Spawning Blue and Bolivian Rams

I'm giving relatively complete directions for hatching and raising these marvelous fish. If you have researched the Microgeophagus Ramirezi and Altispinosa, you have probably discovered that most of these fish are bred in Asia. They come to our market here  in America pumped full of hormones, subjected to antibiotics from early 'tankhood', and terribly inbred.  The Blue rams  live for 4-6 months and often die by some sort of wasting away disease. While their Bolivian cousins are hardier, they aren't quite as colorful.

It is my hope, that by encouraging interested fish keepers  to try breeding these fish here in the US, that we can supply more of our home bred rams to the local fish stores:  these rams should be hardier! Do check your local fish stores' water parameters before you attempt to breed these fish and sell them. If their parameters are too different from the water described below, the fish will not be able to adapt and their health will be compromised.

This article is based on my personal experience with these fish, you may have experienced something different if you have raised them.

These fish require the following water parameters to spawn successfully:

    Blue Rams - soft water; gh 2-6, kh 2-4. Bolivian Rams - soft to medium water; gh 4-8, kh 2-5. The Blues prefer acidic water, but may breed in soft water with pH up to 7.4. The Bolivians can take a little harder water and pH up to 7.6.  My tanks are kept at 6.6 - 7.2 through the use of DIY CO2. (Sugar/yeast/pop bottle) It is  important to keep NITRATE levels in their tanks below 10. (Bolivians can take a little higher nitrates - say up to 20, but when 20 hits, it is time for a water change!)  As with any other tropical fish tank, ammonia should be 0, nitrites 0.  Temps should be 82 - 84 for Blues, 80 - 82 for Bolivians. If you are going to breed them have a well seeded sponge filter ready to employ before the eggs are laid. (Internal and external power filters will suck in tiny fry and kill them.)

Cover the floor of your tank with flat rocks, provide plant cover to encourage them to spawn on the rocks. The male and female will be flaring at each other, showing how pretty their fins are and having a good time in their courtship. Eventually they will get down to business.  Her ovipositor will become quite visible and she will begin laying eggs - hopefully on one of those flat rocks. He will follow close behind her and fertilize the eggs. Then they should take turns fanning them. Blue ram eggs will hatch in 24-48 hours. Bolivian's hatch in 3 days.

Three things can go wrong now. First, if your water is too hard, the sperm can't penetrate the egg shell. The eggs will turn white and fungus. 

Second, one of your fish is infertile. This is very common due to the hormones they were subjected to in Asia. The only way to tell if there is a problem with one of them is to make absolutely sure your water is soft and watch the eggs develop. They should get dark biege and have a tiny dark dot in the center as they get close to hatching. Dead eggs turn white and fungus. You might have to pull the eggs and artificially hatch them to determine if they are fertile fish.

Third, the parents eat the eggs. Most of our stock has been artificially hatched for decades and their instincts for parenting are gone. Blues especially are notorious egg eaters. Bolivians are supposed to be better parents, though in the beginning mine often waited until the eggs hatched, then ate the wrigglers.

I think it is important that you give these fish a chance to try hatching their own babies.  For every new pair,  give them 4-5 times and see what happens. If after several tries, you want babies. Here's how you get them - It is months of work to hatch and rear fry though!

Supplies
~Hydrogen Peroxide (3% Solution) and measuring syringe - in mls.
~10g tank and a larger ‘grow out’ tank for later if necessary
~Air pump with bubbler/air stone
~A well seeded sponge filter (pull the sponge off a new filter and put it in a filter box in one of your tanks. Or  set it up with your pump and let it run for a couple of weeks in an established tank.  This way it will pick up lots of good nitrifying bacteria.)
~3 gallons RO water
~Thermometer
~Microworm culture
~Equipment to set up a brine shrimp hatchery. San Francisco Bay brand eggs seem to have a better hatch rate and smaller shrimp than other over the counter brands. 
~Heater
~Eye dropper
~Seeded gravel in a nylon/pantyhose bag
~Small square of filter floss/filter foam
~Turkey Baster
~Bunch of hornwort or other floating plant - if there is filamentous green algae on it all the better!

Set up your 10g with 3 gallons RO water. Make sure the temperature is the same as in the parent tank. Wait for a few hours after the male has finished passing over the eggs and remove the flat rock.  Put it in the 10g, it should have 4 inches or so of water. Turn on the bubbler/airstone so that there is some circulation right next to the eggs, but not enough to wash them off their rock. Place 1 ml hydrogen peroxide for each gallon of water in the tank. Cover with a towel to keep light out. Maintain steady temps. Every 12 hours squirt in more peroxide. Watch and wait. If you see white eggs gently remove them with  an eye dropper. (If you don't remove these eggs, they will fungus and that will spread to the healthy eggs around them.)

After 24-48 hours, they will begin hatching. Stop adding peroxide and carefully move the bubbler a little farther away from the wrigglers. (They are also called 'belly whompers' at this time, a good description!) Don't begin adding any food to this tank until they are free swimming, they have  a yoke sac they are living off of at this point. Keep the tank lighting soft and diffused, no bright light. If you see un-hatched eggs, or other debris, use your eye dropper and get the floor of the tank as clean as possible. Place the gravel bag in the tank.

In 3 days the wrigglers should be free swimming. (3 - 5 days for the Bolivians.) Begin to add microworms. Just add a tiny swipe, don't over feed. Put in your hornwort. Start your baby brine shrimp hatchery.  Add one other gallon of aged RO, use a siphon and make sure it is the same temp as the tank, add it very slowly. You can also put in a Malaysian Trumpet snail or two if you like. They help keep the bottom clean.  Now is also the time to switch the air stone to the seeded sponge filter.

You will have to get rid of all uneaten food every night! Stuff some filter floss or foam into the end of your gravel vac and use this is carefully suck out extra food.  Keep your hand on the hose and get ready to pinch it as any tiny fry get too close.  Carefully replace the water you have taken out, with aged RO, same temperature. As the fry begin feeding more and more on the visible food you are adding to the tank, step up your water changes to 25% per day. (In the very beginning this is not necessary as the tiny fry are probably munching on the infusoria that came in with the floating plants.)

When your brine shrimp is ready, begin to feed small amounts with the microworms. I hatch mine every 24 hours. I store the hatched shrimp in a jar in the refrigerator with some of the hatchery water and a little fresh water with added salt. Use your turkey baster and only remove the shrimp as needed for each feeding, rinsing it carefully with a coffee filter in a brine shrimp net. For newly hatched blue rams, I don't 'cook' more than 1/8 teaspoon of eggs.  As they grow, I'll hatch more. The Bolivian rams have enormous clutches of eggs. You can have 150 -175 fry, in their case I'll hatch 1/4 teaspoon brine shrimp.  Feed both newly hatched bbs and microworms for a couple of weeks. Feed at least 2 times a day, preferably 3-5 times. (Since I work at home, I am able to feed every 3 hours) Make sure you don't overfeed - you can tell if you giving them too much by looking at the bottom of your tank. There shouldn't be much accumulating there by the end of the day. When all of your fry are eating the bbs, discontinue the microworms.

If your fry have made it to the 3 week mark, congratulations! Begin adding more and more water to the tank, also begin adding Kent's RO Right to the water and begin to add small amounts of declorinated tap water to increase hardness.  (The fry need calcium.) Go slowly, fry are delicate and don't withstand major changes in their water. (I usually only add 2 cups of water or so to start- my water in Wisconsin is very hard).  By the time the fry are 6 weeks old, I have built up their water to a gh of 125 ppm.

After a 4 or so weeks,  begin to add other foods.  Start with bits of frozen baby brine shrimp. This is to get your fry used to the fact that not all their food wiggles! Frozen daphnia is an excellent food to offer your fish now too. Break/chop off small hunks, thaw them in a bit of RO and squirt them into the tank.  It might take a few days to get them to eat anything new, be persistent.

After another week or so, use a rolling pin and mash up Tetra Flake food into powder. The first few times the rams eat this stuff you will see them spit it right out! But, after a while the lesson is learned and they will eat it. The other food to introduce soon is New Life Cichlid Pellets - mash these pellets up too. (A pepper mill works great.)  As these foods are slowly being introduced, keep feeding the hatched shrimp but begin to offer the other food first. So, when they are at their hungriest, the food is not quite what they are used to. As they grow, the size of the food can get bigger. Try chopping up bloodworms,  brine shrimp and mysis shrimp. You might also try bits of spirolina algae wafers, these can be ground up with the pellets.  Eventually you will have to move these guys to bigger tanks.

Depending on how many fry you have, it is best to move them to the larger tanks by partially filling the new tank with the water from their old tank. Move the fry into their new home - net them or gently pour them from containers with their old water. When they are in the new tank, begin to add more water, just as you did with your water changes.  Make sure the temperature and water parameters are the same as their old water and add this new water slowly. Remember that nitrates need to be kept under 20, especially with the blues.  Lots of plants and DAILY water changes help with this!

Blue rams mature faster than their Bolivian counterparts. By 1 inch or so, they should be ready to sex and and arrangements can be made with your local fish stores for selling them. (Contact the stores ahead of time to see what their requirements are regarding the size of the fish, and a 'contact' person). Usually, Bolivians need to be 1-1/2 inches before they can be sold. To help your fish make the transition, find out your fish store's water parameters and try to adjust your tank water to match. However, if the store's water is terribly hard and alkaline, you should find another market for your fish.

I keep my spawning pairs in the simple tanks pictured below. If you have any questions not answered here, just ask. I hope you have as much fun with these fish as I have!

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