breeding blue rams

I think I am going to attempt to breed some rams, I am pretty sure I've got 2 males. so now am looking for a few females. I am planting a 30 gal tank for these guys, and will set water conditions to recommendations found in a couple articles on this. If I get a spawn, I'll set up a grow out tank for the fry. should be fun,,, my kids ought to enjoy this too.


any hints, tips , or experiences with this??? please share.

finding a compatible pair should not be hard. I here they breed really easy actually. But when I was researching them the biggest turn off for me was everything I was reading about how hard it it to raise the young. Evidently in the beginning you have to feed them really tiny food. So for advise I would say research the crap out of ways to feed the new hatched fry. If you can do that you shouldn't have a problem. Oh and if my memory serves me correctly I think ph affects the male to female ratio you will have in the fry....... maybee that's kribs, I can't remember. You might look that up too. That's all I have. Best of luck to you and I will buy or trade you for some of your fry when they come.

I read similar info. feeding , hardness, and ph were all quite criticle to monitor and change as the fry grow. Still need to secure some females though, I got my males from blue sierra, so was trying to find females from different parents ( somewhere else)

I've bred and raised Blue Rams. Not too difficult. The hardest part is finding a healthy pair. Once I had a pair I moved them to a 20g bare bottom, floating plants and several flat rocks (in hopes they would lay the eggs on the rocks in case I wanted to remove them). The pair layed their eggs and ate them. About 4 weeks later they layed eggs again and this time they hatched and then they ate them. The 3rd time the didn't eat them! I guess it took them a while to get the hang of it. I removed the female first and let papa tend to the fry and later removed him. Now the work begins. I fed FIRST BITES in the beginning, using an eyedropper to squirt it at the bottom of the tank and later BBS. I did end up lowering the water level to make water changing easier and then gradual raising it as time went on. A smaller tank would be ideal but I never had much luck with it. My pairs would fight in a 10g and I actually had a male kill his mate. A 20g seemed big enough to give them room but was horrible for taking care of the fry in the beginning. Once they got bigger the 20g was perfect and I never had to move the fry until they were looking like minature rams. I eventually lost my orginal pair but I still have some of my now grown fry and I find them much more hardy and healthy then the parents.

Hopefully this helps some and good luck........they're such beautiful fish.

do you have any females a guy could buy?

I don't right now sorry I'm kind of in the same boat as you. I need some new blood...... so I'm in need of a new male for my female and a new female for my male (my male and female are siblings-and no longer get along and are currently separated).

Anyway good luck.....

I agree with Kianna about the ram experience. My only 5 cents is that I would say the average caviar is 7-8 trys with rams. That's why everyone seems to pull eggs and hatch em seperate when u read up on rams. I have 3 pairs now that are spawning but I refuse to pull the eggs. They do figure it out eventually. I solve aggression issues by using dividers because dad will always "court" her to death if she isn't ready to
spawn. No scientific proof but I hypothesize from a whole lot of observation, that hatching w/out parents perpetuates this baby and egg eating behavoir on fish that really want to be good parents (u could sub angelfish in there too but that's a whole other post topic...)
I worked in college at large local wholesaler (ANW) and back then they had a breeder room dedicated to rams (approx 30 pairs going I kid u not). Same average caviar clutches there too. They would breed in 5gal and grow out fry in 10s. I have also observed that most ram pairs (faster than any dwarf I've messed around with breeding) spawn out in the first year and half. After that most pairs start having few and far between spawns. I was at the Fish Store in Seattle this weekend with my family and I saw an awesome batch of rams there. They were 2/3 females and very healthy. I bought a few girls to work into my stock. Check there if you still need some females. They said the fish were part of an import shipment from Europe they brought in for rams and livebearers. Hope this helps...
-lilydog aka rob

Ive always kept mouthbrooders.... so i dont have much exp with blue rams..... I will tell you I always stripped my eggs/fry from mom.... I got allot more fry out of it everytime..... it does take allot of work, you have to have a tumbler, so eggs dont rot. but its easier to keep them in a small net near the top of the tank for feeding when they all hatch. Good luck! and send some pictures when your succesful.