Wow! My Bolivian Rams gave me a wonderful Christmas surprise! I didn't say anything earlier cuz it seems every time I share I jinx it LOL. Plus, I didn't get my hopes up this time.

So, I am ashamed to admit the past week or so I have been terribly neglectful of my tanks. I would stop long enough to feed them, but have been so busy I have not had time to enjoy them this past week.

I decided to give my community tank a treat of blood worms on Saturday, and lo and behold my mama Ram was hovering over a huge clutch of wigglers! This is the biggest batch I have ever saw them produce! Over a 100!

They have spawned 6 times. First batch was a success. 2nd-5th spawn mama ate the wigglers as they hatched. Last time she beat the crud out of the male, then ate them again. So if you remember I removed her and hatched them myself. But alas, they died on me.

I had noticed some sparing going on between the male and female the past couple weeks, but ignored it as their normal behavior. However, I should have gotten the clue because when the female pushes back at the male she is actually receptive (from past spawning behavior).

So, I did a fast heavy duty cleaning job and put up the divider. As I was cleaning, the female collected all the wigglers in her mouth and held them till all was settled back down. I have never seen her do that! She then dug a pit with her nose and put them back in it. To my luck she has kept them mostly right up against the glass in front. She spent all day Sunday moving them between 3 pits. Today they are up against the glass next to the divider. The male will swim over and check on them thru the divider. I gave her a shrimp pellet to munch on and she chewed it up and spit crumbs into the wiggler pile. I then squirted some baby brine shrimp into the pile. Don't know if they could eat it, but they sure got excited! LOL

So tonight I am watching them take little swimming squirts. So adorable! I expect they will be free swimming tomorrow or Weds.

What a sweet gift they gave me!! The only thing different in the tank from the past unsuccessful attempts is I got a new heater and its between 80 and 82 in the tank now. The old heater was "preset" to 78 but rarely got above 74 in the cold.

So, here are the wigglers. I got the best shot of them because they were so close. Also mama hovering over the wigglers.

NOTE: To see the pictures in these posts you need to click on the reply in the post itself. For some reason the pictures portion of this forum has been messed up.

Here's a bigger shot of the wigglers. The other one I shrunk too much and you can't see them. Also, here is a pic of the papa and a pic of the tank divider setup I do. Notice it has netting covering it because the fry can swim right thru the tiny holes.

Here's a little video of mama fanning and protecting her youngins :-) Not the best, my camcorder is on the fritz so used the digital camera. She was mad at me for sticking the camera in her face LOL

http://s530.photobucket.com/albums/dd35 ... y2Best.flv

Such Drama! LOL

I am watching and a little guy got thru the divider some how. Don't ask me how, its covered with netting and I see no holes! Well, I am watching him when the papa grabs it. I think, Oh poor little thing! Thinking papa was going to eat it. Well, instead he gave the fry a bath and put him in his own pit LOL. So, papa is patrolling the divider, and if he finds any that get thru he is collecting them and putting them in his own pit! I would remove the divider and let him help if I knew she wouldn't attack him like before. At least he has his own couple to care for. :-)

Nice, bolivians need really great water conditions to breed. Good job!

Day 3 Free swimmers:

This is so fascinating! I didn't really see any of this behavior with my one successful batch before because I put the fry in a ten gallon almost as soon as they became free swimming. So didn't see how the parents care for them.

The parents communicate to the fry thru colors. As the parents hover in one spot, their over all shade is a pretty pearl color, and their chests are a bight gold. I have found this to mean all is well. When acting this way the fry explore and play. They stay within a 4 inch circle around the adult tho. Every once in awhile one will go off to explore, but always comes back. If the adult swims off to another spot they all follow in a little group. :-)

Last night before lights out I watched the papa put the "kids" to bed. Mom was already the black color they get when sleeping and all the fry under her were fairly still. Papa was still awake, with his gold chest so his group of about 50 were still active. He dug a pit out under a piece of drift wood, then they all followed him under there. Then he took on the "sleep" colors and they all huddled into a group in the pit under him and went still! So amazing!

They are about twice as big today as yesterday, not saying much tho, still as small as a pin head. Much stronger and active too.

Today my daughter and her boyfriend stopped to pick me up so we could go to my sons. My daughter and I were bagging up presents to take when I looked over. Her boyfriend had his face pressed to the tank, looking thru my magnifying glass LOL. We couldn't get him to leave! He was so enchanted with the tiny fry swimming all around the mama!

Hope you all had a wonderful day!