How Can I Get My German Blue Rams To Thrive?

[LosC519]

How can I get my Blue Rams as healthy as possible? What extra things can I do?
Theres 4 German Blue Rams and 1 Balloon Ram in a 30g long with a 60g rated filter. I feed them a varied diet of live and frozen foods. My water parameters are good. I do 25% water changes every couple days. I've had all of them together for about 1 month now, 2 of them don't look as colorful as they should. The least colorful one isn't the smallest so I am questioning his lack of color isn't cause his age. So what can I do to make them fluorish?

 

[LosC519]

Why is there such a difference in color pigmentation?

 

[DiscusKeeper403]

Those look like a Gold/Blue Ram cross to me... That would explain why they are yellow and not blue. Anyways, those fish look good, and with the way you are treating them, I couldn't possibly see a reason for them not to thrive...



Fish will always vary in color intensity, some fish just don't turn out as well as others, but it isn't a sign of bad health. How often are you feeding them?


Try putting more shell fish into their diet. Theses are high in astaxanthin, which is a great color enhancer (especially for yellows, oranges and reds, or golds for that matter )

Spirulina is also a great color enhancer!

 

[Colin_T]

You are treating the fish really well. Good filtration, regular water change and gravel cleans and a varied diet. As long as the temperature is between 24-30C and the PH is extremely high they should be fine.
The small fish that are losing colour are probably being bullied by the dominant fish. Chances are two have paired off and are starting to bully/intimidate the others in the tank. If the tank is well planted and has lots of hiding places they should be fine.

You can treat the fish for intestinal worms and see if that helps. Otherwise just monitor them and see if any are showing off or chasing the smaller ones around.

The light coloured gravel isn't the best for bringing out the fish's colour. Do you have a picture backing on the tank? if not then put something across the back to make them feel more secure. A darker backing will help improve their colour a bit.

 

[DiscusKeeper403]

you can see a Gold Ram here: http/www.somethingsphishy.com/images/Gold%20Ram.jpg that shows color similar to the far one.

 

[LosC519]

Thanks for the info, also great input. I'm trying to bring out the best in these fish, especially the less colorful rams I have. I will try feeding them Spirulina. I have no background yet but it shouldn't bother them since my wall is a dark color, I'm trying to fill in the background with tall plants so far I have jungle val, amazon swords and some ludwigia growing. What can I add to my sand to make it darker?

 

[Colin_T]

A background will actually fit flush against the tank and does make a big difference to the fish. Even if you have a dark wall a couple of inches behind the tank, the fish can still feel insecure because there is an invisible barrier (the glass) between them and the wall. You can use coloured cardboard or anything really. You just need something to make the back of the tank feel solid to the fish.
Generally the darker the background the better the fish show up.

Just leave the sand as is. If you add dark gravel to it the colours will mix and look bad. If you have a dark background and lots of plants then the lighter gravel will be less of an issue to the fish and they should colour up better.

 

[Jamfish]

They look fine to me, if I was you just cary one as normaly if they start to die then your doing something wrong.