Bolivian Rams breeding :)

Sometimes you are convinced about stuff and it turns around to bite you in the @$$

Ok, long story short-ish...
We were "convinced" we had 2 male BRs. They were brightly coloured and happy, really cool little guys.

Last night I noticed the larger male cleaning off a rock surface but thought nothing of it, this afternoon I noticed eggs on the surface. Much head-scratching ensued hehe. Actually we initially thought the eggs were either from rosyfin tetras or siamese algae eaters.

Not fully understanding what was going on we noticed what looked like the male was eating the eggs...PANIC STATIONS (was cooking dinner at the time so I didnt investigate too closely). We took a net to cover the eggs. The BRs werent too phased by this and continued laying eggs on top of the net :idea:
We had a close look at the ventricals and realised we had a male/female pair though the female looks very close to a male.

We took the net out to a small breeder tank to see if they would develop. Keeping it in the net since there are some snails in there and no parents to protect them.

So now I have danio fry, shelly fry and soon bolivian ram fry to deal with....wish me luck people

 

Good luck guy... Hope there do well pity about timing though I am coming to east London at the end of the month...

 

Hey Lizid, thanks for the wishes. Be sure to visit If you can stand the extra 300km trip from EL to PE

 

Ok it sounds like my trip to EL has been canceled damn it...

 

Congrats jedigenie
I feel you other fish sorry as the Rams get very edgy and chase other fish away.
Once they start you can get them spawning every 2 odd months.
Did they start digging holes yet?

 

No but the german blue rams I had before did dig holes. They havent been overly territorial (yet) but they are guarding the eggs closely. The only potentialy egg snatchers are the SAEs and they have been behaving themselves.

The BRs breeding is just the icing on the cake for me, I havent enjoyed fish this much before. Its easy to see why people pass up Bolivians when they are at the LFS, they are really unremarkable till you get them home in a tank suited to them. Really amazing little fish full of personality and they seem to love people company. Mine are always following me when I walk by and face up against the glass when I am near. They even do a little jig Hopefully I will have a few youngsters to pass on to forum members to enjoy =)

 

Hey! Congrats on the Spawn!!

I just wanted to ask why you removed the eggs? Bolivain Rams make excellent parents and they will manage to raise the fry. Even in a community tank! I had 2 Pairs in my old Discus Community tank, with about 9 apistogrammas and Tetras and Cory's and 4 very large discus. They managed to raise all the fry to the free swimming stage, which is when the other fish started eating them. Mine would also breed EVERY 2 weeks. Like clockwork!

They are fantastic fish! Loads of personality.

 

I didnt remove all the eggs, only about 10 that were on the net I so foolishly put over the other eggs. Since they would have been loose if I removed them from the net I thought it better to place them in a small tank that I had ready.

 

Eggs have hatched Ladies and Gentlemen, we have wrigglers

 

PICS! Or it didn't happen!!

 

Got them covered with some java moss at the mo. Will take some pics soon as they a bit more mobile.

 

Here's a pic showing BR parenting skills