A Few Questions About Rams

[LauraFrog]

Rams = . I've loved them for years but never had any, they're on the list of fish that are not easy to find around here.

At the moment, I am setting up four tanks, about 13 gallons each. They all drain into a sump, so they're all sharing water. The main purpose of them is raising betta fry, but one tank is going to be a sorority and the other houses whatever I've got that won't go in a brackish tank. At the moment, that's eight female guppies. Could I have a pair of rams in said tank with eight female guppies and maybe one or two male guppies? Eating guppy fry is OK, if I miss the odd drop it won't kill me. I would really love to attempt breeding, as this is a difficult fish to find (and that's putting it lightly.)

I'm also setting up some tanks of the same size for the school. Students like their tanks full of fish. Bursting at the seams with fish. I'm being as reasonable as possible, but I am planning to overstock them by a considerable margin. The filtration is 10x/hour (currently fishless cycling) and the maintenance will be very good. If I just had a single ram in a quiet Amazon biotype tank, with some black neons, and neon tetras, and three paleatus corys, would I get away with it, or are they too sensitive for this setup? (I wouldn't try a pair, the tank is too overstocked for the breeding behavior of any cichlid.)

The only ones I've seen are in a tank at one of my least favourite pet stores, which is notorious for fish abuse. So the fact that they've survived a couple of weeks in there are making me doubt everything I've read about just how delicate they are. (This mob are utterly incapable of keeping most sensitive fish alive, they've tried to stock and killed discus, a few apistogramma species, some of the rarer tetras, bumblebee gobies, some interesting gouramis...) These were very small, about an inch long. How old do they have to be before you can tell if they're balloon? I'm not a fan of balloon fish and would rather not buy them.

Also, I can get bolivian butterflies for the school tank but I thought maybe not because they get even larger. Again, it would be a single one... opinions?

Thanks in advance!

 

[minxfishy]

I would say no for a pair in a 13g, 20g is a minimum as they can be territorial, even the females, but if you can get a 20g, then yes they would fine.

What size is the school tank? Rams are only sensitive in the fact that they require good water quality, which you are obviously going to give them, they prefer a soft acidic water, ph not above 7.4. However, mine were in hard water, ph 7.8 and thrived and even though they have now gone to another member here are still thirving a year later.

Bolivian rams are hardier, a little larger by 2-3cms at most.

 

[LauraFrog]

School tanks are 13-14 gallons, very soft water. I'm letting the amazon one stay soft/acid, seems like the obvious thing to do because most of the stock is tetras. Only one is an amazonian, the others are asian bog (soft/acid, gourami and some rasboras) chinese mountain stream (soft/neutral, gonna cram that one full of white clouds) and mexico (livebearers, hardening the water up a bit for those.)

20 gals isn't going to happen, the biggest tank I've got is 20 gals and I went through a year of grief to get my parents to cave on that one... and they STILL got up me, when I got it home, apparently they 'had no idea it would be that effing big'. So you can see what I'm up against, they think 5 gals is a modestly large tank and 20 gals is enormous. Maybe I should stick to fighters...

So maybe a bolivian for the school tank?

 

[meguro]

10g is enough for a breeding pair, so 13-14g is fine. Obviously 20g+ is still recommended. As for availability where abouts in qld are you? Both blue and bolivian rams should be readily available in brisvegas or goldcoast.

 

[LauraFrog]

Yeah, they probably are available in teh southeast corner, just about anything is. I'm right up the far north, where you can't get anything worth having really. Except sailfin mollies... I've nabbed some stunners. But anyway.

Some LFS will order bolivians for you and they turn up in good shape. Blue rams are half dead when they arrive, so you never request anybody to order those because you're pretty much obliged then to buy whatever shows up, and as often as not it's riddled with parasites, emaciated and obviously dying. You just lurk until some healthy ones appear, and then you nab.

 

[bagu]

True! my LFS was meant to order 2 in for me, instead for some strange reason they ordered 20!! i only have a 20gallon tank

i picked them up the day them arrived and they seemed a tad on the tired side but got alot more colorful

 

[CichlidGuy]

In a tank that small for a breeding pair i would watch out because sometimes the males can get overly aggressive to the females and kill them thinking they are protecting fry. thats why a 20gal is suggested with plants and hiding places.

 

[snowflake311]

In a tank that small for a breeding pair i would watch out because sometimes the males can get overly aggressive to the females and kill them thinking they are protecting fry. thats why a 20gal is suggested with plants and hiding places.

I agree with a breeding pair of cichlids you never know what will happen. My happy Blue acara pair ended up turning on each-other after the eggs hatched. The female is guarding the fry with her life and the male is banned to the other side of the tank. It's a 55 gal. If it were smaller I think the male might be dead from constant abuse. BUT because I have room the male is safe a bit stressed but safe on the other side.