Pitch Black Rams

[jwcarlson]

I know a bunch of people here keep/breed these, but I've never done it and I'm going to occasionally post about them here. Feel free to ignore it!



I've had to remove the eggs to pure RO based on Liz and Chuck's suggestion. Thankfully that's worked. This is the farthest they have gotten. And tonight I did a quick siphon of the bottom to clean up some debris and both the male and female were really defensive. And then later I took this video of the male and he caught a couple fry and spit them back into the dish. Then after the video the female started doing it. Though she certainly held them and... "chewed" on them a lot longer. I actually thought she ate the first one, but she just held it for a long time.

Has anyone raised the fry in hard tap water? I might give that a shot at some point. I'm keeping a number of male rams in a tank just like I do my discus and they don't seem to be having any ill effects.

[jeep]

I've had many spawns that were spawned and grown out in pretty hard water, 400+ TDS. Never had to use RO with rams. Just be very careful cleaning the tank. Ram fry are very small and scatter all over the place for the first week and it's easy to suck them out without knowing it. I do bare minimum cleanings during this time.

I feed them Hikari First Bites for the first 3 or 4 days because they're so small and just started a 4 day old batch on BBS this evening.

[brewmaster15]

I've had many spawns that were spawned and grown out in pretty hard water, 400+ TDS. Never had to use RO with rams. Just be very careful cleaning the tank. Ram fry are very small and scatter all over the place for the first week and it's easy to suck them out without knowing it. I do bare minimum cleanings during this time.

My waters no where near as hard as Brians but like him my rams are all spawned and grown out in my tap water.

[jwcarlson]

I want to know what demon lives in my water!

Brian, after I siphoned (only took a half gallon out), I let everything sit in a white bucket. Had two fry in there so I snagged them with a pipette and returned them to dad who happily placed them in the dish. I can do a change from the other side of the divider and keep their side fairly undisturbed now.
These are going to be big enough to eat BBS once they go free swimming?

[jwcarlson]

Ahh, I see you say first bites. Not sure what that is, but I do have several little bottles of golden pearls and fry powders that I can try.

[Charlyc11]

The golden pears should work if you have the right size I used the 50-100 micron I believe. They mostly ate the brine Shrimp they liked the live chase.

[AquaticNerd]

Always awesome to see folks working with breeding discus-adjacent fishes like Rams. Where did you get your pair of PBRs from? Liz? I absolutely LOVE how dark they are all around. I can't help myself from visiting pet stores when I go places and I don't think I've ever seen rams that dark sold in shops. Fantastic pair!

[Charlyc11]

Always awesome to see folks working with breeding discus-adjacent fishes like Rams. Where did you get your pair of PBRs from? Liz? I absolutely LOVE how dark they are all around. I can't help myself from visiting pet stores when I go places and I don't think I've ever seen rams that dark sold in shops. Fantastic pair!

These were developed by Coralbandit and he got them to be that dark. Liz got them from him and I got mine from Liz. They are hard to find but their are a few vendors out there.

[jwcarlson]

Always awesome to see folks working with breeding discus-adjacent fishes like Rams. Where did you get your pair of PBRs from? Liz? I absolutely LOVE how dark they are all around. I can't help myself from visiting pet stores when I go places and I don't think I've ever seen rams that dark sold in shops. Fantastic pair!

Yep, they're from Liz! It's amazing how dark they are, I happen to have them in a tank with a painted black back and I routinely cannot find one of the pair and it turns out it's just sitting still for a minute.

[jwcarlson]

I've had many spawns that were spawned and grown out in pretty hard water, 400+ TDS. Never had to use RO with rams. Just be very careful cleaning the tank. Ram fry are very small and scatter all over the place for the first week and it's easy to suck them out without knowing it. I do bare minimum cleanings during this time.

I feed them Hikari First Bites for the first 3 or 4 days because they're so small and just started a 4 day old batch on BBS this evening.

How high is your KH, Brian? What about you, Al?
I'm really perplexed as to what happens with my egg layers a few days down the line.

So, to be clear, the eggs are laid and look great. There will be something like 2-5 eggs scattered in that turn white after a day or two. But it stays like that and then suddenly like all of them get fuzzy white. So I guess that indicates fungus.

[jeep]

I'm not sure. Haven't tested kh in years. I go by ph and TDS, 8.3 aged and between 380-420. Last year when I had the die off, something drove TDS over 500 and ph was off the measurable scale.

[coralbandit]

I kept my fry in 100 TDS water.
That's what I bred in.
After a month you can adjust them to your water.
My tap was 350+ and they did fine.
It actually will make your life easier in many ways.
Raising fry in your tap you may find a pair that breeds in your tap.
Happened more than a few times to me.
They should be fine to eat live BBS right away and maybe go for the 50-100 golden pearls in one week.
Have fun~!
Hi everyone~!

[LizStreithorst]

Hi, Tom! Nice to see you pop in.

[brewmaster15]

I kept my fry in 100 TDS water.
That's what I bred in.
After a month you can adjust them to your water.
My tap was 350+ and they did fine.
It actually will make your life easier in many ways.
Raising fry in your tap you may find a pair that breeds in your tap.
Happened more than a few times to me.
They should be fine to eat live BBS right away and maybe go for the 50-100 golden pearls in one week.
Have fun~!
Hi everyone~!

Tom its awesome seeing here! Hope all is well!
Al

[coralbandit]

Hey Liz and Al~!
Good to see the fish are still around~!
Been busy with work and all.
No breeding for 2 years now ~!
I knew when Liz got these fish they were in the best hands possible.