Hyper Aggressive German Blue Ram

[catxx]

my bro has this german blue ram called sid vicious, he's had him for almost 2 years now.
his kills so far over the last year have been 3 female german blues, 8 neon tetras and possibly responsible for the death of an albino cory who's body was never found. he now lives with 2 albino corys and 2 neon tetras. my brother won't add anymore fish to the slaughter house.

it's a 15 gallon bowfront planted tank. is there anything that can be done? or is Sid going to stay a terrorist for the rest of his little vicious life? my brother at the moment has a betta in a 7.5 gallon tank, the betta is on it's last legs..well fins...can sid be moved to this tank? after the betta has gone of course. my brother would love a pretty community tank, with a little shoaling group of fish again, which is impossible right now.

 

[AmberC]

Well.. I can tell you right now there are one of two things going on.

The one I see as most likely:

15 gallons is too small. He should be in at least a 20 gallon tank. Cichlids need more than just the 1inch per gallon rule due to their aggression levels. Hes feeling cramped right now and killing off his reasons for feeling cramped.

The other reason would be:

Rams are cichlids and are aggressive by nature, but generally do ok in a community type setting if adequete space is provided. But unfortunately, you will sometimes find a "rouge" ram (discus, angel etc) that just cannot be kept with any other fish ever. This is possibly the case in your situation, but its more likely the first reason I posted.

I suggest looking into upgrading your tank size. If this does not work, take the rouge back to the lfs and trade him in for something else.

HTH,
Amber

 

[Waterbox]

try putting him in the 7 gallon for like a week, then put him back into the 15 to see if anything changes. If he is still mean then take amber's advice maybe take him to a fish store or get a bigger tank. I have had rams in a 10 gallon before with community fish and they have been very mellow, but yours really might just be vicious.