[Tabatha]

I've tried to wade through all 69 pages of this thread and I did get more than 1/2 way through, I wish this were a whole forum with separate threads!

In any case, here's one of my 4 rams, if you read my thread on behavior, this is the "defending" ram:

Thoughts? I know you must all be bored of this game but... pretty please?[/img]

Ah, here's the post I tried to submit to the Bolivian club. Sorry!

 

[ElPorcoRoso]

Any way you could get a closer image of its vent?

Its hard to get pictures of their sides because when I approach my tank with a camera they all stare forward, so I have to use my hands or something to distract them!

 

[illy-d]

colour, shape and fins look more female... where as from what I can make of the vent it looks more male... How old is this fish?

 

[Tabatha]

I can blow up the picture later today as it's in a raw file at home. I don't know the age of the fish, I've only had them for over a week. If I had to guess, I'd say 6 months at the youngest.

 

[Dutch Dude]

I absolutely agrea on Illy-d,...body shape does resemble a female and vent looks like a male.

 

[Cthulhu]

My BR has the fins and such of a male with a more female looking vent. I guess the thing to do would be to wait and see how he/she develops .

 

[Tabatha]

I *think* this might be a female as another ram in the tank backs into her territory and wiggles his tail end. The enticing male's vent is barely visible at all.

 

[gage]

my guess is a non-dominant male.

 

[Tabatha]

I took some video last night, I apologize in advance for its poor quality. Turn off the volume, all you hear is crunching and crackling.

#1 is the Bolivian that backs into #2's territory and vent is barely visible. My uneducated guess, from what the forum has said and what I've read is that #1 is a male, #2 & #3 are females?

Ram #1:

Ram #2:

Ram #3:

 

[Dutch Dude]

2 is definitely a female! The other two is hard to say on this vid. Fish number 3 is quit stressed and does display a lot of black dots. Probably he or she is sub dominant and underneath the picking order.

 

[Tabatha]

2 is definitely a female! The other two is hard to say on this vid. Fish number 3 is quit stressed and does display a lot of black dots. Probably he or she is sub dominant and underneath the picking order.

Yeah, sorry about the bad video, it's an oldish camera and I'm no pro.

I was thinking of moving the 2 less dominant Bolivians to another tank to see what would happen between #1 & #2.

 

[Dutch Dude]

I gave the pic a second closer look and I do expect this fish to be a female. Time will tel but I'm quit sure abouth it.

 

[Tabatha]

I believe the Bolivian in the photo above is a dominant female, ovipositor appeared and was much larger, more round than anyone else in the tank.

I moved them to another tank along with a large watersprite we fondly call "Medusa" because it quickly takes over the tank. After the couple had the day to settle in, I snuck up to watch their behavior, they're still skittish with the move.

Lo and behold there were tiny gleaming eyes darting around under Medusa! In the other tank we removed them from lives a trio of honey gourami so I'm not 100% sure who's fry these are. They are verging on microscopic, bbs seems too big for them so I gave the a protein-based powdered flake which they swam after.

It'll be interested to see how they develop, if they survive.

Have a cigar!

Tabatha

Edit: BTW, I managed to net a male Endler with one of the Bolivians and now have a new method of sexing them... Yup, the Endler chases the female, tries to sneak up behind her and breed. Goof ball!

 

[Dutch Dude]

I expect the fry to be of the honey gourami becouse Bolivian fry do feed on bbs. Good luck and do you keep us posted?

 

[Tabatha]

It took about a month to pair up but my Bolivians started spawning yesterday afternoon. After pushing an apple snail off her rock, we decided to get out the video camera and tripod.

Video 1:

2 minutes, the parent fend off a spixi snail and platinum angelfish threatening the safety of their future fry.

Video 2:

11 seconds, a close up of the spawning rock and eggs

Thanks for looking!

Tabatha

 

[Dutch Dude]

nice vids and thanks for sharing! Keep in mind that this is their first spawn and chances of a successful spawn is small. It can take some time before they learn what to do but once they spawned they will spawn again. In most cases every 2 to 4 weeks.

Notice the male and female have shifts on fanning the eggs. They first cover the eggs in sand and on the last day before hatching they take the sand off. after 2 day's you can see small black dots in the eggs,...those are the eyes of the developing embryo. Eggs should turn yellow to orange if they are fertile. Infertile eggs start to fungus and parents pic those eggs out.

Lots of fun and do you keep us posted?

 

[D-007]

Congratulations Tabatha and thank you for sharing the video clips. :thumb:

I look forward to future updates too.

Regards,
D

 

[Tabatha]

Thanks Dutch Dude & D-007!

The wigglers started popping up early this morning, Mom & Dad picked them off the spawning rock, swirled them around in their mouths then spit them into a shallow dug out area at the base of the rock. At the moment, they're taking turns digging another, much bigger hole just to the left of their current home. There aren't very many, perhaps 10 - 15, I don't expect them them to make it but it sure is exciting to see them get this far!

Tabatha

 

[Dutch Dude]

Oooh they do surprisingly fine for the first spawn! I bet they move the wigglers to the second pit that probably will be deeper. The wigglers will be fine for the first couple of day's but when they become free swimming they need some special foods like bbs or Hikari First Bites.

 

[Tabatha]

They're in their second home already but not the big hole they're still working on, this is another shallow hole. I have some bbs which I'll get started tomorrow. I expect they'll be free swimming by Monday. We'll have to get those first bites too!

Thanks!

Tabatha