# Bolivian Ram Spawn: A Journey



## Dizzcat (Aug 26, 2008)

Hi everyone!! I wanted to share a wonderful journey I have had the past week with you all. It has been so cool!

On December 20th my Bolivian Rams gave me a wonderful Christmas surprise!

So, I am ashamed to admit the past week or so I have been terribly neglectful of my tanks. I would stop long enough to feed them, but have been so busy I have not had time to enjoy them this past week.

I decided to give my community tank a treat of blood worms on Saturday, and lo and behold my mama Ram was hovering over a huge clutch of wigglers! This is the biggest batch I have ever seen them produce! Over a 100!

They have spawned 6 times. First batch was a success. Every one since then mama ate the wigglers as they hatched. Last time she beat the crud out of the male, then ate them again.

I had noticed some sparing going on between the male and female the past couple weeks, but ignored it as their normal behavior. However, I should have gotten the clue because when the female pushes back at the male she is actually receptive (from past spawning behavior).

So, I did a fast heavy duty cleaning job and put up the divider. As I was cleaning, the female collected all the wigglers in her mouth and held them till all was settled back down. I have never seen her do that! She then dug a pit with her nose and put them back in it. To my luck she has kept them mostly right up against the glass in front. She spent all day Sunday moving them between 3 pits. Today they are up against the glass next to the divider. The male will swim over and check on them thru the divider. I gave her a shrimp pellet to munch on and she chewed it up and spit crumbs into the wiggler pile. I then squirted some baby brine shrimp into the pile. Don't know if they could eat it, but they sure got excited! LOL

So tonight I am watching them take little swimming squirts. So adorable! I expect they will be free swimming tomorrow or Weds.

What a sweet gift they gave me!! The only thing different in the tank from the past unsuccessful attempts is I got a new heater and its between 80 and 82 in the tank now. The old heater was "preset" to 78 but rarely got above 74 in the cold.

Here is a pic of the wigglers, and one of mama hovering over them fanning.



















Here's a little video of mama fanning and protecting her youngins  Not the best, my camcorder is on the fritz so used the digital camera. She was mad at me for sticking the camera in her face LOL

http://s530.photobucket.com/albums/dd35 ... y2Best.flv

Below is a pic of the parents from a few months ago when they tried before. The mama ate the eggs as they hatched with that batch.









--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
December 23:
Tuesday: And we have lift off!!! YAY!! About half are now free swimming! They only get about an inch off the bottom, but enough to be driving mama to distraction LOL. I am so proud of her!!! FINALLY a great spawn. I have just been waiting a year and a half for her to get the eggs to this point. Its so addicting to watch too, I am staring at them thru a magnifying glass instead of working on holiday gifts LOL.

Later:
Such Drama! LOL

I am watching and a little guy got thru the divider some how. Don't ask me how, its covered with netting and I see no holes! Well, I am watching him when the papa grabs it. I think, Oh poor little thing! Thinking papa was going to eat it. Well, instead he gave the fry a bath and put him in his own pit LOL. So, papa is patrolling the divider, and if he finds any that get thru he is collecting them and putting them in his own pit! I would remove the divider and let him help if I knew she wouldn't attack him like before. At least he has his own couple to care for. 
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Christmas Eve: Day 2 Fee Swimming.

Today they are everywhere! LOL I can see how they are getting to the papa's side of the tank. They are swimming right thru the side where the divider meets the tank wall. I guess since mom isn't attacking him thru the divider I will remove it later today.

And here is a video of the swimmers! http://s530.photobucket.com/albums/dd35 ... y2Best.flv

This is Mama with fry. Its very hard to get a clear pic cuz they move so much, hard to focus, and they are so tiny! 









Later:
Came home today after some last minute shopping. OMGosh is it crazy out there! The traffic was horrible!

Anywho.... The fry are twice as strong as when I left this morning. Now papa has about 50 on his side and mom has about 100 on her side. They love the baby brine shrimp I squirt in there. I really wish I could get a good close up of them, they are so **** cute! They look like eyeballs with a tail LOL.

Dec 25:

Day 3 Free swimmers:

This is so fascinating! I didn't really see any of this behavior with my one successful batch before because I put the fry in a ten gallon almost as soon as they became free swimming. So didn't see how the parents care for them.

The parents communicate to the fry thru colors. As the parents hover in one spot, their over all shade is a pretty pearl color, and their chests are a bight gold. I have found this to mean all is well. When acting this way the fry explore and play. They stay within a 4 inch circle around the adult tho. Every once in awhile one will go off to explore, but always comes back. If the adult swims off to another spot they all follow in a little group. 

Last night before lights out I watched the papa put the "kids" to bed. Mom was already the black color they get when sleeping and all the fry under her were fairly still. Papa was still awake, with his gold chest so his group of about 50 were still active. He dug a pit out under a piece of drift wood, then they all followed him under there. Then he took on the "sleep" colors and they all huddled into a group in the pit under him and went still! So amazing!

They are about twice as big today as yesterday, not saying much tho, still as small as a pin head. Much stronger and active too.

Today my daughter and her boyfriend stopped to pick me up so we could go to my sons. My daughter and I were bagging up presents to take when I looked over. Her boyfriend had his face pressed to the tank, looking thru my magnifying glass LOL. We couldn't get him to leave! He was so enchanted with the tiny fry swimming all around the mama!

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Day 4 Dec 26, 08:

Last night I watched as I turned the lights off in the tank. When I turned them off the whole batch, ALL of them, made a mass exodus to the fathers side of the tank! They swam past the divider and went to his side! I turned the light back on and they did a mass move back to mom's side! When I turned them back off, back they go to dad. How weird!! So then I peeked about an hour after lights out with a flashlight and there they were, all still, huddled in a big pile under the dad.

Got Wonderful pictures today!
Finally a close up! They are on day 4 of free swimming. About day 9 since the spawn. 









Close up of Mama watching over them. 









Close up of Papa with his group. 









Mama in "sleep" colors with a batch under her. 









The divider set up. Mama on one side, papa on the other. I have been hesitant to take it out because the suction from pulling it out of the sand may bury some.









Here is a close up video of the fry. mama was attacking the camera 

http://s530.photobucket.com/albums/dd35 ... loseup.flv

I hope you all have enjoyed this! I have really been having fun with this journey the past week!

I will add more as they grow. 
Happy Holidays!
Cathy


----------



## DeadFishFloating (Oct 9, 2007)

Awesome Cathy, :thumb:

Keep up the blog.


----------



## edburress (Jun 9, 2007)

Congrats :thumb:

Thanks for sharing the details, it was a very interesting read. It sounds like they are doing a great job!


----------



## Dizzcat (Aug 26, 2008)

Thank you for reading!  I love sharing this with someone, but everyone I know thinks I am nuts LOL. 

Its fun to share what I have been observing and learning! I would have loved to have something like this to read the first time they spawned, so I would have known what to expect. 
:fish: :fish: :fish:


----------



## DiscusQueen (Jul 16, 2007)

Hi there.. Congrats Cathy :thumb: =D> Loved reading it as I never got to see that behavior when I had mine.. too many other fish in the tank LOL.. Please keep up the thread with new pics.. I'll be watching and I'm sure I'm not alone. opcorn: opcorn: Sue


----------



## Dizzcat (Aug 26, 2008)

Thank you for reading!  I love sharing this with someone, but everyone I know thinks I am nuts LOL. 

Its fun to share what I have been observing and learning! I would have loved to have something like this to read the first time they spawned, so I would have known what to expect. 
:fish: :fish: :fish:


----------



## edburress (Jun 9, 2007)

> I would have loved to have something like this to read the first time they spawned, so I would have known what to expect.


I have an article in the library about breeding them...
http://www.cichlid-forum.com/articles/b ... sa_pt1.php

and the BRC Bolivian Rams Club thread contains 97 pages of info...
http://www.cichlid-forum.com/phpBB/view ... start=1440

It sounds like their behavior was spot on. They've done a good job. I wouldn't divide them in the future, it's common for the female to not allow the male near the fry the first day or two. Goodluck :thumb:

Ed


----------



## andrew__ (Aug 5, 2006)

It'll also depend on the fish. I just had to move my female out of my rams' tank because the male wouldn't let her near and was getting very aggressive.

Great post. :thumb: Mine also began swimming around Christmas. They've just started to venture really far from the parents sometime mid afternoon. I'm hoping I'll still have luck getting food to them all!


----------



## DeadFishFloating (Oct 9, 2007)

> Thank you for reading! I love sharing this with someone, but everyone I know thinks I am nuts LOL.


Yup, know the feeling.


----------



## Dizzcat (Aug 26, 2008)

My female is very wicked when it comes to her fry! What gets me is she will make him leave after the eggs are laid, then fan them till they hatch, but in every spawn between the first one and this one she would eat the wigglers as they hatched. Wish I could ask why :roll:

Isn't it fun Andrew? I use an eye dropper and squirt the bbs into the group (the parents attack it too). If I see some strays or some by the papa I squirt some over there too.

So, its now day 9 since I found the wigglers. They are now swimming all over the place. Still stay within a 5" distance from the parents tho. There are some that are taking a nap right now  . All huddled down sleeping under a plant. A few have died. Probably because they were not well. In all I'd say there are still about 100 in there.

I took out the divider a little bit ago. All was well for about 2 minutes, then mom started charging pops. There is a definite line drawn in the sand and if he crosses it she charges him. He does have his little group around him tho. She is in her corner, where most of the fry are and he is over under a plant. I moved another Amazon sword into the middle so that it gives a bit of a natural divider. I will keep an eye on them and if it gets too intense will put the divider back up.

Just checked on them and he is behind the plant, she's in her corner and the fry are spread out between the two. I guess she is accepting him to a certain point now.

Here's some pics of the drama earlier:

This is the fry today:









Mama see's pops after the divider came out:









She charges him and he fights back:









He finally goes behind the plant:









She watches over things from her corner:


----------



## Dizzcat (Aug 26, 2008)

Day 10:

Well, not much has changed in the past day. The fry are a bit more adventurous today, swimming farther away and exploring. I found about 10 dead little guys. I think the ones with health issues are passing on. I have noticed the ones who don't look very strong are about half the size as the strong, adventurous ones.

:fish: :fish: :fish: :fish: :fish: :fish: :fish: :fish:


----------



## Dizzcat (Aug 26, 2008)

Happy New Year everyone!!  I hope everyone had a nice night last night  I just stayed home and enjoyed the quiet. I did make it to midnight this year tho LOL :thumb: I decided last year no more drinking for me! I had the worst hangover last year, yuck! 

Well, today is day 10 since they became free swimming. I had noticed that the parents were starting to loose interest in protecting them and also that a lot were starting to die off. I think they were starving  So, last night I put my breeders net in and used a little medicine dropper and caught all that I could find and put them in the net. There are only about 15 left out of over 100. I then dropped a 1/4 of a chunk of frozen baby brine shrimp into the net for them , so it would defrost slowly and they could eat. When I first put them in all but one were very weak and slow, just hovering on the bottom. There is one who I had a heck of a time catching, it was fast and is about twice as big as the others. Figure this one got himself a lot of food. Well, when I checked on them this morning all were back swimming around instead of hovering at the bottom like last night. They look a bit fatter too. :thumb: I will leave them in the net for a few days, so they can find their food with no trouble, then transfer them into the 10 gallon where they can grow out.

The problem was, even tho I squirted the BBS into the group 3-4 times a day I guess it just floated off with the current before they could really eat enough. :-( I was even squirting it on the sand and into some Java moss hoping some would stay for them.

The first batch the Rams had I moved about 30 into a 5 gallon Eclipse the day after they became free swimming. Out of those I ended up with 8 that grew into young adults before I gave them away. I wonder why that group didn't have the feeding problems this group did?

So, as of now I am doing my best to help the tiny guys get their strength back and fatten them up.

Fingers crossed!! :fish: :fish: :fish:


----------



## gage (Feb 7, 2007)

DeadFishFloating said:


> > Thank you for reading! I love sharing this with someone, but everyone I know thinks I am nuts LOL.
> 
> 
> Yup, know the feeling.


me to...

Congrats on the fry! and good luck with raising the remainders! i dont know enough about bolivians to answer your question, if they were keyholes on the other hand...


----------



## edburress (Jun 9, 2007)

> I wonder why that group didn't have the feeding problems this group did?


I think since the first group only went one day free-swimming in the main tank, they never had a time when food was hard to find. This group went 10 days, which is a long time in the tank, especially for bolivians. It says a lot about the parents that they raised them for that long! It's hard to get enough food to fry in the aquarium, I use an eye dropper to squirt it into the group of fry. But like you said, if it floats away without them eating enough of it, there isn't much you can do. But if they lived 10 days they were finding a little food. They'll figure it out and be fine :thumb:


----------



## Dizzcat (Aug 26, 2008)

> They'll figure it out and be fine Thumb


I really hope so! If this past week had not been so crazy with the holidays I probably would have noticed a lot sooner! They seemed to be a lot perkier when I checked on them before lights out tonight. I REALLY want these little guys to make it!


----------



## andrew__ (Aug 5, 2006)

I found when I squirted food at my fry the male would move them all to another spot! made it a bit difficult to feed them  good luck with your remaining fry.


----------

