What's the market for electric blue rams?

[Acara19]

Specifically the long finned ones, I was thinking of just getting a pair and letting them do what pairs of cichlids do, which hopefully doesn't mean kill eachother. I was wondering how much I'd be able to sell the offspring for once they do happen to breed. I'm more centered on watching their breeding behaviors since all my other cichlid pairs are either dead or sold, but then I thought I might as well make a bit of pocket money off of it since I do have a couple of tanks and tubs lying around that I can raise fry in.

 

[mchambers]

The market around here is unusual, in that we have a wonderful breeder and seller of electric blue rams, Frank Cowherd. I don't think his are long finned, but they are beautiful fish.

 

[Frank Cowherd]

Rams (MICROGEOPHAGUS RAMIREZI) in all their various colors are great and usually do not kill each other. But they only live about two years, maybe three years under ideal conditions. ANd you can sell juveniles for about half of the price of adults. It is best to sell rams when they can be sexed, young adults, but you have to wait until the color develops and that takes about 4 to 6 months. Adults can be sold at about the price they are sold in the LFS. I usually sell a bit lower than that, but price also depends on how many you raise and their size and color. It can be hard to get them to grow big if you are raising a batch of around one hundred.

 

[Acara19]

the growth thing's interesting, do they grow slower in large batches because of growth inhibiting hormones released by larger fry or is it just a matter of their bioload?
other than that thanks for the info Frank!

 

[Frank Cowherd]

Larger batches for me are harder to feed well. I guess I could do it by feeding heavily and changing water every day. But I feed so I only have to change water once a week and that is when I find the large batches do not grow as fast as I want them to grow.

 

[Becca]

Raising fry makes me truly miss the continous drip filtration system at the hatchery. In order to do a water change on every single tank in the whole warehouse we just backwashed a huge pool filter and replaced the water in the system.

It also makes me miss having drilled tanks with removable overflow tubes because that was an awesome way to do a quick flush on a tank with uneaten food lying around.