German Blue Rams

[KkAaNnEe]

Hi Guys

Does anyone have experience in keeping GBRs? The guy in the pet shop demanded that i should have RO water and a ph of about 6 to even consider them. He also told me he was on his lunchbreak and swiftly walked off lol

I really love these fish and would like to own a pair but need some advice..

I have a Rio 180 (Juwel) live plant, sand, Dwarf Gouramis x 2, Peppered Cories x4, harlequin rasbora x6...


Cheers guys (and thanks in advance for probably not being as rude as him)

 

[Mikaila31]

Depends most will do fine unless you have really hard water. I had one from a LFS that lived in 7.6pH and moderatly hard water. If you can then finding a local breeder will be way better, these fish are much hardier and usually much cheaper than the ones the LFS sells.

Ask the guy to do a pH test on that tank. I doubt he has them at a pH of 6. If he really does then don't get them as they don't take big pH changes well. RO water normally has a pH of around 7, so unless he has rare soft tap water then he would have to go to extra measures to lower the pH.

 

[hihi100202]

I think a pair can live in a 10 gallon? idk always wanted some because they are sooo pretty. might even get some for my 10 gallon once i find a 5 gallon for my betta(Hes the only thing in there)

 

[KkAaNnEe]

Depends most will do fine unless you have really hard water. I had one from a LFS that lived in 7.6pH and moderatly hard water. If you can then finding a local breeder will be way better, these fish are much hardier and usually much cheaper than the ones the LFS sells.

Ask the guy to do a pH test on that tank. I doubt he has them at a pH of 6. If he really does then don't get them as they don't take big pH changes well. RO water normally has a pH of around 7, so unless he has rare soft tap water then he would have to go to extra measures to lower the pH.

Yeah this sounds right.. He was adament that London tap water is ph 8, even though i told him my water is around 7.0/7.5, so im not sure how his water would be 6!

 

[PDSimon]

I think a pair can live in a 10 gallon? idk always wanted some because they are sooo pretty. might even get some for my 10 gallon once i find a 5 gallon for my betta(Hes the only thing in there)

edit: I think they need atleast 20 Gallons.

They are very sensitive fish that require excellent water conditions.

I can see why he didn't want to sell you it if you weren't sure of your water pH.

You dont need RO water but you should have soft water for GBRs

 

[james_fish]

By my experiance, RO water is not necessary. A pH of 6 will do them good, but I think anything up to 6.5 will be fine. A tempertaure of around 27-28 degrees C. And good lighting to see the beautiful colours really show.
In order to reduce pH to 6, I added peat slugs to the media. Adding bogwood will also lower pH.
I have 4 and feed them frozen foods, they are very picky when it comes to flake and will avoid it.
They do require good water conditions, so keep the temp steady. Always have low ammonia etc. Do the right amount of water change at the right time at the right frequency.

I keep them in a 50 gal as you can see from my signature below.

Hope that help a bit, James.

 

[karin]

Do read more about these on this forum. I think they need to be at a a pretty high temp and this is inconsistent with the needs of your corys. Also most say a minimum area of two square feet for a pair. The 10 gallon would be too small I'm pretty certain. I'm no expert but have been reading the posts for a long tim. Post in the New Cichlid section if you don't get one of the "experts" on this one.

 

[arobinson1984]

German Blue rams do not make good community fish, there arent many fish that will live happily in the specific conditions that GBR's require.

GBR's need:

- Soft water with a PH of between 5.5 and 6.5, which at that low level can hamper bacterial growth.
- A higher than usual temperature between 28-32 celcius, hence the fact not many community fish will like these high temps.
- very low nitrate levels, GBR's will not tolerate nitrate levels higher than 20ppm.

For a pair of GBR's in their own tank you'd need 20 gal minimum.

Many fish stores sell these fish as 'community fish' but actually they aren't, when kept outside of the above conditions you will be lucky if they live longer than 2-3 months.

If you are wanting a ram for a community tank then I'd recommend the bolivian ram.

The only corys that wouldnt mind the higher temperatures are sterbai cories but the rams would have to be kept at the lower end of the recommended temp scale (28)


Andy

 

[waterdrop]

Agree with Andy. These are one of the classic few fish that we sometimes say need fishkeepers who are pretty fanatical about their maintenance! WD