Rams have spawned, but then died leaving me w/ the eggs!

[rodzilla]

My pair of Blue Rams were in a 30 gallon heavily planted tank with a school of rummy nose's, 4 cardina japonica, 2 oto's, and 2 SAE's. They several times and generally in the same location in the tank. To my knowledge none of the the eggs made it hatching. I took no special actions to save them, as I felt it would be best to let the parent's tend to them. My guess is the one of there tankmates or they themselves ate the eggs.

After the most recent spawning, the female died, shortly followed by the male. I have had these pair for over 2 years. Have read they were short lived, but I had difficulty believing it.

Since the parents have died and healthy Blue Rams are not easy to come by in Richmond VA. I have made an attempt to save the eggs. The eggs were deposited on a jave fern leaf. I took that leaf and put it into "mesh" breeder cage inside the tank to protect from predetation. I noticed that a fungus have began to grow one them and some eggs are clear-ish with black dot and others are milk white. I assume the clear-ish ones are fertilized and the others are dead. My questions are I am correct. How do I take care of the fertilized eggs to hatching and then what is the recommended procedure to grow them out?

I appreciate the help...

 

[Neil]

rodzilla,

WELCOME TO THE FORUM

OK, you have a tough little task ahead of you. The first thing that I woould do is to get yourself a tupperware container (or something like it) Big enough to easily fit the leaf into. Dip it into the tank and place the leaf in there. Get it out of the tank, but keep it somewhere the temp will be about the same. If you have a spare pump or way to get a slow air bubble stream going close, but not touching the eggs, then do it. If you have methalyn blue or (better still) acriflavin, put a few drops in there. As much of this as possible should be done tonight, if you want to save some of these eggs. The rest may hold until tom when you can make an LFS trip. Some might hatch without all this, but I doubt it.
Rams will fan the eggs (and even "mouth" them) to decrease fungus. You need to replace that mechanism. The white eggs are probably fungused and some people will even remove them one at a time with a tweezers to keep from infecting the other eggs. The critical period for this is the next day or 2. Then they should hatch - at which time you have a little down time. In 5 more days or so you have a whole new set of problems, which we can get to later. Good luck and keep us posted, if you're going to give it a try.
Neil

 

[traveller7]

rodzilla,

My rams laid eggs about the same time as yours and I now have wigglers which I hope to be free swimming tomorrow or so.

Did you have any luck?

traveller7

 

[Neil]

traveller7,

WELCOME TO THE FORUM

Congratulations on your spawn! Get food to them quickly after free-swimming.
Neil

 

[traveller7]

Neil,

Thanks for the welcome.

Apparently I started a batch of bbs one day too soon, as they are ready to go but the babies are not ready to eat

Another batch is cookin and the first batch will be fed DT's phyto until the babies are ready for them Hopefully I'll have a batch at the right size at the right time 8O.

Thanks again and I'll start a new thread with some photos if I can get them to the 2 week mark.

rodzilla, I hope your clutch is performing well.

traveller7