Breeding bolivian butterfly rams...

[rollergirl]

Well after only 3 weeks in domestic bliss together my bolivian butterfly rams have got busy and laid eggs in their little terracotta pot :bounce:

Now they are at this stage, I'd like a bit of advice on what to do to ensure the eggs actually hatch..

The rams are in a 2 foot (54L approx) tank, with dark gravel and a few plants (just some braziliensis swords and a couple of indian fern). pH around 6.8, temp 27-28. Not sure on nitrate level at the moment as I've run out of one of the solutions in the test kit(will get new kit asap), but would assume it's low as the tank has only been setup a month and gets 20-30% water changes once a week.

At the moment I have 5 glowlight tetras in there with the rams just for aesthetics, but can always move these to the planted community tank if necessary.

I'm not exactly sure how old the eggs are as I wasn't home all of yesterday/last night, and can't say for sure whether they were there or not the day before...(been a bit distracted with back to uni stuff! :oops: ) but they definitley weren't there on the weekend. So anywhere between 24-48 hours old is my guess, and maybe even today as the boy didn't notice any yesterday when he was feeding.

So....my question list...

1) Should I take the glowlights out?

2) I've heard that the eggs will only hatch if the tank is in darkness, is this true?

3) How long till the fry hatch?

4) Will the fry need to be seperated from the parents? And what is best to feed them? (I was thinking baby brine shrimp and micro-fine flake once they are older, opinions?)

5) I don't have a grow out tank, but can get hold of a 40L tank if necessary, will this be sufficient?

Ok...that's probably enough questioning for now...As you can all probably tell I'm not exactly experienced with breeding these guys and don't expect to get it right the first time (although it would be great of course). To be honest- I really didn't expect them to spawn this fast, I wasn't even sure my new ram was a female or not yet! Having said that- it's good to know they get on at least for future reference, even if I stuff this one up.

So, any advice you guys have on caring for eggs and fry for my little guys would be greatly appreciated

Cheers so much,

Tash

[rollergirl]

UPDATE: The little wrigglers have hatched!

:bounce: :bounce:

Have been watching their mum transfer them by mouth to the little hole that dad dug out for the last hour...There's a bunch of them (looks about 150 odd although hard to tell) squirming away in their gravel pit, with dad standing guard as she transfers more over ...So cool and amazing to watch as it's my first experience watching fish really breed (apart from livebearers).

So-I managed to answer some of my own questions from yesterday (the internet is a beautiful thing...) and here's what I've done:

Removed glowlight tetras and placed fine mesh over filter intake (it's a sucky-pushy internal filter-was planning to get one of the sponge filters but as I said didn't expect any procreation this fast! So had to make do with the bio-filter I have for now and just wound a really fine mesh bag over the intake part so they don't get sucked in. Have also diverted flow to the top of the tank more so that once they are free swimming they don't get too pushed around)

Setup 40L hexagonal tank for grow out that I stole from mum's (she wasn't too great at keeping fish alive :-? ) Its current inhabitants are the pearl gourami and albino cory that came with it (both looking pretty sad and skinny I must say...Have had a grouch at mum and told her they are in a better place now), I treated these guys in a 2x concentration methylene blue (sp?) bath for 20 mins before putting them back in just in case (I know their water conditions weren't that great...) so will keep in there for QT for 2 weeks while the ram fry grow a little with their parents, then will move them (gourami + cory) to the planted community and move the ram fry into the 40L for grow out. (I've heard the parents can spawn again in 2 weeks and get stroppy at the fry then).

For now though I'm planning on leaving the fry with their parents. Have ordered some microworm culture from trade me and will start feeding this to the fry in 3 days when they are free swimming, then move on to baby brine shrimp and finely ground flake once they are a little bigger. Plan on feeding 3x daily and doing a small W/C (5-10%) after each feed to keep nitrogenous waste down as I hear the fry are ultra sensitive to nitrates, etc in the water. On this topic-what do you guys think of having a nitra-zorb pouch in the water to help with keeping nitrates down? (I have a brand new spare one floating around but don't know if its a good idea with fry or not.)

Anyway-that's the plan-hoping furiously that it's sucessful, I'm so stoked to have babies I really want to bring them up right! Hopefully in a couple months time I'll have a whole bunch of little bolivians to rehome Will keep everyone posted on the process anyway!

[jim r]

That is a pretty big family, have fun. :lol:

[rollergirl]

Updating for those who are interested:

Fry have been free swimming for 3 days now :bounce: and can see they have gotten bigger already. I'm feeding 3-4x daily (they're pretty hungry little things-lucky I usually finish uni before 12 so they get a breakfast, lunch, dinner and supper!) and feeding mostly microworms now as my culture has taken off and they do seem to like these the best. On the first couple of days they also got bbs at intervals but the microworms definitley seem to be favoured, so I think I'll stick with these for the next week or so until they are a little bigger. I'm also doing a 10-15% W/C daily an hour after the lunchtime feed to keep nitrates down.

Mum and dad (fish not my mum and dad lol) are doing really well too if a bit exhausted looking (wouldn't you be if you had over 100 kids!) so to say thanks I gave them a special treat of bloodworms today

On a side note our lounge is now almost completely full of tanks. Filled up our 4 foot marine tank last night and added live rock so not too long till we can start stocking that, just going to give it a week or so to balance out and keep an eye on ammonia, nitrite etc (although with live rock we hopefully shouldn't get any). I have also bought a larger 180L tank to replace my 130l planted community (when I get the time to do the swap!), plus just bought another little 20l jebo tank from t/m to have as a spare or maybe (just maybe) to look at breeding killies in in the future... These of course to go along with the 120L hexagonal clown and softie tank and the 40L hex fry grow-out tank....LOL now can you imagine all this in a tiny 2 bedroom house?!!

Yep-have most definitely fallen victim to a severe case of MTS!! :lol: Will have pics up after the weekend hopefully so people can see what I'm talking about.

Cheers,

Tash