Bolivian's Or Balloon Rams

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scobie140

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Which of the two would be be least aggressive towards a male betta?
Are the ballon rams as delicate as the non balloon version?
Are they sexed the same way as the normal species?

I know its a lot of questions but i like to do my homework before buying any fish


Cheers for any help :good:
 
"Are the ballon rams as delicate as the non balloon version?"
Yes if not more so as the balloon version is a deformity of the healthy normal ram. Just a creative name to market.

"Are they sexed the same way as the normal species?"
Yes

A couple fish are commonly refereed to as "rams" it can be a bit confusing when using the common names or the even the scientific names for these very similar fish.

Ram, Mikrogeophagus altispinosus, Microgeophagus altispinosa
Bolivian Ram, Butterfly Ram, Red Ram, Crown Ruby Ram

Ram, Mikrogeophagus ramirezi, Microgeophagus ramirezi, Apistogramma ramerzii, Papilochromis ramirezi,.
Blue Ram, Balloon Ram, Butterfly Cichlid, German Blue Ram, German Ram, Gold German Ram, Golden Ram, Singapore Ram

Mikrogeophagus altispinosus are less delicate then the Mikrogeophagus ramirezi, not sure how they might react with a betta as a tank mate. Which rams you select, would depend on the set up you are maintaining.
 
Thanks for that. well the only rams i've seen locally to me are bolivian, german blue and golden, the latter of the two also in balloon form. It will be a simple set up with only rams, kuhli loaches and my betta. I always fancied the german blue ones more due to them being more colourful but from what id read on them i understand them to be very dificult to keep. would this set up be ok as longas plenty caves and plants were in the thank?
 
What size is the tank going to be? For bolivians specifically you're looking at a 24"-30" length to keep them comfortably otherwise they get pretty stressed.
German blues often stay ever so slightly smaller. So the 24" (60l ish) should be ok for them.

However overall they should live happily with a betta and kuhlis. The kuhlis will ignore the rams and vice versa. And the betta occupies upper levels where as the rams stay close to the bottom.

Only thing to consider with german blues they really should be kept at high temperatures. 30C is ideal for them, but not great for the betta and kuhlis.
 
Which of the two would be be least aggressive towards a male betta? I kept a balloon ram with 6 female bettas in a 36 gal tank. the rams never gave the bettas the time of day. I now have a male betta with 2 bolivians they don't even look at each other. But I have seen my Betta chace the rams away from time to time. Rams and Bettas go fine together IME.

Are the ballon rams as delicate as the non balloon version? No mine were pretty hardy when it came to water conditions medications and other stuff. BUT when it came down to stress from other fish they don't do well. My male balloon rams killed my other Male. Then that male later died from the stress of my Keyhole. That brough Ich into the tank and the balloon rams got a secondary infection then passed away. My keyhole is 3 years and still doing great.

Are they sexed the same way as the normal species?

Pretty much yeah.

Would I recomend them yeah they were fun. I'm not going to buy any again I like the bolivians rams 100 X better. found my balloon rams to be more aggresseve then my bolivians . I have 2 males bolivians rams in the 36 gal and they get along a 1000 times better then the others ever did.
 
Thanks. Looks like i'll give the german blue's a try as there smaller and raise the temp to 27/28C as a compramise for them. not had a trip the the fish shops for a while so this will be a good excuse to go :)
 
I did't plan on getting any dither fish for this tank but read on the net that this would make the rams feel safer. Should I get some small dither fish or will the betta be enough?
 
cool. I wasn't really planning on any other fish. I was hoping to keep it as lowly stocked as possible.
Would a few platties be unsuitable due to the betta? or will i have to get myself a wee groupe of tetra's?
am i right in thinking that the purpose of the dither fish is to show the rams its safe and make them less shy?
 
cool. I wasn't really planning on any other fish. I was hoping to keep it as lowly stocked as possible.
Would a few platties be unsuitable due to the betta? or will i have to get myself a wee groupe of tetra's?
am i right in thinking that the purpose of the dither fish is to show the rams its safe and make them less shy?

If I were you I would get 6 Emperor tetras. They are so pretty and fun. I have 6 and I love them by far the best tetras I have kept. Also they are easy to sex.
 
No fish this weekend the only place that had rams had dead fish all over the floor and a few tanks with rotting fish so decided not to bother with there and nowhere else had any, as for a dither fish still can't make my mind up so left them till next week also :(
 
Still none :( ended up in pets at home as they were the only place with healthy looking rams. they only had two mixed in with Bolivians. could't sex them for definite think they were two females and asked the fish assistant as over herd her and she seemed to know a fair bit but after telling me that the German blue rams were just younger versions of the bolivians that they shared the tank with i gave up and left. so will travel further next week toget them
 

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