HELP! My Bollivian butterfly rams spawned!

[Anasfire]

Hey all, I'm so excited! I've had these gorgeous little butterfly ram's for about a month now and never in a million years did I think it was likely I had a breeding pair (seeing as they mate for life) let alone getting them to spawn. I just got them coz I love how beautiful and peaceful they are. I did a MASSIVE 75% water change and gravel vac on Saturday and today I noticed the end of my fake log ornament looked strange so when I went to feed them I looked closer and noticed eggs. My first reaction was giddiness then it was panic and then confusion. I wasn't exactly sure who's eggs they were. I've got cory's in there and BN which are egg layers but I was sure that the BN and cory's would chose a cave so then thought it must be the rams. Not long after coming to that realisation did I cotton on that there was a pair hanging around the eggs..DER

Here are some photo's I managed to snap

Now I've been searching google for all the info I can get my hands on about them..eg how long the eggs will take to hatch, what to feed them, if the parent's help or will eat them etc.

I'm going to temporarily re home the majority of the fish into my heated 2ft with my baby tiger oscar Veronica until I can get the ram fry out (when the parent's lose interest in caring for them) and the I'll sort out a grow out tank for them.

I am soooo excited.

Has anyone else ever bred butterfly rams? any advice for me so I don't crash google with all my surfing?

[fighter boy]

if you wanted to do the hatching yourself you could always temporarily set up a small bucket or tank filled with a little bit of water and hatch them yourself. be sure to place them or evenbetter place the object they are on in teh tank and keep the tank stats as similar as the 4fter as possible. you can add methelyn blue to prevent fungaling of the eggs.

feed the babbies bbs and take it from there.

completly up to you.

[Anasfire]

I was thinking of that but I don't think I'm quite skilled enough with this species yet to attempt that. I'll just move the inhabitants of the tank for now. worst care scenario we're looking at a fortnight or so of them being moved, not such a big deal.

[fighter boy]

true. its better to let nature take its course. i hope veronica is freindly and wont attack any of teh poor fishies with her.

[Anasfire]

ok well Veronica attached and killed 2 fish, female bettas!! was not happy Jan so moved her to a 12L heated alone. Eggs seem to have hatched as they are no longer attached to the ornament but I can't seem to see where the pair have put them, if at all. I'm thinking maybe the cory's ate some or perhaps the goby's. I didn't think they'd have much chance getting close enough with the male being as protective as he is. They seem to still be hanging around the area where the eggs where but at a spot just under it near the gravel. Not sure if the hatched fry are in there but I can't see any at the moment. I guess time will tell. I'm planning another water change on the weekend as there are a few algae covered shell pieces in there that now seem to be growing some kind of long stringy algae that attaches itself to everything and I need to get them out so they may just spawn for me again if I'm lucky. this time I might just move the object to a smaller heated tank and see if I can hatch them myself. Might have better luck.

[fighter boy]

sorry to hear cassi. hope they werent worth too much or set you back on your breeding.

i would suggest hatching them yourself.

they probebly have moved them somewhere more secure.

keep on the look out.

[Anasfire]

They were females I'd bred thankfully and none of the ones we had plans to spawn at any point but perhaps could have sold in the future. It's not a huge loss. I might do that WC today actually, I'm home sick from college and just hanging around the house anyway so I may as well. Man it's a pain though emptying this 180L tank with a 15L bucket...one bucket at a time! I think I need a really long hose or something so I can just siphon it out into the bath tub. Something to look into!

I've been looking everywhere for the fry, they should be bigger than betta fry, the eggs were bigger so one would assume larger fry but I still can't see them anywhere. Both parents seem to still be hanging around that area so perhaps they did just move them and they're on the look out for predators. I'll keep looking and in any event I won't be doing a gravel vac today so shouldn't such up any fry if there are indeed any left

[Anasfire]

Just a small update on my Rams, I still have the breeding pair and they've spawned a further 3 times since that initial spawn but no fry have survived. I spoke to the guy at my LFS and he suggested removing the female and the object on which the eggs were laid and place them in a tank to hatch but she ended up getting so stressed and ignored the eggs, which got fungused and eaten by snails. They have also laid twice in their regular community tank, this time on the gravel as I've removed their favourite laying ornament and haven't seem to got the gist that there are other rocks and things in there that they could use. I am considering placing both of them into a 2ft tank with thier laying ornament and seeing what happens. Wouldn't mind seeing if I can raise Ram fry and add a few more to the colony.