Ramirezi

Who here has had success breeding Rams? I'm gonna try AGAIN! Bought 5 and two dig pits, chase the others away, but nothing! In 15 years I must have tried 6 times and never!

 

Mine also seem to create a 'nest' and then just chacse the other away. They are still young so I will give them time.

 

Veegal and Zafgak have got theirs to!! They've even sold the young on this forum recently!!

I had a pair, and they laid regularly, but never got fry!!

Cheers
G!

 

is your tank planted? maybe heavily plant around the couples caves that way they will have some privacy and won't want to chase away prying eyes .

 

How big are your rams, pictus? And are you sure you have males and females, and if so, the right ratio of male to female? Sometimes it's best to have a male or two to a group of 2 or 3 females and allowing them to choose their own partners - this also increases the chances of a spawn, by increasing the number of possible pairs.

Feed them up nicely on frozen or live foods (or very good quality dry foods) and keep to a water changing schedule (at least 10% a week, but feel free to do more); this should encourage breeding. From there a pair will choose site and lay their eggs.
The first few times the pair may eat their eggs, but after a while they'll get the hang of it. Feed the fry very, very small live foods (freshly hatched brine shrimp) or an appropriate fry food (Tetra has something along these lines). Eventually they should be big enough to take crushed flakes.

Good luck

 

Salmon, tx. they are about 5 cm now. They feed like mad, ox heart, bworm, live shrimp 2x p.week. Nowadays i find it hard to distinguish male from female. The rays on dorsal all look similar, none really have pink bellies. Colouring is fine, their colour is actually great! But to me they all do look sort of similar. I think i have 2 male and 3 female judging from who fights who. They dig and 'false' spawn but nothing. I'm on 10% WC 3x per week. 2 times pure RO water, other time aged tap. Nothing. Damn by now my Discus would have spawned 3 times in those conditions. I've just never had any luck with Rams!

 

Pictus - try add some black water tonic, or filter over peat

 

have big bag moss, lots of wood in tank. Water has a nice tea look to it even after WC. GH is at 7'dh, ph 6.8

 

My bolivians spawned at 27 degrees C
What is your temp?

 

28'C. I've tried taking it up and down but nothing. I think I'm gonna set up smaller tank and move the 2. Maybe they bugged by others.

 

Try getting that pH down. They're tolerant of a wide range of pH, but do much better in more acidic water, between 5.0 and 6.5.

 

what products or methods do you recommend for lowering PH?
I was just reading about Seachem product called discus buffer, sounds like a good product.

 

If you bubble Co2 through the tank and it creates carbonic acid which lowers the PH, why not cut out the Co2 and just add diluted Carbonic acid?

 

Here they say that when carbonic acid is added to water or visa versa, the carbonic acid is broken down in to 2 key elements,
1: Co2
2: H20
I cant see how this WONT work, can anyone else?

http://www.newton.dep.anl.gov/askasci/chem99/chem99661.htm

 

@robgurr

I am investigating the same thing. I will give a few links of what we discussed lately.

It is the first time I see this carbonic acid argument. I will watch with interest where it goes.

In the meantime, keep the following in mind. Quick pH changes is dangerous to your fish health. Recommended change is not more than 0.3pH in 24 hours. If your conditions in your tank work against this change, 0.3pH, you are wasting your time, because as soon as you change the pH, the conditions change it back and you are where you started.

Good luck!

Link 1
Link 2
Link 3

 

Hi pictus

I'm going to try condence what I have learnt about GBR breeding in the last few months.

1) Get good stock or forget about it. From what I have read, if you see pretty GBRs at a LFS, avoid it like the plague. These fish are 99% likely to be full of hormones and will have a drastically reduced lifespan. Contact some of our importer sponsors to get good stock.
2) Rams live in the cleanest water in nature, even more so than what discus live in. Good stock deserve the best water, try to emmulate that. 100% in agreement with what was posted previously about pH, try to get it to about 6 and keep it stable. Seachem Discus Buffers is an excellent product to condition your water.
3) Up the temp to about 30deg C, higher temp helps keep fry alive and helps induce spawning.

Now if you are lucky enough to get have a pairing.

4) Use egg crate to partition your tank to keep the pair seperate from other tankmates without causing too much stress.
5) Your GBRs might lay eggs on a flat surface or they might dig a ditch in their preparation to lay eggs. Keep an eye out for them cleaning an area or digging.
6) Start preparing your brineshrimp hatcheries, infusoria cultures, microworm etc. if you see behaviour decribed above.
7) If you get eggs its time to move the parents to the other side of the partition. 99.99% of GBR breeding frustration stems from the parents eating the fry/eggs.

Fry care:
8) Make sure their is some circulation in the area where the fry are, though keep it minimal so they dont get disturbed. If you worry about water movement, add a sponge filter near-ish to help. More filtration never hurts.
9) Do regular small water changes, large water changes can change the pH and can be harsh on the delicate fry.
10)Feed live food to the fry a few days after hatching since they will be feeding on the yolks still.
11) Remember to use clean tank water to rinse the live food off before adding it to the tank.

I have had months of frustration with rams, I am currently saving up cash to get some GOOD stock and to set up a dedicated breeding setup. Wishing you luck with your efforts
Regards
Eugene