Dark Rams

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Lilyann

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Elk Grove, Ca.
Picked up a pair of dark rams, male and female ( breeding pair?~ time will tell), and they are doing surprisingly well. Surprisingly well because I didn't get them for 8 days. They were off in USPS never-never land for 6 days longer than they were supposed to. I thought for sure I would open the box to dead fish. But, lo and behold-- stressed, but alive!

I threw out all my timely acclimation routine procedures and plucked them out of the nasty water and into the aquarium, as soon as opened the box. Once they hit the warm water you could see their metabolisms start to move and their color start to come back. 6 hours later they nibbled at some cichlid pellets. Resilient little guys. Its been 5 days now and they are settling in great. Here is a quick video. They are really hard to capture because they are so black.

 
Cool fish with an amazing story to go with them. I am completely astounded at what fish can survive by mail transit. I recently got a pair of Fundulopanchax gardneri by USPS. Everything was both hunky and dorey. I've had Rams in the past and treated them like China Dolls thinking they were so delicate. Your story blows that right out of the water. I wish you all success with them.
 
I know its controversial, and the subject of heated debates but I have stopped acclimating fish in the traditional sense. By that I mean gradually adding my own water to theirs to adjust hardness & pH gradually. If I buy locally I float the bag for 5 - 10 minutes to allow the temp to adjust gradually but that is all. If they have been shipped I try to get them into clean water as fast as possible so they get 5 minutes floating max. My water is nothing like that in my LFS as I live in a very hard water region and have soft water in my tanks. Never had a problem.
 
I know its controversial, and the subject of heated debates but I have stopped acclimating fish in the traditional sense. By that I mean gradually adding my own water to theirs to adjust hardness & pH gradually. If I buy locally I float the bag for 5 - 10 minutes to allow the temp to adjust gradually but that is all. If they have been shipped I try to get them into clean water as fast as possible so they get 5 minutes floating max. My water is nothing like that in my LFS as I live in a very hard water region and have soft water in my tanks. Never had a problem.
Sounds sensible to me. Im of the same mind. I temperature acclimate fish that I get from 15-20 minutes and they get scooped out of the water and dropped in.

Yeah, Ive heard those debates and I ignore them. I actually do not drip acclimate any fish - ever- and I have some pretty sensitive fish: wild discus, wild altums, wild african tetras, to name a few. In 3 decades of fish keeping ( and not drip acclimating) I have not lost a single fish to osmotic shock.

Much ado about nothing.
 
Hey ! You never have updated us on those wild Discus you got recently, unless I missed it. How are they doing ?
They are doing very well. I think I took another video recently I can post. Let me take a look.


The last video I took was over a month old so did a quick video so you could see how they are doing. they are growing fast! The 3 babies are now with 1 adult and 1 sub-adult Alenquer discus.

 
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Lilyann, you have beautiful fish. How many tanks do you have?
 
Lilyann, you have beautiful fish. How many tanks do you have?
Thank you! :)
I have:

180 gallon- This tank has geophagus sveni, biotodoma cupidos and wavarinni, Altum Angels, corydoras eques and brochis splendens, Blue phantom Pleco, and 5 different groups of African Congo tetras ( around 35 tetras).

60 Gallon- Discus, some Green neons and rummy-nose tetras.\

30 gallon - Shrimp Tank with 18 Microrasbora kubotai - shrimp are wild neo's and caradina babaulti "Zebra".

30
Quarentine/Hospital tank- currently housing Dark rams

Fluvel Flex 9 gallon- Bloody Mary Shrimp

Fluvel Spec V-- still cycling- Will have Golden Bee Shrimp, Green Jade neocaradina

5 gallon Cylinder vase- still cycling- Will have Tiger Shrimp, Orange neo's
tetras
 

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