OMGosh!!!! I am so psyched!

I have had my Beautiful Bolivian Rams for a year and a half now. The first time they spawned was over a year ago. That spawn lived because they used a natural pit in a lava rock as the fry were wigglers. They have spawned again 3 more times. One spawn died because when they hatched into wigglers they made a pit in the gravel (medium sized gravel) and the wigglers wiggled down so deep the parents could not get them out. :-( I then switched to a smaller gravel (tiny sized), they spawned 2 more times, one time they ate the eggs before they hatched (something wrong with the eggs) and the last time the female attacked the male and ate the wigglers.

I have since changed to sand substrate in that tank (my community) and they have not shown any interest in spawning again. They have not tried since last April, and have not over sand. I did a water change yesterday, and when I did I took out the lava rock (its called lace rock too) because I hate how it collects everything. I put in some medium sized river rock that I had extra from the Mbuna tank.

Well, I just looked in the tank and found the mama hovering over a good sized river rock. Upon closer inspection she is fanning a huge clutch of eggs!! This is the biggest batch she has had so far, about 3 times bigger than ever! I was totally taken by surprise because I can usually tell by her behavior that she is ready to spawn.

So, from past experiences, they will start to hatch on Tuesday and if all goes well, be free swimming by next Saturday! They can make wonderful pits now with the sand. Fingers crossed!! Time to put the tank divider in so they will be safe!

I actually have a wonderful camera now that I can take great pics of the process! YAY!

Here's some pics I just took. Top two are the mama over the clutch, third is Papa checking them out, then the last two are both parents

Holy Crap!! I went in there to put the divider in so that the Rams would not have to deal with all the other fish and my female was attacking my male! I'm not taking about the charging, lip locking like they sometimes do, I mean ripping fins, circling and all! I have never seen them do this!! So, the female is now on one side all alone with her eggs. The male is pacing the divider, but she is starting to ignore him now and tending her eggs.
That freaked me out! Wow!

Here's a video. The female is the smaller one. They did not do any harm to each other.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m62zcgE-2Sc

wish my fish spawned.......... but thats cool anyways:P

When I first got two Bolivians the lady at the fish store told me they were males. After they grew some and I did a whole lot of research I realized they were two females! So, I picked up another one, who was slightly larger and I KNEW was a male. He picked the one female as his mate and I found a new home for the odd female out. Maybe you can get yourself a female now :-)

Yeah well two females you can work with. I'm the lucky one that gets two males...
Two males = constant bickering no matter what combination I decide to add...which means that no matter what I must subtract one...which means bringing one back to the LFS (probably the less dominant), which means possibly stress killing it. Again I'd like to thank the responsible LFS employee for this mess. I researched before I bought and was advised on the spot that it would be impossible to tell at such a juvenile age. lol Its pretty obvious now..

While we're on the subject...any idea which one would be more likely to mate if a suitable one were presented...(if not both males) the more or less dominant male? The smaller one is clearly far more dominant as the larger one never retaliates but lethargically spends all day running away instead of ducking into a cave or something...

From a different LFS owner I was told that the crest of the dorsal fin is a dead giveaway. If it spikes high than its a male. Also if there's an absence of a peach-colored area on the belly. Also read something about the stripes but I forget what exactly, and the size. The mature female is supposedly larger and more rounded.

When there's nothing in front of my face to compare to though well...

In any case the less dominant male has less coloring but I'd assume that's cause he's stressed. The markings and build (rather than relative size) are pretty much identical but a bit faded.

I don't know logically if this makes sense but I figured the dominant male would be more likely to mate with a female because of well...the aggressive nature. lol Hopefully it does.

The guy I bought them from meant well when he sold me them and just didn't have much knowlege about rams. Unfortunately he's the only one in the area that gets them in and he gets like 2 at a time every 3 months or so sometimes longer without regard to sex so, I picked a rough thing to start trying to breed. lol

If I were to want amano shrimp though..I have a female about to pop. Holding 4.5 weeks.. Too bad most of those things will end up in the filter before they know they're shrimp. -.-