Spawning Report: Mikrogeophagus Ramirezi (German Blue Rams)

by Dave McGrew

Decided to have a go at breeding German Blue Rams. My son earned points for breeding them a couple years ago, and since then bred and raised up a lot of them.

I bought a nice male and female from my LFS. Their color form differentiation suggested to me that they were not from the same line (i.e. not siblings)

The male:

The female:

Here is a short video showing their lively interaction upon their first "date"(06.11.2021)

Temperature was set to ca. 81-degrees Fahrenheit. They were housed with a school of ca. 17x. Glowlight Pygmy Barbs (wonderful little fish). Their diet included some live BBS, and quality frozen foods.

They finally spawned on 06.21.2021

I used the same technique as my son has found success with, pulling the eggs, and suspending in a Lee's large specimen container with air and H2O2 to prevent fungus...

They were finally free-swimming on 06-27-2021...

The caring process from this point forward is extremely detailed, and I will omit most of it. Anyone interested can inquire. On July 6, 2021 I counted a huge number of Rams -- about 89 total -- but there was a crash...

In the end, long story short, I ended with less than half of these. Here are several photos from July 14, 2021, showing some nice fry development (along with irksome hydra)...

By August 5, 2021 I had 32 surviving fry...

These were moved into net breeders, to enjoy growing in better cycled water without being predated upon until they were large enough to add to the main tank...

I'll admit that my Nitrates were bad both in the specimen container and the grow-out tank. pH was close to 6.0 in the hatching container, but nearer 8.0 in the aquarium.

Again, long story short, they've matured nicely over the months since. Here is a video how they looked by December, 2021...

Here's a couple photos taken December 14, 2021 of the best looking of the batch -- these have actually spawned in the tank already, though they ate their eggs...

Young male from this spawn:

Young female from this spawn:

There is much more to report, but perhaps I'll just leave this here for now. Glad to answer any questions.