Do Bolivian rams dig out plants and ornaments?

[yvez9]

I want to get a pair or two but i don,t want them to dig out my plants...

Will they do that or not?
And would they be ok with my 8 guppies I have right now (just for a few weeks until my girlfriend's tank is setup correctly)

I will buy the rams small

also, keyhold cichlids get kind of big right(8 inches and more)?
But do they need a large tank. On my lfs website, it says a 20 inch long tank is the minimum. My 20 gallon tank is 24 inches long.

 

[Ben]

my bolivians,which ive had for ages, never dig out plants but might peck at them if theyre not fed properly,

1 keyhole might be fine in a 20 gal but prefers company and therefore need at least 25-30 for a pair

HTH

DD

 

[aloaring]

Completely agree with dwarf dude, bolivian rams are fine with plants, keyholes when fully grown get to about 5-6 inches but you do need a pair so i say you'd need a bigger tank if you reaaly like cichlids instead of keyholes you could try some of the smaller dwarf cichlids like apistogrammas or get 4 bolivians for your tank!

 

[JustinSane]

I had bolivian rams years ago and I have to say that they might dig out plants. Especially the fragile ones. Especially during breeding times they used to dig quite big craters in the bottom. Besides, even the scientifical name refers to digging Microgeophagus altispinosa
as genus Geophagus is known as "Earth-eaters" in english so basically the genus of bolivian ram is "little earth-eater"

 

[Ben]

the only "earth-eating" mine does is eat some sand and spit it out, and ive had them for nearly a year and a half and they havent doug out one plant

 

[yvez9]

I'm probably going to get 4 bolivian rams, 2 pearl gouramis and 1 small pleco or 3 otos

thanks for your help!

I have guppies right now but I'll introduce the rams and otos/pleco with them, remove guppies later to give to my girlfriend and then add the gourams