I hatch rams ...

[coralbandit]

Sweet Tom. Is the Santeram pair in their own tank?

Thanks Daniel ! They are in their own side of a tank ? I made an eggcrate divider and wrapped it with white filter floss.
They have the larger half of a Deep Blue 60g "frag tank ' .It is 48 long x 24 wide x 12 tall .They can have the whole tank once I get my large Albino Dantumns to my buddy in Indiana after new years .
I use to have buddies local to give fish to ,but now I have to ship em to get to them to my buddies ..
The Santarems were my first choice when I was picking out my discus ,funny how they earn top spot in the fish room still today also ! I have a pair of Blue Snakeskins that were dominant and started breeding first but they are just clowns ??

[Second Hand Pat]

I know this is about rams but my affliction is strong !

These are my Hans Santarems with some fry attached !
FINALLY ! No painted tank or special tricks ,just patience and good fish keeping practices ..
Pretty psyched this a.m. regardless of outcome ..
One step at a time ..

Sweet pair Tom and hope all goes well with the fry.
Pat

[coralbandit]

Here is a quick video of one group of my cauliflower sabre tail swords ;

[LizStreithorst]

Thanks, Tom. How are your fry doing?

[danotaylor]

Very nice Tom!!

[coralbandit]

Thanks, Tom. How are your fry doing?

The fry seem great .I just moved them into 20 talls ..
Funny is I know they come in different colors but that never really crossed my mind.
The male I show to the right is a sailfin ruby red from alphas[having red/black alpha fry ].
I am pretty sure these cauliflower [2 separate tanks from the sailfin ruby reds] seem to be throwing alpha [red/black ]fry also ??
One breeder says that the sabre tail is just a fat tailed ruby red ? But my ruby reds have black eyes I think .
Most fry from the cauliflower look to be red with red eyes like the adult cauliflowers . They are red eyed which is not uncommon in fancy red swords . Just not sure about the alphas .
I think it is a wait and see?
No real mention of Red eyed particularly in alphas I have found ..Glass is horrible but here are the red eyes ;

^cauliflower^

^ sailfin ruby red fry ^
I raise them in paint strainers if I have to and saw Santa secret helper !


^he got himself in the net ,I just didn't think I would watch him get out !^
He was out 10 seconds after that pic .
I'll take the help !

[coralbandit]

Very nice Tom!!

Many thanks .

[coralbandit]

So it seems many fish in the fish room are happy !
Some happy to mess with me ..Little do they know I know more about them then they do about me ..Well I hope ?
My Santarems kept some fry attached for a couple days but on 12/27 they were fryless and spawned again !
Looks like the usual with this batch but these guys do better every time so far , so I just hope they get it right before they decide to take break .
I have read the young and dumb and know all about it with rams .
Just when you think you have seen young and dumb some new fish swims into your fish room and makes you just say ?
First spawn for multicolor Alien bettas took place today.. They did pretty good with the female even helping to send eggs back to the surface ..
For real ,I know most females eat the eggs [fish are so predictable ] but I watched her spit them out 1-2 inches below the surface with a little bubble ! She did better then him as far as breeding went all around .
He gathered many eggs ,there may have several hundred .I was blown away how many this little fish had .For real the picture shows them next to a disposable airstone and standard air line ..
Here are the pics !





Those are eggs just below him in last picture .
You can also note the eggs at the surface upper left in the other pics ..
Oh yea how did the male screw up ??
No nest ! He has not built a nest at all.Seemed he was going to get around to it and did not ?
They must have been done as he chased her away after about 2 hours so I removed her .
Now he is just swimming around and I see eggs on the bottom of tank ..
Talk about young and dumb !

[LizStreithorst]

I've had that with a pair of Pearl Gouramis and still got fry. Stupid yes, but like you tell me not time to give up on the spawn.

[coralbandit]

Nice !
I know nothing until I see it for myself so didn't sound stupid and ask if wild bettas made nest ?
He has his own tank with her next door ..I do know patience is one of the big tricks ..
I'll be watching .
Thanks Liz.

[LizStreithorst]

No guarantees, but it did happen to me with the pearls.

[coralbandit]

So the eggs from the betta were all at bottom of tank yesterday . Not like 300 but many and the male is aloof !
The second pair [the triple A blues ] spawned yesterday and he had a small nest ?Still watching both ,it is how I learn ?

Back to rams .. I got some pictures ..
Every body say BLACK !







So this pair was in the 60g with my male disc and clown loaches.
There is maybe 10+ other rams also .
It seemed pretty clear watching they were pairing and I could see their tubes .
So I caught them much to all the fishes efforts against me and placed them in a 5.5 g.
Eggs within hours but I wasn't really sure the male did his thing ?
That was 2 days ago 12/29 and today it is clear the eggs are viable so I am the bandit ..
I just mentioned that I have not yet had a single spawn that was all dark yet ..
Fins crossed and leaving nothing to chance .
This seems to be a great pair so they can stay in their 5g and raise the next batch .
Kind of excited to see a spawn from two such dark [BLACK] parents …
To boot their darkness they are both beasts in size even by my standard ..

[danotaylor]

Awesome Tom, great thread and the info and pics are sweet mate. You're a veritable fish husband, lol. Such a cool hobby...

[coralbandit]

So as my rams keep doing what they do I see strange things in other tanks .
I don't do my discus like many of you ,they need to work a little too.
My Santarems have spawned maybe 10+ times now in the last 2 months and even got as far as having fry attach for like a week .
After that week they spawned again and I think ate the eggs[2 spawns ago ] ! Now they are on eggs again now [we are going in good chronological order here ] that are soon to be wigglers on the cone and I just noticed 4 or 5 pretty large fry attaching and bouncing back and fourth between the two ..I know I keep saying rams are sneaky but these fish are just silly !
I am thinking fry have been 'hiding' or I am just going blind ? There at least 4 or 5 ,maybe more if my sight is failing !
They are clearly too large for this batch so now these fish confuse me or surprise me more then I suspected …




I am not sure if this is a good example of patience or the combined fact I have been a procrastinator my whole life and have 60 tanks !
The fry are definitely from the last batch ..
Is this common ?

[LizStreithorst]

Yes, it's common that they will spawn if what's left of the last batch is too small for them to want to bother with.