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We picked up a small pair of German rams at our fish club auction last weekend. They are currently in a 5.5g with river pebbles for substrate, a piece of driftwood, and some plants. Tank temp is 80, pH 7.6 They aren't agressive towards each other, have great color, and are eating well.

I've read that they can be kept at this pH but is there a chance that they'll breed? If not what's the simplest way to lower it? I know they're somewhat sensitive fish and I don't want to mess with chemistry too much.

As I said, they're small...at what size do they generally start to breed, and is there anything I can do to trigger spawning?

Any other suggestions would be greatly appreciated

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There is water at the bottom of the ocean

I know that their are things called softner pillows that you can buy to put in your filter.

-Vincent

As things are, a few suitable laying surfaces,(although they will probably just open spawn) like rocks and bogwood, maybe even a fine sand substrate may help stimulate them to breed.

Keep them warm, above 27c, (dont forget ramirezi rams can take it over 30c with grace) ,the water frequently changed, and some frozen livefoods , especially bloodworm, theyll get to it. Getting them to breed isnt the big problem, its the success rate of the eggs hatching thats the difficulty.Higher success rates are acheived at between ph 5 -6 and with hardness below 2 dgh. If you can keep the nitrates below 10 ppm it will help the breeding vigour of the adults and the survival rate of the fry a whole lot. Acid, soft, and warm os the way to go. At your ph they may try to breed but the fry mortality may be very high. Singapore bred rams for example are raised in higher ph and hardness, and we all know how crap they are , rarely living more than a year. For healthy long lived specimens , keep it soft and acid.

Lack of sufficient space or intrusions from other community fish often lead the females to eat the eggs, a problem that my rams sufferred from for a while. Its very important not to intrude on them while breeding, i might even be tempted to cover the front of the aquarium with newspaper until after the eggs have hatched.

I find a little blackwater extract seems to keep fungus off the eggs, or maybe it just helps keep the fry from dying in the egg and then rotting. Maybe even consider peat filtration?

Hopefully youll get more luck than I did with this EESOB You can see tiny little eggs hanging from the chin from a little adhesive line usually used to anchor them down. The successful batches of eggs she did lay were in the heart of the plant the ram is pictured in front of, so they dont always open spawn.


http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a245/longhairedgit/IMG_6560.jpg

After that picture was taken they tried again and i blocked off the tank from view,and didnt risk taking more pictures and LO! I had fry!

I just thought id mention it , but mine bred in a 30 gal. If the female thinks the 5.5 is too small and keeps eating eggs you might wanna try a 10 gal. Sometimes the space is important to them. Not always, but sometimes.

If they are sexually mature, then maintenance at 27 degrees C is the order of the day, with breeding at 30. Mikrogeophagus ramirezi Rams will actually go as high as 33 degrees C, because their native waters are exposed stresms and small lakes in a part of Venezuela called the llanos, which receives baking hot equatorial sunshine throughout the day. Their native waters can hit as high as 35 degrees C on particularly hot days. This is why they tend not to do well in aquaria below 27 degrees C, and need other sauna loving fishes as companions. They go well with Rummy Nosed Tetras and Discus.

Here is your introduction to the llanos and its associated water bodies]http://pages.prodigy.net/anaconda/llanos.htm[/link]. Also, [link=here is an example of what the llanos look like in a satellite photo.



Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002

Does look as hot as hell, looks likes there no green vegetation more than a few metres away from any direct source of water. Notably the plant population must be massive actually in the water though, the entire wet area is straight green. I suppose in that heat there must be huge mats of algae in places.

Theresa, I would check with the person you got them from. If they were bred localy (hense your club auction, probably BAP), then they may do fine in just your conditions. See if the people the came from did any water conditioning at all. I know here localy, they are being bred in water around 7.5 and 10-15dh. And I know of one person that has a few pairs in several 5 gal tanks. Personally, I would suggest at least a 10 gal, but it is being done. Our tap water here is like 8.5 and liquid rock. He uses peat to drop the ph and hardness.

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