A Southerner's Bolivian Ram Journal

[saz326]

That trailing red on his fins - Booootiful.

My Male has also recently coloured up like this and I have found he suddenly gets a lot more respect from the other fishies.... that is with acception of my male keyhole who routinely reminds that he is king!

Great journal.

Perhaps the flat stone needs to be covered by a certain amount of covering plants - i.e. some plants nearby for security but not too many.

 

[Skins]

I don't know why i have not seen this thread earlier GV, STUNNING PICS!!!!!

Keith.

 

[Gvilleguy]

I did a little re-do on the aquascape two weeks ago after a lot of coloring up and fighting between the male Rams. In my opinion neither one was able to establish his territory. So I used rocks and plants to create a "wall" down the middle of the tank, with the cave on right right, and the terra cotta pot on the left. I am curious to see if this will help them establish a safe zone where they feel more comfortable. I also moved the big flat stone behind the main cave where it is covered by more plants overhead. We'll see if this makes any difference. I am also dropping sinking pellet food on each side of the wall so that they don't have to invade each other's space at meal time.

 

[Gvilleguy]

I don't know why i have not seen this thread earlier GV, STUNNING PICS!!!!!

Keith.

Thanks! I had no clue about how to keep these fish, so I thought I would log my results in case it ever helps anyone else.

That trailing red on his fins - Booootiful.

My Male has also recently coloured up like this and I have found he suddenly gets a lot more respect from the other fishies.... that is with acception of my male keyhole who routinely reminds that he is king!

Great journal.

Perhaps the flat stone needs to be covered by a certain amount of covering plants - i.e. some plants nearby for security but not too many.

Thanks for the suggestion on moving the stone. We'll see if that helps or not. One thing that I really like about the Rams is how they tolerate the other community fish - zebras, glofish, neons, and guppies - I never see them chase the smaller fish, even when the smaller fish are trying to steal food right out from under them.

 

[Gvilleguy]

I do not feel like the Berlin Wall is helping much, so, while I love the Rams, I think the best thing to do is re-home two of them (since I don't have space for another tank in the house). They are getting large enough that the bio-load is also noticeable in the 26 gallon tank. Stats are still good, but a lot of muck at each weekly water change.

 

[Carlovel1]

I do not feel like the Berlin Wall is helping much, so, while I love the Rams, I think the best thing to do is re-home two of them (since I don't have space for another tank in the house). They are getting large enough that the bio-load is also noticeable in the 26 gallon tank. Stats are still good, but a lot of muck at each weekly water change.

What a shame you are rehoming them. I have never seen such colourful Rams. Important thing is they go to a good home.

 

[Gvilleguy]

That will be my primary concern - finding someone who keeps up their tank stats properly! I'll still keep two of them, at least. My plan all along was to only keep two in this size tank.

 

[Gvilleguy]

Okay - I have found a good home for two of the Rams - Robby on this forum is currently cycling a tank, and he is going to take two of the Rams off my hands as soon as he feels the tank is ready for them. I feel better knowing that they will be going to a very knowledgable fish owner!

I've noticed the bio-load (waste) of having four Rams in this size tank is not ideal...so I think it will improve the environment to just have two of them.

 

[GShorty1981]

be careful with those bamboo plants, they are semi aquatic and will rot after a few months and cause a ammonia spike.

 

[Gvilleguy]

The wall of 'stuff' down the middle of the tank was not helping the Rams sort their territories, and I thought the arrangement was starting to look crappy. So today I did a large tank cleaning, removed everything from the tank except the fish, and did a major rescape to open up the floor of the tank more. We'll see how the Rams sort this out now.

Here is a large picture from today after the filters removed the clouds I kicked up during the cleaning:

This shot actually shows every fish in the tank, if you count that tiny splash of orange/red in the upper right, which is one of my two male guppies (the other one is upper middle in front of the floating plants). You can also see the four Rams down front, four Neon Tetras above them, three Glofish, and two Zebras.

The only thing I am not pleased with at the moment are the water sprites in the background. I recently cut some back, and have others floating up top to get some new growth. Then I will cut back the older parts and cover the back wall of the tank properly. This is the worst the sprites have ever looked (I got slack on my fertilizing recently).

 

[GShorty1981]

Still you have the bamboo plants tho, bottom right corner.

 

[Gvilleguy]

Ah - I was wondering which plants you thought were bamboo - the only real plants in there are the water sprites and the java fern (small, dark green leaves, on top of the cave on the left). Everything else you see is either silk or plastic.

 

[GShorty1981]

Ahhh

 

[Gvilleguy]

A few more pics, taken this week.

This male Ram does not get as many pictures taken, as the other one tends to be more colorful, so I thought I would give him his well deserved spotlight (because he does look good, too!). My kids call this one Slytherin:

And this shot is of Slytherin and Hufflepuff (female):

These two Rams are going to Robby at some point. They both have just about perfect fin structure, although I am no expert. The female that we are keeping - Ravenclaw - has a big tear in her dorsal fin - but the kids are attached to her since they easily recognize her.

 

[Verminator89]

The best bit about this update is the fact i realise that Harry Potter has made some impact in the states. Good to see something English has done well over your side of the pond haha.

They are beautifull Rams. Actually making me want to try keeping some again