later on I went to feed them with some F/D Tubifex (which comes in the form of a small cube, that you stick to the side off the aquarium glass), as I did this my hand was vigorously attacked by both fish. This made me want to investigate more, because their usual reaction to a hand in their tank is to hide. Then I saw what all the fuss was about, on a piece of bogwood there were about 300 eggs. So the Clown Loach was removed for its own safety, and that of the eggs.

Both parents are taking turns at fanning and cleaning the eggs and are busy digging nursery pits ready for when the eggs hatch. The parents continued to do everything right, until the eggs hatched, I guess that one of them was just too tempted once there was something wriggling and all the newly hatched fry were eaten.

Sometimes it takes young cichlids quite a few practice sessions before they get it right. Especially if they were not reared by their own parents, it is my strong belief that young cichlids learn a lot from their parents, and that is why I intend to persist in trying to get my pair to rear their own fry. But from now until they spawn again I am going to saturate them with live food, there will always be live food in their tank at any given time. Even when they have had their fill, there will be plenty left. By doing this I hope the fry will look a lot less tempting next time. I am also persisting because they did so much better this time and hopefully this improvment will continue next time and they will rear a brood.

Well the forth time came and got off to a bad start, the eggs were laid in a gravel pit again. But at least the eggs were being cared for properly. I have also raised te temperature a couple of degrees to 82f. After 48hrs the eggs hatched and the parents didn't seem to know quite what to make of the wrigglers but carried on fanning them and guarding them but then the fry began to spread out a little and the male became very aggitated he seemed to know something was wrong but didn't know how to respond. He then tried to collect the fry up and return them to the pit, but his efforts were a little clumsy and the fry he returned were killed. At this point I intervened and removed both parents.

The fry slowly spread out due to their constant wriggling and could be seen all over the tank floor but there didn't look to be all that many, at one point I could only see 4. Anyway 5 days after hatching the fry became freeswimming all 70 - 100 of them and were initially fed on liquifry and a brine shrimp culture was started so in a couple of days when the fry are big enough to eat them there will be some ready. Having checked all the books the general opinion is that the fry are too small to manage brine shrimp for the first  couple of days.

The fry are feeding well and I don't anticipate any further problems with this brood. And the parents are in my Discus tank and have fully settled in and are preparing to spawn yet again. I intend to leave them there and let them practice as long as they like. If they manage to raise some fry to the freeswimming stage on there own I will probably breed them again, otherwise I am going to turn my attention to some other species once my breeding tank is available again.

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