Trouble With German Blue Ram Fry

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  Mickey said,

  You need to start feeding them after about day 5 and when they become belly whompers. They need to be fed baby or newly hatched brine shrimp and be fed it twice a day if not three times a day. As long as the PH of the tank they are in is within the range of the breeding tank then they get no benifit of useing that water. Just give them fresh water. That and keep the temp. around 79 degrees. Good Luck.

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  Sarah said,

  Hi Mickey,

  Thanks for sharing what works for you.

  We haven’t noticed a difference in the rams that were fed with the first bites vs. those just fed with the baby brine shrimp.

  Have you noticed a difference in yours?

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  Jay said,

  I am new at raising ram fry too. Still trying to get some to hatch. Tried leaving them in the main tank in with the community. Lost several batches that way. This last time I moved the new mom & dad & the stone with eggs from the 29 gal. community tank to a 10 gal. of their own. I kept the eggs wet & the parents calm. They ate all the eggs in about a hour.
  I am going to leave them in the 10 gal. tank to see if we have better luck with them being by their self’s & that means they and their egg can stay put. Some things I read on this say they will do fine together (mom/dad/fry) Some say take the mom out and others say the dad, yet others say take them both out after the fry swim and others say to pull them both out as soon as you have eggs.
  WHAT REALLY WORKS most every time, how & why??? Any help is very welcome. Thank you!

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  Sarah said,

  Hi Jay, it takes time for most fish to learn to parent raise their fry.

  The parents will often eat the fry if they are scared, or if they think another fish will eat the eggs.

  I know discus will even eat their own fry when they are ready to spawn again.

  We moved a pair of rams from a community tank to a 20 gallon, and they didn’t spawn for months.

  They seemed a lot shyer by themselves than they had in the group too.

  They finally started spawning again when we moved them back into the community tank with the rest of the rams.

  Since ours only spawn in the community tank I can’t tell you who it’s better to move out.

  We normally just move the eggs out, and hatch them in a separate tank.

  That’s the only thing that we’ve been 100% successful with.

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  Gord1 said,

  try raising your tank temperature (mine is 85)and softening your water my rams never spawn until i got the water to below 75 ppm i also use black water extract. I wonder if the community tank has a lower ph, ppm and higher temp as this is what work for me

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  Sarah said,

  Hi Gord1, welcome!

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  Jay said,

  I tried breeding rams a while back. I used a ratio of 1 gallon distilled water (from Giant) and 1 gallon tap water. Made cost a lot cheaper, and couldnt afford an RO filter at the time. I used black water extract to soften up the water, and put an .88 Home Depot clay pot in there for them to lay the eggs. Temp was 80, ph was 6.5. After the aggs were layed, I moved the parents and used Hydrogen peroxide as a fungus killer. It’s a ghetto method, but it works. 1 cap full for every 10 gallons is fine, twice a day. Thats what worked for me, and thats the cheapest way I figured out how to do it. Good luck!

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  Sarah said,

  Hi Jay, thanks for sharing what worked with you.

  How many fry did you get, and what did you do with them?

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  Alexandra said,

  Hi Jay, I’m trying to raise my ram fry myself could you please explain me in details how you do it? or anyone. Should I add the Hydrogen peroxide still when they hatch or not?
  thank you

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  Sarah said,

  Alexandra, we stop adding the hydrogen peroxide when all of the eggs are hatched or fungused, since the purpose of adding it is to keep the eggs from fungusing.

  We’ve also explained above how we raise or fry.

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  Alexandra said,

  ok thank you very much

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  Sarah said,

  You’re welcome.

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  Allan said,

  i been trying to breed my pair of german blue rams too! but i also have the problem of keeping the frys alive.

  i heard that newly hatched brineshrimp is to big for them and some say they could eat then =\ so if someone can please clarify that for me.

  i also heard that microworms does the trick too! but would frozen microworms from a LFS work?
  has anyone used LiquiFry before? and does it work?

  you can reply to me back at
  Allan_w28@hotmail.com

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  Sarah said,

  Hi Allan, we’ve always had good luck feeding newly hatched brine shrimp to our ram fry, but we’ve never tried microworms.

  Actually, I don’t remember ever seeing frozen microworms either.

  Let me know how they work if you try them.

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  Allan said,

  well right now i’m making a infurosia and i also got some brine shrimp eggs
  and also..i found out there isnt such a thing as frozen mircoworms =P maybe i dreamt it up.
  love your blog btw very helpful

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  Sarah said,

  Thank you Allan, and good luck with the rams. There’s so much frozen stuff that it’s easy to get confused!

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  Noah said,

  Sometime in the near future i am gonna break down and resetup a gallon tank. I wanted a few rams to get a pair and it a community with some tetras, i was wondering if a pair formed, i could section off a portion of the tank for the parents?

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  Sarah said,

  Noah, I’m assuming you meant more than a one gallon tank – that is way to small for a pair of rams, much less any other tanks. We have divided some tanks for bettas, but the tank has to be empty in order to do it, so the glue can dry. Even then the fry can swim through the holes into the other part of the tank where they can be eaten. Also the adult fish sometimes figure out how to cross the barrier, and I’ve even heard of adults sucking the fry out of fry traps, so there is no guarantee that the fry will be safe. They parents might even eat the fry if they feel they or the fry are in danger, or if they are young and inexperienced danger. Good luck, and I’d love to know what you decide to do, and how it works out.

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  Tony said,

  I am trying just getting the eggs to hatch. It seems on the secind day after laying the eggs that about 10% didn’t get fertilized, later on that day about 60% looked unfertilized (white). On the third day the parents eat all the eggs, this has happened for the second time now. They are just laying a new batch as I write this e-mail, it is 10 PM right now, do you think I should get most of the eggs out by tomorrow night just to give them a chance to get fertilized? I bought one of those hatcheries that hang on to the tank so I’m thinking of transfering the eggs there close to the filter to achieve some water circulation. The eggs were laid on the substrate so I’m just going to get a spoon and take that part out. The tank is fully mature, I’ve had it for about 1 year and all the fish seem fine. I am a little worried about Trumpet Snails coming out at night and eating the eggs but I have read somewhere they do not eat fertilized eggs. I have not had this problem in the past but just wondering. I think this post is great, any help would be appreciated. Water params: pH: 6.7-6.9, Nitrates < 20 ppm, Temp: 84 F.

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  Sarah said,

  Hi Tony, the parents might take a few (or more) tries to get it right, but if there are other fish in the tank they might eat the eggs if they are scared the other fish will eat them. The eggs should be fertilized as they are laid – the male usually follows behind the female to fertilize the eggs, so you should be able to take them out of the tank as soon as they finish to maximize your chances of getting fertilized eggs.

  The eggs do need some water circulation, but they don’t need too much. We always had the best luck with a sponge filter in a 10 gallon aquarium, but I know that isn’t always an option.

  If you are using a fish hatchery, I’ve heard some reports of eggs and fry being sucked through the slits in the hatchery, and eaten. They also might be small enough to swim through the slits when they hatch. Good luck with your fry, I know it can be frustrating to try to figure everything out.

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