I have a large 125 gallon (473 L) tank with 5 balas, 6 clown loaches, 5 tiger barbs and pleco. I just added yesterday 4 rainbows 3 danios and 2 rams. Everyone is hanging out and partying together but the Rams are kinda shying away in the corner behind a plant and not doing much of anything. Is this normal behavior when they move in to a new place? I do not want them to be stressed and get ich.

Any advice?

Yes this is normal for them, it may take a coupledays but they should be settled in within a week, if not, something is stressing them out.

Thanks very much for your reply. I like them and want to keep them, but do not want ich. I have bought fish in the past that came in got ich and wiped out half my tank. So if they act scared for to long they are going back.

Do they have any special feeding requirements?

If you want to guard against ich... best to buy a quarentine tank. A 10G would do for fish as small as rams but a 30G or 40G breeder would be good for almost any fish in the future you want to quarentine. If you have them for atleast 3 weeks with no signs of any illness, then it is prob 95% safe to put them into the main tank

The rams will be shy, but also, how big are your other stocking. Balas, tin foils and clown loaches are all potential tank busters at well over 10" and are all generally very inquisitive and very jumpy at the same time. This makes for tons of very sudden and random movement. This may be why they are extra cautious in as they are not used to all the sudden and jerky movement.

Rams enjoy meaty foods. I feed frozen brine shrimp and bloodworms, freeze-dried krill and tubifex worms, they really like all of these.