German Rams
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nofishinginmytank
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I had a long finned german blue ram in my tank for about 6 months (they accidentally got poisoned 
) he was absolutely fine and a lovely little fish wiht my cories and my gourami. until i added my 2 platies, then he changed, he got aggresive he chased them around their tank and chased the gourami and starting to bite my cories fins. So if you add one last or when you get all your other fish i would say chances are that he/she will be fine if you add it first it will be aggressive to the new fish, so my advice is that if you get one make sure its the last fish that you get for a little while
good luck
) he was absolutely fine and a lovely little fish wiht my cories and my gourami. until i added my 2 platies, then he changed, he got aggresive he chased them around their tank and chased the gourami and starting to bite my cories fins. So if you add one last or when you get all your other fish i would say chances are that he/she will be fine if you add it first it will be aggressive to the new fish, so my advice is that if you get one make sure its the last fish that you get for a little while
Blue Rams are really hard to keep, the problem is you dont really know what your getting. Wild Rams, need low ph (below 6.8,) high temperatures (28c) and very clean water (0-5 nitrate) where as farm bred Rams need neutral ph (7.0) mid temperatures (25c) and again very clean water (0-5 nitrate) the problem with this is if you dont match this to your fishes requirements it can cause both long term and short term damage. So the complication is that often stores dont know if the fish is a long term tank bred fish or if the breeder has been using new wild stock and the fish is actually only a few generations from wild. To complicate things more, it is not unusual for farm breeders to cross long term farm bred fish with wild stock for the next generation to go to shops which means that it is impossible to know what your buying, even the most artificial looking Ram like golds, electric blues, balloons and long finned cant be guaranteed not to be in this situation.
The short term damage becomes apparent quite soon as the fish will seem very shy, lethargic and stressed and will be susceptible to disease. In the long term, the wrong water conditions mean that they develop problems with their respiratory system and/or their digestive system - this often results in their life span being cut short by a number of years, Rams should live for 5-7 years where as, usually in unsuitable tanks they live 18 months to 24 months before dropping dead often out of nowhere.
Generally my best advice for keeping them is to source true wild rams from a reputable retailer and keep them as I described above, there are fish that are ideal to be kept with them as well. Rummy Nose Tetras and Sterbai Cories have similar ideal requirements and the three species thrive in this sort of set up. Add in lots of driftwood, almond leaves, alder cones and you can even peat filter the water which they will all love. The other thing to do is to check with your water company the nitrate level coming out of your tap, mine is 40ppm so it would be useless for keeping Rams in though I know most American water sources have very low ph because your water comes through a much more complicated processing plant where as in the UK most of the water comes via natural water holding sources like reservoirs.
It is also how I would recommend people to keep the newer strains as well such as the Electric Blues and Golds, personally I think the other line bred strains like Balloons for example should be avoided, Rams are hard to keep, weak fish generally and adding in a line bred birth defect is probably not a good idea...
Hope thats helped
Wills
The short term damage becomes apparent quite soon as the fish will seem very shy, lethargic and stressed and will be susceptible to disease. In the long term, the wrong water conditions mean that they develop problems with their respiratory system and/or their digestive system - this often results in their life span being cut short by a number of years, Rams should live for 5-7 years where as, usually in unsuitable tanks they live 18 months to 24 months before dropping dead often out of nowhere.
Generally my best advice for keeping them is to source true wild rams from a reputable retailer and keep them as I described above, there are fish that are ideal to be kept with them as well. Rummy Nose Tetras and Sterbai Cories have similar ideal requirements and the three species thrive in this sort of set up. Add in lots of driftwood, almond leaves, alder cones and you can even peat filter the water which they will all love. The other thing to do is to check with your water company the nitrate level coming out of your tap, mine is 40ppm so it would be useless for keeping Rams in though I know most American water sources have very low ph because your water comes through a much more complicated processing plant where as in the UK most of the water comes via natural water holding sources like reservoirs.
It is also how I would recommend people to keep the newer strains as well such as the Electric Blues and Golds, personally I think the other line bred strains like Balloons for example should be avoided, Rams are hard to keep, weak fish generally and adding in a line bred birth defect is probably not a good idea...
Hope thats helped
Wills
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