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Post by Carl on Jul 22, 2009 13:45:17 GMT -5
Good luck kagome!
BTW I think your idea is a good one as to sectioning the aquarium.
I hope the parents have your sense of humor too ;D
Carl
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Post by goldenpuon on Jul 22, 2009 14:07:03 GMT -5
Good luck Kagome! Congrats on the spawn!
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Post by kagome on Jul 26, 2009 0:41:41 GMT -5
hmmm.....no spawning yet. They keep acting like they are going to do it but then all settles down again and no eggs. Maybe I'm just too young to be a grandma.
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Post by Carl on Jul 26, 2009 9:39:46 GMT -5
hmmm.....no spawning yet. They keep acting like they are going to do it but then all settles down again and no eggs. Maybe I'm just too young to be a grandma. Take it as a compliment kagome, you are too young to be a Grandma ;D
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Post by kagome on Jul 31, 2009 1:40:26 GMT -5
GREAT NEWS!!I wasn't just imagining things and my rams have spawned and I was actually lucky enough to watch them!! I am so happy about this. I don't think I will get any fry from this spawn because I think the cories will gobble them up. I had convinced myself that they weren't actually going to spawn so I did not go ahead and pick up a tank divider. However, now that I know that they will actually spawn I will get one very soon. So here are some pictures that I took. Here are the eggs. They are so tiny they don't show up well, but they are the almost white hazy stuff on the gravel in the bottom left corner of the picture. Here is the female, Minnie, guarding the nest. I don't know how well you can see it but they did dig a very shallow hollow in the gravel. Here are two shots of Mickey taking a little break. In the one photo you can see just how long his dorsal spikes have grown. BTW see the funny pattern of the algae growth on the glass? That is the pattern left behind when the butterfly loaches come through munching on it. I don't scrape it because it is their main food source. It doesn't look that heavy when you are just looking at the tank with the naked eye so I was really surprised how much it showed up in these shots. Here are both parents guarding the nest. Mickey is in front and Minnie is towards the back near the plant. I'm really hoping that this is the first of many spawns to come and that I can successfully raise some fry. Hooray!
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supi
Full Member
Posts: 66
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Post by supi on Jul 31, 2009 9:15:21 GMT -5
Awesome pictures.
Good luck on many more fry to raise.
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Post by goldenpuon on Jul 31, 2009 14:29:21 GMT -5
Congrats Kagome and great pictures! If the cories eat the babies, I bet they'll spawn again sometime. Great job raising your fish!
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Post by Carl on Jul 31, 2009 15:16:07 GMT -5
Wow, great news kagome! ;D I wish your fry well. Nice pictures too, they document this well. Carl
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Post by bikeguy33 on Jul 31, 2009 23:39:15 GMT -5
a divider is big now. if these spawn get eaten....they should probably try again in a few weeks. rams are a desirable species and not the easiest to breed....i wish you the best...
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Post by kagome on Aug 1, 2009 12:57:06 GMT -5
Thanks for all the encouragement folks. Unfortunately, the cories did eat the eggs. However, I observed the rams closely and they did not eat the eggs and both guarded the nest. I have read that these can be common problems with rams. Since my pair seem to be good parents, I think they will successfully raise fry if I divide the tank. Hopefully they are fertile but since even good ram parents eat eggs that are duds and mine ate none I am hoping the eggs were indeed fertile.
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Post by Carl on Aug 2, 2009 10:22:15 GMT -5
Sorry you lost the eggs, but this is step one and good step in the right direction IMO. I will also note that this step is the most difficult from what I have seen in raising Rams in my client's aquariums. (See Ram Cichlids; Breeding) Carl
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Post by kagome on Aug 10, 2009 22:02:51 GMT -5
I am definitely thinking that I have a male and female Emerald rainbowfish in my 38g. Now that they are getting to size one is distinctly more colorful and while the anal fin of one is getting to be huge the anal fin on the other (the one I think is a girl) is staying the same size. I keep trying to get a good picture of both of them together but when you approach the tank they think it's feeding time and start zooming all over the place. I wish I had a few 55g tanks so that I could have all one rainbow species in each one and breed them and then use so 40 gallons as fry grow out tanks. But *sigh* not really any money or space for that at the moment. I could put two species together to grow out so long as they were kinds that didn't look similar as juveniles so I would know what I was taking out when I scooped some out for sale. Such as, the emeralds and Boesemani would be easily distinguishable. As it is with my current setup if they do breed I guess I will just have to let them eat the eggs because I don't have a fry tank and I really don't want to produce hybrids.
As for my rams, all seems to be going well. Although, all of a sudden my male has grown to be almost twice the size of my female in just a few weeks. If you look at the posts from when they laid eggs they were almost the same size but now he is SO much bigger than her. Does anyone know why? I have looked up some stuff online but no one seems to agree who gets bigger, males or females.
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Post by brenda on Aug 10, 2009 22:23:49 GMT -5
Wow...That is great...I didn't see the part about your rams spawning. Congrats...you have gotten farther then many!!!
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supi
Full Member
Posts: 66
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Post by supi on Aug 11, 2009 11:18:03 GMT -5
Something right is going on in your tanks. It will be exciting to see if your rainbows spawn too. I really don't know anything about why some rams increase in size.
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Post by bikeguy33 on Aug 12, 2009 1:17:48 GMT -5
the males are almost always larger. this is due to the extra aggression.its never more visible than at feeding time.they will often get double the food
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Post by kagome on Aug 14, 2009 0:13:47 GMT -5
the males are almost always larger. this is due to the extra aggression.its never more visible than at feeding time.they will often get double the food I agree with you Bill that the male can be very pushy at meal time. I make sure to take special care to ensure that she gets her share of the food. It's not a problem with the worms at all but I have to make sure and use the feeding ring when I put in flakes. That way the flakes cascade down in slow shower and she gets plenty. I have been freaking out because three of my four butterfly loaches have died over the past few days. I tested my parameters straightaway: ammonia 0 nitrite 0 nitrate 20 pH 6.8 These parameters have been holding steady for months now. Now new fish in the tank. No new decorations or filters or foods, nothing. It's the exact same set up as I've always had them in. No one looks sick and the one butterfly that's left is scooting around the tank like always. I'm wondering if I didn't have enough of the right kind of algae growing for them. The only difference between the ones that died and the one that is still around is that he is always eating flake food, catfish wafers and even bloodworms. Maybe the others weren't getting enough to eat. It's really weird and kind of upsetting but I don't know what else to do but watch the situation.
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Post by bikeguy33 on Aug 15, 2009 21:43:42 GMT -5
watching is the right thing to do...but i dont think they died of starvation. before a fish dies of starvation it is very obvious. their stomachs will go concave and they will be very thin looking.as well they will be very lethargic...
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Post by kagome on Aug 25, 2009 1:03:18 GMT -5
OMG I seem to have fish ready to spawn in both tanks. Somehow I was really not prepared for this. I can definitely tell that the rams are getting ready to spawn again. Minnie has taken on the brighter spawning colors and she looks like she is beginning to develop an egg belly. I really need a tank divider and then a grow out tank. Another tank is probably not going to happen any time soon though. In my 38g it looks like my peppered cory cats are going to spawn. After doing some research today I figured out that I have three females and two males. All of females look as if they are gravid and the boys are harassing and courting them to no end. Unfortunately, I can't expect to get any fry from them because the females will eat each other's eggs. Also, rainbowfish are notorious egg eaters so if they find the eggs (which trust me, they never miss any kind of food source in the tank) they'll be gone in about 10 seconds. So no chance of fry coming out of that tank but still it's good to know that they are healthy and happy enough to spawn.
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Post by Carl on Aug 25, 2009 9:28:31 GMT -5
This is great Kagome! Is there any available tank to separate a pair of the spawning peppered cory cats so as to maybe have a successful spawn? Carl
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Post by goldenpuon on Aug 25, 2009 12:09:30 GMT -5
Congrats Kagome! Even if you can't separate the babies before the parents eat them, it says a lot about how well you take care of your fish that many fish are spawning at once. Great job taking care of your fish!
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