Breeding German Blue Rams

Question
Hi Karen,
It's me Tony(TSL from NYC)how are you? I hope you will return my response as soon as you can on this one, I have a pair of German Blue Rams, for about a month now, and this evening I was looking around and I saw something that looked like beach sand on a flat piece of driftwood, a closer look and I saw the female dropping eggs, and the male being very protective and territorial around the eggs, as if right now there are about 50-100 eggs dropped, my question is will my Big Angels and Loaches eat the eggs and the fry (if) it gets that far, right now I have a pretty nice planted 55 gallon tank with alot of cover, so I hope everything is going to be alright, also I'm trying to read everything I can find on Google about the GB RAM, what ever you know about spawning these fish would be greatly appreciated.
                                  Thanks, Tony

Answer
Hi Tony,
I've been making it along fine here thank you! And I hope it is the same with you!

Congratulations on the German Blue Ram spawning! That is really an accomplishment. Blue rams are my favorite of the dwarf cichlids. Blue rams can lay up to 500 eggs at one spawning and both individuals in a pair will tend to the eggs, however, sometimes rams are notorious egg eaters. Angelfish are also highly known for this behavior that is often blamed on inbreeding. It's also a fact that most aquarists take the eggs away from the pair to hatch them artificially. This often has to be done with Rams as well, you can remove the eggs, which fortunately will be easy to do since they are laid on a flat piece of driftwood. A 10gallon aquarium ideally with a established Sponge filter is best as a hatchery tank. The fry will hatch after 60 hours and should be free swimming three to four days after that. At this point, if the Ram pair are allowed to care for their eggs and should you be lucky to have a pair that don't eat their eggs, the male usually becomes the sole guardian of the fry until the babies can fend for themselves.

I feel there is a 50/50 chance of the fry surviving in the aquarium. The Ram pair may or may not be able to defend all attacks of intruding predatory fish like your big Angels.

So your best bet may be to remove the eggs and spawning site and raise the babies yourself if you hope to have fry.

Of course the ideal option would be to let the German Ram pair raise the fry themselves. Probably the best way to do this is to move the ram pair into a 10-20 well-established and well-heated aquarium with plenty of spawning sites and plant cover. A established sponge filter is also best for filtration.

Of course trying to net your Rams in a well-planted 55gal aquarium is quite a stressful and difficult task both for the fish and you! Not only will you uproot and disturb plants no matter how careful you are, but the poor fish will have to undergo a long chase. So removing the eggs and hatching them yourself again may be the best option.

Here is a very informative article that should further help
http://www.aquatic-hobbyist.com/profiles/breeding/bluerambreeding.html

I hope this helps!
Karen~