German Blue Ram Eggs & Breeding

LittleBean

LittleBean

AC Members
Jan 6, 2016
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Hello! So I have a pair of German Blues who just had their second "batch" of eggs and I have many questions. Their first "batch" never got fertilized and the male ate them all immediately, but now 3 weeks later they have this batch and both of the rams are tending very closely and being really good with the eggs. They've created a a little nest of them on top of my flat rock and the female will go down and lay some eggs and the male will follow behind her and rub his stomach against the eggs, I'm assuming fertilizing them, and so now there is an almost 2"x 1" patch of eggs that they're caring for.

- How long will it take for the male to fertilize the eggs fully?
- What's the highest possible pH the eggs and fry can survive in (I've heard anywhere from 6-8.2)
- Can I put a filter sponge over my filter intake to make sure the babies don't get sucked up?
- They laid their eggs on a large flat rock, I have a mesh breeder though. Can I move the rock into the mesh breeder once they appear fertilized?
- Once the babies hatch, what do I feed the fry (near the 5th day they get hungry I've heard?)
- The male will hover over top of the eggs about 1/2" above them and sometimes the female will swim near or to them and the male will nudge her away (not aggressively but to kind of make her leave them alone) why???
 
That's pretty typical cichlid breeding behavior, they aerate the eggs by hovering over them & moving their fins. The male must fertilize the eggs very soon ( a minute or so) after the female lays them. Amber-ish eggs are fertile, white is not.

Yes, put a sponge over the intake.

The parents "should" take care of the eggs & fry. They will "eat" (looks like chewing) the eggs & fry & spit them out either back into the "nest" or another "safe" spot. New parents may need a few tries to get this down. They may forget to "spit" or eat fry as the parents get ready to breed again. IME females are better fry care takers for longer than males. But in a community tank, other fish will try to eat eggs & fry no matter how defensive parents will try to be (also a learning curve, often). Lots of plants & hiding spots help...but in a community tank you'll be lucky to have a few survivors at best. That may be good enough.

Do you have separate tank to raise fry after a few weeks. Are you willing to feed appropriate size foods & do frequent water changes (almost daily). I've never tried a breeder net, but it seems a short term answer to me.

Parents will take in food, chew it & spit it near the fry as well as eat deformed or abnormal fry (as they see them) or until they want to breed again...
 
I do have a separate tank for the fry after they basically become visible and big enough to move. I don't plan on raising them solely in the community tank due to the almost inevitable chance of them getting eaten. Do you think I will be able to move the rock into the breeder net until they hatch? Thank you for your help!!
 
And how long do you think it will take until I see color within the eggs? I've heard 24 hrs or the next day
 
maybe 24-48 hours.

The parents really can take care of eggs & new fry (with the learning curve thing). They can take better care than you can...for 2-3 weeks...then move them once they're free swimming AND you have appropriate sized foods for them ie newly hatched brine shrimp or similar sized food AND can feed them several times a day...no small commitment with the frequent WCs.
 
So I should leave the fry in with the parents for 2-3 weeks? Where can I get food like the newly hatched brine shrimp?
 
LittleBean said:
So I should leave the fry in with the parents for 2-3 weeks? Where can I get food like the newly hatched brine shrimp?
Click to expand...

Yes, leave the fry with the parents for 2-3 weeks until the yolk sac is fully absorbed and the fry are swimming freely. At this point the fry will need food, they will be able to find some microcritters on java moss if you keep that with them and feed them SMALL meals 2-3 times a day you should be fine. You may have to grow your own brine shrimp to get newly hatched ones, you could also try daphnia (frozen or freeze dried), or hikari makes a fry blend thats basically a powder. Lastly, you can finely crush some high protein flake food on your own and feed them this.
 
From my experience eggs are pretty sensitive to pH swings. So, the pH that they will survive in varies as it really depends on what pH they were laid in and that needs to stay constant. What you should watch rather than pH is temperature, nitrates, nitrites, and ammonia as well as oxygen and water flow.
 
So I tested my pH last night and it was 8.2 which is very high. But this morning I was watching my eggs and over half look fertile and good. Male is keeping watch still.
 
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