I hatch rams ...

[Acerrato]

I just compared the above pictures to my fish from Hans - The 1st fish is a Brilliant Blue Turq, 2nd obviously Blue Diamond, and the last pic are your German Wonders!

[coralbandit]

I just compared the above pictures to my fish from Hans - The 1st fish is a Brilliant Blue Turq, 2nd obviously Blue Diamond, and the last pic are your German Wonders!

Hah ! Thanks for correcting me ,you are right .
I appreciate it .

[LizStreithorst]

I was wrong, wrong, wrong.

[coralbandit]

Ok just need to document all the oldest Santarems have been shipped out today and the younger moved into the 29g.
Seems semi tight quarters but water changes will be super easy ..
Not 30 minutes after the fry were removed from the parents just after the tank had been refilled the parents were pecking and cleaning the breeding cone !
Neither has their vent exposed but both stayed right at it preparing for what I can only guess will be the next spawn.
I now believe I did good leaving the fry with them so long [2 months] just to give them a 'break' from slime sucking little ones ..
My bet with no tubes showing is there will be eggs by the weekend !
On a happy note my job finally got shut down today !
It could possibly just be this individual job but if not I sure won't be at a loss of what to do with my time !

[danotaylor]

Cool Tom, your Santeram pair are really crankin out the fry...ill bet your guess about the weekend is right on!
More time in the fish room, how awful for ya

[coralbandit]

Ok so fish breeding can officially be like horse shoes and hand grenades ! I mean close is good enough ? Being wrong can still be right ??
These fish would not even wait 24 hours after they children moved out ! Well maybe exactly 24 hours ..Do you think they wanted to make sure they weren't coming back ?

Here they are right now ..
I know I said by the weekend but even I did not suspect they were this frisky !

I am thinking of changing my name to 'luckybandit '?
Now I know I was right to leave the fry for so long or I would have dime sized fry already ! You can ware a fish out taking fry and driving their instincts to breed again and again and again ..I did not want to sound like when the fry were moved I knew they would breed right away but all indications told this would be the case.
Lets just say now that the next set of eggs after these will be the day after I remove these if they hatch and get raised ?
I mean these two have developed a seriously predictable pattern ...

So on a serious note /question ; no breeding tubes yesterday and no indication of wanting to spawn again before I moved the fry yesterday .
When did she develop the eggs ? Was she just holding them until the kids left ? I mean I am sure there will be many eggs as they have been in overfeeding central for the last 2 months ..I can't believe she had these ready to go ?

[LizStreithorst]

If she's been holding them for too long they won't hatch. The Angelfish people call it an egg dump.

As to what you said in the first paragraph, some Discus don't care if they have kids in the bedroom when they do it. Apparently, yours are more human like.

Good luck with the hatch. I bet you got lucky with the timing and the female was ready just before the kids left.

[danotaylor]

Incredible!

[coralbandit]

Egg dump huh ? I 'll count it as my learning for the day and say I think I deserve a beer after all the hard work !
But seriously funny you said she could hold them or timing ..
Lets remember for my simple mind I listed date of hatches for the first two as 1/1/20 & 2/1/20 so not really far off on the cycle today ?
Looks like I held them up a week maybe as laid date [today] hatch date are about 7-8 days apart ?
What happened to the ones that should have been laid last month { 3/1} I don't know ..They may have even laid them as food for the fry ?
It was a madhouse in there back then !
I am excited and hope they are good ..The male did his part and my 'magic' water was tuned into 170 TDS with my RO mix from the 350+ they had been in the last month ..
Find crossed !

[LizStreithorst]

I bet your TDS was too high and you weren't paying close enough attention. I have never had an egg dump myself I've heard Angelfish people say it. I didn't understand the situation so I was taking a stab it it. Your eggs will hatch just fine. Good luck with the fry, Tom.

[coralbandit]

Do you think she would not have laid eggs based on TDS alone ?
I knew my TDS was high I switched the fry to tap at 1 month like the rams ..
All my fry get raised in tap even if their parents need 'softer' water to get fertile eggs .
Usually 1-2 months depending on growth I switch them ..Tap is easier and conditions the fish for how other less enthusiastic keepers may try to keep them ..
My LFS owner and I have long thought my switching the rams at 1-2 months was part of what made them more hardy then others ..
When I asked Shahar Danziger how he did his rams water back in 2017 he echoed what I was already doing and then concurred his parameters to near identical to mine [tap and ro mix] .He used electro conductivity [EC ] while I use TDS but they can be converted for comparison ..He just reaffirmed my belief in my methods !

[LizStreithorst]

She would, but you weren't paying attention and they never free swam. That's my last best guess. I agree that your water with RO added works perfectly for you.

[coralbandit]

So nice to see the eggs made it through the first night !
I do have night lights that are always working in the fish room not just when I think they help .
Proud parents ..


Excited to be able to watch this again and keeping my fingers crossed the pair is really happy ..

The two month old in the 29g pretending to be piranha with their FDBW before water change


And the 65g with the 6 new guys getting their morning fresh water .

[danotaylor]

Excellent Tom. The eggs look the goods too! The juvies look super plump & healthy...there's a lot of the little beggers as well! Good for you mate

[coralbandit]

Well 24 hours in and the eggs look not so good ..
I am sure I was late in their cycle and actually still think a little more time for the pair to rest will do them well.
I do not expect to see any good eggs tomorrow ..
Makes me glad I said "if they hatch and get raised' in my other post ..
If not for the if I would feel I jinxed it making it sound like it was a sure thing ..
I always say to ram breeders to take the first eggs as the next eggs are not guaranteed ..
I'll just hope this is how it goes and they spawn again before going out of season and taking a 2 month break ? They really could be close to end of the 16 week cycle as I understand it ?
The overall size of the spawn was not as large as expected so maybe they were just making the best of the situation and not really prepared ?
There is always so much to speculate about when things go wrong ..You never need to know why if it works out it seems !