Blue Rams

[mattbeau]

ok,

need a little advise,

It turns out that I have in fact two males, not as I had previously thought

what I thought was the female, is actually a yong male that hasnt the more defined markings, no excessive spike on his head and a more white belly.

the other male I guess older male with all the defined markings has been stressed all day, this morning I found him hiding in a small area between the surface of the water and the filter, when I came home he was being chased all over the tank, I added a few more hiding spots and the younger male just kept seeking him out and chasing him all over the place.

the older male has become extremely stressed, very shy, not eating, what not. he shows no sign of disease or anything

the water parameters are pristine 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite, 10 nitrate ph 6.4, temp 82, heavily planted, heavily airated, all other fish are acting as usual

I figure this may be a case of just getting situated

so I did a a little musical tanks

my puffer to the 6 gallon, and the young male to the 10 gallon (only untill the older male seems to get situated

phew....

so is this the right course of action?

I may return the older male and go some place else for a female (as these guys dont seem to know)

thanks for your time

matt

 

[AndyTaylor]

mattbeau,

In my limited experience with Blue Rams, I say keep them apart, return one of them if possible but they're not going to get used to each other. They may be Dwarf Cichlids, but they're still Cichlids and can be territorial.
I made the same mistake, bought what I thought were male and female but they turned out to be 2 males. 1 died from stress after 3 days just from being chased constantly. Oddly, between the filter and the surface was his chosen hiding place before he died. From what i've seen, once a ram starts to be affected by stress they don't usually recover.
The ideal situation would be to return 1 of the males and replace him with 2-3 females. The remaining male should pair off with a female and then you could return the other 2 females.
Having said that I don't think that your 20 gal will be big enough for any more than 2 rams but someone else may confirm that? I have a single male gold ram whose female died and he's fine on his own so maybe that's something to consider if you don't have room?
You may find it difficult to find a female in your LFS, they generally seem to only stock males, IME.
Hope this helps,

Andy

 

[mattbeau]

yeah, the weaker one died this morning,
the more dominanat one is still doing well by himself in the 10 gallon

maybe I'll stop at a few places and have a good look and see if I can find a female

I need to pick up some cichlid pellets anyways (been feeding them blood worms and brine shrimp)


If I cant find any females then I guess he'll end up alone in the 20 with the rest of the community, but I dont want to move him back too fast so as not to stress him out

they are not very easy fish to catch by th way

thanks for the reply

 

[AndyTaylor]

Sorry to hear the ram died... I know the feeling. I'd say the survivor would be fine on his own in your community, i'm watching my gold male now and he's doing great. Apart from my angels he's the boss of my tank!
Having said that if I could find some good females i'd introduce them so maybe that's the way to go. I'd try them in the 10G and then move a pair into the community but i could be wrong about that...
Keep us informed?

Andy

BTW, try frozen baby discus fit (San Francisco Bay Company is the one i use)....Rams love it.

 

[mattbeau]

Sorry to hear the ram died... I know the feeling. I'd say the survivor would be fine on his own in your community, i'm watching my gold male now and he's doing great. Apart from my angels he's the boss of my tank!
Having said that if I could find some good females i'd introduce them so maybe that's the way to go. I'd try them in the 10G and then move a pair into the community but i could be wrong about that...
Keep us informed?

Andy

BTW, try frozen baby discus fit (San Francisco Bay Company is the one i use)....Rams love it.

thats what I'm going to try to do,

I found a new LFS (well not too local anyway), that has quite a variety of fish, nice clean place, out growth tank is Huge, fresh and marine fish

They have blue rams in stock, but A. there still being treated for disease (not on display), and B. they're all males, but they took my name and number and would call when they get some in, they also get multi's in from time to time (for the 10g when the time comes) its so nice to talk to people at a pet store that know what your talking about (they were recommended to me by petsmart)

I tried ciclid staple by hikari but he doesnt seem too interested

though the neons seem absolutely facinated with the spherical shape and have bee chasing them all over the tank


perhapse I'll try discus fit, I sill have like half a bag of frozen blood worms and a years supply of frozen brine shrimp

BTW I moved him back to the 20 gallon with little problem and he's settled in again like nothing has happened

thanks for your help though

 

[AndyTaylor]

Glad to hear he's fine now. I think I jinxed my Gold male by saying how happy he was.... He didn't come out for food this morning and is not looking happy. I'll be going home at lunch to do my tests and a water change. Fingers crossed......