Managing hormones - advice please

[PrincessFish]

Hello all,

      Last weekend I added what I hoped was a female Bolivian Ram to my tank with what I suspected were 2 males.  Since then it seems to my novice eye that I do have a female!  Both males chase her (more gently than each other) and the dominant male almost always tries to stay between her and the other male.  The two males go tête-a-tête on occasion, the colours are improved and things seems to be settling down.  Now instead of 2 fish at opposite sides of the tank I have three who are often swimming together.
      An added benefit is that my male tetras also seem to have greatly increased their preening.  Lots of hormones in the tank??  
      Now for my questions:
1.  What do I have to do to increase the likelihood of getting fry?  
2.  Should a pair breed (either Rams or Tetras), will I need to remove the others of the same breed?  Or the other breeds?
3.  Any other advice is most welcome
      I will try to figure out how to post pics (anyone who can provide help with this can send me a pm) as I'd like to see if anyone knows what type of Tetras I have.  I purchased them as 'bleeding heart' but they are definitely not!  And they are growing into very beautiful fish - the males have long flowing dorsal fins with black edging.

Thanks in advance for your help!!
Princess Fish

[mseguin]

Keep in mind there are several species of bleeding heart tetras.

1. Bolivian Rams breed on flat surfaces (usually rocks) and guard their fry. Tetra fry have little chance of surviving unless you have lots of plants for them to survive in.

2. If the pair of Rams breed, you may need to remove the third one, if there aren't enough hiding places for him. The tetras don't guard an often breed in groups, so need to separate.

[PrincessFish]

Ok, so does this mean that I pretty much just have to watch and see what happens and react accordingly?
What about the corys?  Someone told me that they will eat whatever eggs are laid?  But, from what I hear some parents sound like they would successfully keep the corys away??
So much to learn!!
Thanks Matt!!

[PrincessFish]

Trying to post pic but can't figure out how!  Not terribly computer savvy 

[babblefish1960]

There will naturally be some people who will argue up and down that cory's will eat eggs, I disagree. I have had german rams for many decades and cory's of all types for the same period. Cory's may drift too close to the eggs for the parents comfort, but they don't eat the eggs, it is not a part of their diet. I have always trusted, and rightly so, cory's with my angels, discus, rams and apistogramma's. In fact, they have been fine with every species I have ever bred, and they should stop getting such a bad rap.

As mseguin has said though, the rams may breed successfully with tetras, but the tetras, if bred, will not be so safe, even from their own parents.

As for posting a picture, open the "Additional Options", and press the "browse" button, find the file in the popup and touch on it. That should do it.

[PrincessFish]

Thanks BabbleFish, I'm happy to hear I don't have to separate them as I enjoy the 'community' aspect. 

I am attaching a picture of my unusual (at least I think so) bleeding hearts.  They are quite pretty but don't have the 'bleeding hearts' that some varieties do.  Do you think they are indeed bleeding hearts?  I bought "Baensch - Aquarium Atlas 1" and they look more like H. Bentosi which apparently spawn easily but bleeding hearts have not been bread successfully in captivity (per Baensch)

Thoughts?


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[mseguin]

Hard to say exactly. Possibly Rosy Tetra, Hyphessobrycon rosaceus or onrate tetra, H. bentosi?

[PrincessFish]

Ok I must be starting to get this  Rosy Tetra is H. Bentosi rosaceus