German Blue Rams

I now have two breeding pairs of German Blue Rams in a 55 gallon tank with 15 Harlequin Rasbora. That is the only stock. It is lightly planted with flat rocks that they have laid eggs on but both pairs which are young (4-6 months from what I can gather) have eaten their first batch of eggs before they hatched. They guarded them for a day or so and then slowly ate them. I hear that they usually take 4-5 batches to get it right. Is this true?

You can always seperate them from the eggs. Eggs will hatch. They pretty much live off there egg for the 1st week. Then you can feed them crushed up vegi flakes after that. Thats what I do with all mine.

I want them to display parenting, though because I want them to become good parents. That keeps my hands off of it until they get bigger. I also have to save up some cash to get a 20 gallon long to raise the fry in. Right now I have no spare tanks. So it would be good for them to raise the fry and it's a good time for me to let them try to raise them.

Just get a 5 gallon or a 10 gallon and a small spoonge filter. You can get all of that for like $10-$15

I say a 20g long. It has a larger footprint then the 10g and more water volume. I know they are bottom dwellers so the bigger the footprint the better. Plus a 20g long is just a great tank to have around.

You can raise fry in anything I was saying that b/c CS said money was a problem. They sell 10G anywhere you can't find a 20L anywhere. Just trying to make it cheap and simple. If you dont seperate them the parents could just keep killing the babies over and over again.

I work at PetSmart, so finding a 20 gallon long isn't the issue. We have three of them on stock. I just need the cash to put that together. I also have a while because they just laid eggs a few days ago. Hopefully when it happens again, I can be prepared!

So do you have any fry??

The first batch was eaten as eggs. I am going to try to let the parents raise the fry for 3 more batches or so and see if they start to raise them on their own first. Then I'll intervene and raise the fry on my own if they are not successful.

Well they are young. They should get the hang of it soon. Its better to let them learn to do it. Less work for you later.

That was exactly my thought process. That would be nice if they could catch on. Is it unusual for the female to be looking full of eggs again already? It hasn't been more than a week or two since they laid the first batch.

She could be. What are you feeding them?
Share pics of the next batch of eggs if you can

I feed them a mix of tropical flake and cichlid crumbles 5 days a week and bloodworms 2 days a week. It seems to be the best combo I have come up with for the fish I keep. They all love it and devour it quickly! Is posting pics easy here? Maybe a quick link?

I post through photoshop and add the like through the picture button.
Blood worms 2 days a week will increase breeding. I wouldn't feed any more often than that though.

I know. I try to keep them on a nice diet!

Is the first ingredient in the tropical flake spirulina? If not you may want to look for some that has it as the first ingredient. Also Look and see if you can find some earthworm flake and use that from time to time to help them breed. Don't use it too much though or they will get fat and become too lazy to breed

CSnyder00 wrote:

Is posting pics easy here? Maybe a quick link?

try www.tinypic.com to upload pics and size them right. I think Fern meant www.photobucket.com instead of photoshop... but I'm not sure!

Ya I did mean photobucket

Okay. The pictures are already on Photobucket, so I'll shoot them over! Thanks!

Bad news. I lost one of my GBR's after a water change last night. It happen quick and there wasn't much I could do. My only guess is that the pH went up a little bit from the water change, but it only would have changed about .2. My water parameters are:

pH - 7.4 (I know it's not perfect for GBR's, but they were raised in 7.6 pH)
Ammonia - 0
Nitrites - 0
Nitrates - 5
Water Temp - 80 F

All of this is from 10 minutes ago. Everything looks great from what I can tell, and the only way that my pH conclusion would be possible is because of the recently added driftwood, but even then, I do weekly water changes, so that wouldn't be it either. I'm really upset, but I can't figure this one out.

Anyway, here is a picture of the pregnant GBR. She is trying to sway the other male in the tank to breed with her. If I were a fish, I would go after her. She is stunning!



GBR Tank:

This is just a picture to show you how small they are yet.

Wow they are beauties! One thing I'm seeing is that you have a direct line of sight from one end of the tank to the other. You need something in the middle to split the tank into 2 distinct areas so that you can have 2 pair of them in there without issue. Try a large plant dead center with some rock/wood work to finish it off. That should help out with the aggression.
Remember fish just die sometimes. I've had a few go without any reason. I don't see anything you did wrong.

I've got a problem. I used to have Pair A and Pair B and odd pair out C. Now with Male A dead, Female A no longer has a mate and is pregnant (carrying eggs; pictured above). Male B seems to have no interest in splitting with his mate to follow her and breed. This has been going on for about 24 hours. Should I be worried or will he break off and pair with her? I have another male that is much larger than her in my 29 gallon that still has not mated with anyone. Can I put him, odd male out C, in there to see if he will fertilize the eggs and pair up?

Additionally, Female B, the one that has a mate still in the tank, is looking pretty rough. She has been swimming towards the top the last couple of hours. It looks like I may lose her to the same thing I lost the other male to. They show no signs of sickness and then they are swimming weird. No white spots, no strange markings, just swimming along one minute, the next they are acting weird, then a few hours later they are dead. Anyone have any ideas?

Put male C in with female A and see what happens. But move the male not female.
Add some stress coat if you have it.