# need to know what can i feed gold ram fry on



## mojo298 (Nov 30, 2010)

im trying to find out what is best to feed gold ram fry on without polluting thew water for them im thinking of trying lobster eggs as i feed these to my maturing rams as i still have some juvies and i have noticed very good growth rates on lobster eggs.

also i do not have the fry as yet my female is ever fattening and getting really pink im expecting eggs some time this week.

when they spawn i will remove what they spawn in to a 10 litre breeding tank that i will fill with matured water from my 120 litre cant leave them in my 120 litre they will be eaten and i want to raise em :fish: there isnt anything in the 10 litre as yet not even water so ill just move the ornament they spawn on into there and possibly put my corydora in there in a net to help keep the water matured give me your thoughts on this plan ?

please i could really use some help and top tips to see a good mortality rate form the fry as i know ram fry is hard to raise.


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## flashbang (Jun 23, 2010)

Hi, best of luck.
I have had a little sucess with them in the past. the parents are not very good at looking after the eggs. fungus on the eggs is my main problem,and when i was lucky enough to get a few fry they were soooooooo tiny.
baby brine shrimp are too big for them at first so i fed infusoria and micro worm.at first i couldnt see them eating anything and i thought they would not survive, what a relief when they started to eat the baby brine shrimp.
dont put the corys in the tank either just the eggs


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## mojo298 (Nov 30, 2010)

thanks flashbang this adivce has been helpful . 
there still holding out on me and my female is getting even bigger expecting a large spawn from them.just to top it the 2 bolivians i keep in a seperate 20g tank are looking prominent to spawn


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## WaterRat980 (Feb 22, 2011)

Mojo,

I have been a "lurker" on this site for a long time, but your post finally got me to join. I have been breeding Rams for a long time and I am still haunted by the nightmares of watching as whole spawns died due to my ineptness and lack of knowledge when I first started with rams. I don't want to bore other members who may be more experienced as me, but let me first offer you my advice, then, if you want more information, you can reply (or PM) and I'll be more than happy to provide you with more detailed instructions.

From my experience, baby rams are among the most difficult cichlids to raise, primarily due to their small size. You could start with infusoria, but I have had mixed success (mostly bad). My best success has been using a combination of vinegar eels and baby brine shrimp (bbs). For more information on vinegar eels, google ventralfins (sorry, the system would not allow me to post a link). The greatest advantages to using eels are; 1) They are ridiculously easy to culture and harvest, 2) They are only slightly larger than infuroria, and 3) They live for days in fresh water, so if uneaten, they will not pollute the tank.

From the day my fry reach free swimming, I'll add a squirt of the clear culture into the tank. Beginning day two, I'll start to add some bbs, but not just any brine shrimp, but San Francisco Bay brine shrimp...and yes, there is a difference. Most brine shrimp here in the US are collected from Salt Lake, Utah. SFB brine shrimp are approximately 1/2 to 3/4 the size of Salt Lake brine shrimp, so they are much smaller. Some of the ram fry are actually able to eat the SFB brine shrimp immediately after entering the free swimming phase. The rest will eat the vinegar eels until they are large enough to eat the brine shrimp (approx one week). After that, you can discontinue feeding the vinegar eels and feed only the brine shrimp.

I'd offer to send you a starter culture of the eels, but since you live on the wrong side of the pond, the postage would probably cost more than your rams and the culture may not arrive alive. You may be able to find a starter culture from a fellow hobbyist in your area.

Sorry for the long-winded response, and if you need more information, just let me know. There's nothing worse (in fish-keeping) than to watch an entire spawn of otherwise healthy fish die slowly from starvation and not know what to do about it.

Good Luck7


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## nightowl1350 (Nov 26, 2005)

I fed my new rams microworms for the first week, then added hatched brine shrimp, or even decapsulated shrimp eggs. Good luck with the fry. They are tiny so don't over feed as it will foul the tank quick. I raised BN plecos at the same time I had rams so I added 4 or 5 small ones to do clean up duty.


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