HELP: Blue Rams - M & F

[Jennifer_R]

I bought two Blue Rams three weeks ago; one male one female. They were introduced into my cycled 18 gal tank together. The only other fish in the tank, before the Rams, were Albino Cory’s.

The Rams were playing nicely with each other, and looked equal in flare coloration. Also, the Rams showed mutual interest in caves and rock holes together as one swimming around.

This week, however, I have noticed more and more the male is getting larger and chasing the female to hide in corners of the tank in plants.

The female is smaller, I do not see her eat as much, as when feeding time occurs the male chasses her back to her corner. Her color is mostly dark spots, and I cannot see her flare or her iridescent coloration.

Questions:
Is she sick?
Is this normal?
What happened to them liking each other - then turning on each other?
Did I not get a Male & Female?

Does anyone have any ideas?

I *think* can still take the weaker one back to the FS if I have to.

Thanks!
~Jen

 

[Jennifer_R]

You know what - I think I'm just freaking out. I believe they are being themselves, and territories are beginning to surface.

~Jen

 

[David]

Maybe they want to spawn... I don't know, I've never kept rams. Although I've heard you shoudl have 2 females to a male. This could be your problem.

 

[luxum]

Well, my rams are Bolivians, not blues, but they display similar behavior. When i got them they were the exact same size and hung out together a lot. Then the male started to get larger, he's now significantly larger than the female, his fin extensions are developing rapidly, and he began to chase her all the time. My tank is very well planted, so she can hide from him pretty easily. After a while i noticed that she started flaring her fins at him and darting forward when he came near her corner in the front, and ~she~ would chase ~him~ away lol. It seems like normal behavior to me, and although she was displaying a stress pattern for the first couple weeks in the tank, that's gone now.

Regarding feeding, i generally feed the entire tank with some flake or micropellets in the morning and let everyone fend for themselves. In the evening, i give the rams some sinking pellet food (Kent Cichlid Extreme and Kent Chroma Extreme, alternating) and i basically hand feed them to make sure they each get some, it works quite well to ensure they are well fed and they are very enthusiastic about the Kent pellets. It's funny, the male is still pretty shy towards me when i put my hand in the tank to give him his pellets, he darts away and then comes back to retrieve them when i move my hand away. The female though, she's smarter, she seems to know that i'm feeding her and will swim up towards my hand to get the pellets. I usually leave her an extra one in her corner too since the male generally outcompetes her for the morning feed.

 

[semper fi]

rams breed in pairs, not harems. you can have a male and a few females and let a pair form naturally. once the rams do pair up, additional females should be removed from the tank. leaving additional females in will just intice fighting.

 

[David]

rams breed in pairs, not harems. you can have a male and a few females and let a pair form naturally. once the rams do pair up, additional females should be removed from the tank. leaving additional females in will just intice fighting.

Yes, but I was only trying to alleviate the stress induced by the male constantly chasing the one female.

 

[semper fi]

to alleviate the stress you can add dither fish. i use danios as dithers for this purpose.

 

[David]

to alleviate the stress you can add dither fish. i use danios as dithers for this purpose.

Really? I was under the impression that rams generally ignore other species.