I GOT BLUE RAMS!!!!!!!

Auratus

Why am I browsing a fish forum at 2am?
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Yesterday I bought three blue rams and three kuhli loaches for my new ten gallon but I saw today that the loaches seem to have ich and one died. I took them back the the lfs and he tried to tell me I gave them the disease even though all of the other loaches in that tank had it too... But anyway, I finally (after lots of arguing) got store credit and bought two more rams. I asked for 2 males and 3 females or 1 male and four females.... I got 4 males and 1 female :X. Geeesh. So I have five blue rams in a ten gallon tank with a ton of rock made into caves and some fake amazon sword plants. And a flat stone in case one day the four males decide they want to breed... :crazy: . Poor girl I can see it already :sick: .
 
wow she defintly spoilt for choice.... i know what ur taling about i went back with a guppy female with finrot and they tryied to balme and argueing with me i thought they would be sympathetic co si was young and it was ony a small little guppy. also the lfs are crap at telling male form feamle and u can't really tell with rams anyways ... they just calim to! :crazy:
 
Take at least 3 of the rams back. A 10 gallon tank is WAY too small for 5 rams!! Rams are territorial and require about 2ft of plan area each. If they breed then this area will at least double. If you are lucky you might get away with 2 rams. This is on top of the fact that a ten gallon can only hold 10 inches of fish and you have about 12 inches not including the loaches.
Have you cycled the tank? If not then it's a fair bet that the 2 rams you keep will die anyway. Rams are, in my experience, delicate fish that require a mature tank and good water quality. Putting all those fish into a new tank is a recipe for disaster. Ammonia by the gallon will happen!

Go to the Beginner section and read the pinned notices. They will save you lots of heartache and money!

If one of your loaches had Ich then you can bet your bottom dollar that the other fish in the tank are going to get it. Every ram I have ever bought has suffered from Ich within a week of me buying them. They showed no sign of it when I bought them, they just got stressed out by the move and developed the problem. Apparently rams are know to be pre-disposed to Ich.

Another point. 4 males will kill a single female in their attempts to breed. She will get pressured by all 4 until she weakens and dies. It's best, with rams at least, to have at least as many females as males. That way the males attentions are diluted across the female population allowing the females to have at least a little time out of the limelight provided by a bunch of randy males! :-(

Rams are great fish but they do require a fair bit of space. If you really want to keep these fish then I'd suggest a bigger tank. They are worth it though!

WK
 
well just a note these could be very small rams and when he gets pair, he can take the extras back and replace them with females or wahtever !! different fish :thumbs:
 
UPDATE:

The kuhli loaches have been gone since the second day I had them...

They are really small still. Except one is a full grown male. No ich, they are eating their live bloodworms and the tank has many, MANY, hiding places. I am going to take the female back once the males reach maturity. The tank was set up and cycling for two months before I bought them. The rams are locally bred and raised so they do better in the water around here. I asked lots of questions in different forums before buying them because i didn't want to spend 10 bucks on a fish to have it die a week later. Everyone said that I could have 3 but for right now I have five and I will take them to a lfs if they get too big, or if I see that they are fighting. But for right now their has been NO fighting what so ever. The female does hide in the amazon swords most of the time though. She doesn't come out like the males. And I'm not a beginner I have nine fish tanks and have been keeping fish since I was 12. Well, I'm only 17 but you know. That's still 5 years... hehe. I know I dont really know anything compared to most of you but I'll learn. The tank is 80 degrees.
 
EVEN NEWER UPDATE: 10-31-03 (10:21 p.m. pac)

Apon closer inspection it turns out I have five males! I am buy an 18 gallon tank for them sometime this week. But they wont be moving in until cycling is done. I posted something in the diy section for territory purposes. Since an 18 is more up and down then it is side to side I am making caves and tunnels on the upper walls of the tank so they can have territory all over. I wont get any females because I'm not in the mood for them to be harrassed. I see enough harrassment from my Auratus male to last me a life time. :angry:

Waterloo kid:
I have a lot of the same type of fish you do. I also have zebras, neons, glowlights, otos, and rams. That's pretty cool.
 

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