# Eggs!



## Guest (Jun 1, 2009)

i dont belive this!

i have hardly had the rams for a week now and they have spawned! i found the established pair guarding a spot under a plant and when i looked closely i found eggs!

i need help with these guys cos i have never raised a bunch of egg layers before!

what do i feed them? will the rams take care of the fry? when do i move them out of the tank?

please help!



cheers!


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## 207lauras (Jan 28, 2009)

*my useless response...*

Just wanted to say Congrats!
I cant help you because I have never seen the eggs my fish lay its just *poof* and then there are fry stuck to my plants! 
Good luck!


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## Guest (Jun 1, 2009)

thanks 2L!

i am falling in love with cichlids! i havent seen any fish care so much for thier eggs! the male and female are taking turns watching over the eggs. if one goes to forage for food, the other hangsout at the place of the eggs till the other returns!


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## rskb3467 (Mar 29, 2009)

congrats Zakk!! gonna have to post some pics when you get some!  
I am not sure how rams are, but I know with my convicts they protected and cared for the fry very well. you don't ahve to feed them right now. as they feed off their eggsack. I personaly just crunch up the flake food i was giving the adults and put it in, then stirred it so it goes to the bottom. sometime the fry dont realize that they need to go t the top for the food. just watch your other ram. he/she might not go near at first, but might get daring and try to get in closer and closer as the fry start to free swim and scatter more. If she feels they are threatened, she will take them in her mouth and move them. it's pretty kewl to watch them dig a hole in the gravel to place the fry and teach them how to swim...they make the hole deeper and deeper. keep us posted on the progress!!


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## OneFishTwoFish (Apr 16, 2009)

Haha! We need pics of those little egg layers and their babies soon! Congrats on your soon to be fry!


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## lohachata (Jan 27, 2006)

hey zak....PM me your address..i will see if i can send you a couple samples of Plecocaine..


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## emc7 (Jul 23, 2005)

Cichlids are often excellent parents. Ram fry are very small. Java moss or other live plants will give them something to graze on. Microworms, vinegar eels, live baby brine shrimp are good live things to feed them. There are also lots of really small fry foods out there now. Frozen rotifers from Hikari, Artificial rotifers from Azoo. Live food is better, but the fry foods are getting really good now. Keep the water clean. Let the parents raise them if you can, its really neat to watch.


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## Guest (Jun 2, 2009)

lohachata said:


> hey zak....PM me your address..i will see if i can send you a couple samples of Plecocaine..


thanks John! i'll PM you in a bit.



OneFishTwoFish said:


> Haha! We need pics of those little egg layers and their babies soon! Congrats on your soon to be fry!


ok just got one decent one with papa ram guarding the eggs. nippy lil dude he is!


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## Guest (Jun 2, 2009)

emc7 said:


> Cichlids are often excellent parents. Ram fry are very small. Java moss or other live plants will give them something to graze on. Microworms, vinegar eels, live baby brine shrimp are good live things to feed them. There are also lots of really small fry foods out there now. Frozen rotifers from Hikari, Artificial rotifers from Azoo. Live food is better, but the fry foods are getting really good now. Keep the water clean. Let the parents raise them if you can, its really neat to watch.


emc,

i'm gonna start on a infurosia (i bet i spelt that wrong) culture. i have dropped in a few cabbage leaves in a gallon jar of tank water from the 25GL. i cant do much in terms of ordering food since these shmucks at the LFS do not know the diff between adult fish food and baby fish food. ordering food via ebay will take 10 days....if the lil guys hatcb before my culture is ready, i might go with sheena's idea of crushed flakes.

thanks for all the help and replys guys! 

cheers!


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## emc7 (Jul 23, 2005)

They can graze off the algae in the tank until they get decent size. I keep frozen baby brine and the fine powder foods on hand, just in case. Others keep brine shrimp eggs and start hatching them when the fish spawn. The "don't feed until the eggsac is gone" advice is solid. You feed when you see a "cloud" of little dashes, not when they are still rocking on the ground. If you don't get survivors, hang in there. Once a pair of cichlids starts, they usually try again soon.


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## Guest (Jun 2, 2009)

thanks emc. i was talkin to zy on the chat lines and he says i could expect a lot of "dead" eggs this batch around but in a week i outta have a new set.....so hey what ever happens happens for the best!

Cheers!


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