# How can I raise GBR eggs without parents?



## Knotty Bitz (Mar 11, 2009)

I have a very young mother who loves to eat her eggs. I plan on leaving a bunch for her to practice mothering on, but I would also like to try raising some of the fry at this time. What steps should I take to remove some eggs, keep them from fungusing, and keep the fry alive? I also was wondering if it would be a good idea to put the fry back in the parents tank. Please be as detailed as possible.
Thank you for any help!


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## Knotty Bitz (Mar 11, 2009)

Any help would be great.


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## Big_Fish (Mar 10, 2010)

Courtesy of Larry Waybright, MonsterFishKeepers:

full link: 
http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=87097&page=6

The easiest way is to use a tank set up with a 1/2 inch of fine sand and have many flat smooth rocks slightly sand covered. They will expose the rock then lay their eggs on it.
Remove the eggs and place them in a bare bottom tank as described below with methylene blue or acriflavine to prevent fungus.

Rams spawn very easily but their fry are quite difficult to raise. They have zero tolerance for ammonia and nitrite. First foods should be small. Vinegar eels are a good starter food then microworms and at about six days they can all take bbs.

Use very shallow water(4 inches) and about a ten gallon tank for the fry. You will start with over 300 fry. The purpose of very shallow water is to keep the fry and their food in close proximity. Change half the water every day. Use water that matches what they are and in aged over night. Initially all you need is an air stone running gently. Once the are on bbs increase the depth of the water slowly over a few days to 8 inches. Be sure you have an established sponge filter to put into operation once the water is brought up to about 6 inches. Absolute cleanliness is essential at all times for rams.
Just continue to feed bbs and water changes. Once they are about 1/4 inch and look like little rams spread them out so stocking levels are about 3/4 gal per fish. Otherwise nitrites will rise and the fry will die. If you don't thin them down you will stunt them and they will die like flies until you are left with about one per 3/4 gal.

Rams do not do well on anything but live and frozen foods. If they take some prepared foods fine but they should not be forced to. They will just die.
Rams rarely live past 2-1/2 years. Breeding and raising rams is very different than Convicts. Ram fry are more difficult to raise than Discus. I have raised thousands of both and Discus are much easier of the two because discus feed their fry for you for the first week then bbs can be added to their diet.
It can take a long time to get a feel for raising ram fry so don't get too discouraged. They are much more difficult to get through the first month than other SA Dwarf Cichlids. Only Dicrossus filamentosus, the Lyre Tail Checkerboard Cichlid and black water Apistogramma species eggs and fry are more difficult than rams. Bolivian Rams are much easier for the beginner.


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## Knotty Bitz (Mar 11, 2009)

Ok, thank you for all of the details Big Fish. That was exactly what I needed to know.


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