Rams

[lisa wrischnik <wrisch@mendel.Berkeley.EDU>]

Hi everyone,
Before I evicted my German Rams to make room for more apistos,
I had several pairs in a 40 gal tank, and I did manage to
raise up some fry.  The tank itself was heavily planted, with
driftwood and clay tiles for the fish to spawn upon.

I tried to keep the hardness between 20-30ppm by mixing tap water
with RO water.  I kept the pH between 5-5.5 using a non-
phosphorus-containing acid buffer (Kent pH minus). To keep the
pH at safe levels, though, I would do many water changes with
water of a slightly higher pH than this, and I used my handheld
pH meter rigorously! Wright is probably correct about the
advantages of peat-I have bags at home, but I'm just too lazy
to boil the stuff. (Yeah, but I'll do all that pH-ing. Sigh).
Instead, I have been using Blackwater Extract.

In regards to whether or not Kevin has a pair, I think
that Wright's description was correct: my females had shorter
anterior dorsal rays and also had pronounced pink bellies compared
to the males. In my case, the females were also substantially 
smaller than the males (3-4 cm vs. 7-8 cm or so).

One of the biggest problems that I had was that my German Rams 
were kinda stupid.  None of my various pairings ever learned how 
to care for the fry, so I was forced to raise the eggs myself. I
believe that Golden Rams are also an aquarium strain, so Kevin
might have the same problem.

Raising the fry had its own set of problems, too, and I wasn't ever 
too successful.  I would put the eggs (and whatever they were laid
on) into a tupperware container that I floated in the same tank as
the parents.  These containers had openings for water flow covered
with netting, and I would let part of the outflow of a sponge filter
fall into the container.  

The times I had success were when this container was disgusting 
and filled with gunk and algae.  The tiny fry may have been eating
 some of the Liquifry I was feeding them, but I think they mostly 
ate whatever other little beasties were being cultured in the gross 
container.  When I tried raising fry in clean, new containers on 
Liquifry alone, I would lose them. I did'nt try APR, so maybe that 
would work better.  Within a few days the fry can eat baby brine.

(There is a very knowledgeable aquarist in England who did a 
very detailedanalysis of this phenomenon and sent it to "he to 
whom I am married"; he found that his Ram fry never touched 
Liquifry itself, but that the Liquifry was a good thing to add to 
a "fry container"(floating margarine cups, in this case) because 
it stimulated bacterial growth, which the fry would eat.). I learned
this a little too late.

Ummm, so there.  I seem to have gotten a little carried away. 

May as well start a thread while I'm here: How many times do
most of you let your females spawn unsuccessfully before 
removing the eggs or fry?  For example, I have several 
young females that started off doing a poor job of fry-
rearing. For example, my N. anomala has laid 4 clutches 
of eggs and only had fry once, which she then abandonded 
after several days.  The same happened to my A. borelli.
So far, I just let them keep trying, but I would like to know 
what others do in these situations. 
Thanks,
Lisa 
wrisch@mendel.berkeley.edu