German Blue Rams and pH

[joel and angie wasdyke <joel_ang@visi.com>]

These experiments might interest those of you who are blue ram fans.

>From previous discussions on several boards I decided to conduct some
experiments with spawning rams in various pHs. I set up 13 pairs for these
tests at different pHs.

The standard method for hatching the eggs was to fill a gallon container
with tank water, siphon the eggs into the container 24 hours after spawning,
float the container in the main tank and see what the hatch percentage was
after 48 hours. The water in the container was exchanged with tank water
twice daily. The water was 75%RO/25%tap.

For the first set of tests I did not add any anti-fungal or airstones to the
containers.

At 5.5 a hatch percentage of 80%-90% was acheived.
At 6.0 50%-70% was acheived.
At 6.5 20%-30% was achieved.
At 7.0 0% was achieved.

In all cases the ones that did not hatch fungused very quickly.

To change the experiment I then added meth blue and airstones to the
containers and did not change the water.

At 7.0 a 70%-90% was achieved. I have not tried lower yet as I do not think
that the percentage will get appreciably higher.

One item about this is that none of the higher pH hatches has been hatched
longer than 3 weeks yet and that is when they will die off after hatching.
The higher pH may still have some affect on the fry.  The lower pH data is
based on earlier spawns and will be updated with info from new spawns at the
lower pH.

(post date information. At this time, one week after hatching in 7.0, the
survival rate is down to about 25%.)

One other item. One of the males in the pairs has the color pattern of a
gold ram. It is showing a lack of black markings from the gill plates to the
tail. I am not sure if this is a fright coloration or if it will keep it as
it grows. Either way, I am keeping some of the young when this pair spawns
to see if it
follows into the next generation and see how many generations it takes to
keep the pattern on most of the fish hatched.  Also, even at the 1" length
the pairs are pretty vicious about protecting the eggs.

Joel 


-------------------------------------------------------------------------
This is the apistogramma mailing list, apisto@majordomo.pobox.com.
For instructions on how to subscribe or unsubscribe or get help,
email apisto-request@majordomo.pobox.com.
Search http://altavista.digital.com for "Apistogramma Mailing List Archives"!