My Psychotic Ram!

[emmaisaguppy]

Hi all

There is a bit of a story behind my problem so please bear with me:

I introduced 2 small Rams to my aquarium a few months back. The fish shop failed to sex them as they said they were too young to tell. They seemed fine, happy enough. One of them however started bullying other fish in the tank, they were completely terrified of him. This behaviour soon settled, the other fish kept out of the way of the Rams and the Rams were happy enough. They grew a bit. One day I came home from work and the smaller (less agressive) of the two Rams wasn't there. Just vanished without the trace. I assumed that it had died and been eaten by other fish. Feeling sorry for the other Ram (who at this point was back to terrorising all of the other fish) not having a friend I went back to the fish shop who showed me how to sex the remaining Ram (turned out that both of mine had been Male so the missing one was probably killed by the other Male). So we found him a nice female to keep him company.

Mrs Ram laid some eggs shortly after introduction and the two of them seemed to be getting on fine, Mr Ram was not bothering the other fish again, he seemed happy. I came home from work last night to find that Mr Ram (I assume) had eaten Mrs Rams fins! She has been left with almost no dorsal fin, half a tail fin and no fins underneath. She is still swimming and feeding, but resting lots.

I have put a general tonic treatment into the tank that is suitable for damaged fins.

I guess I have 3 questions:
1) What can I do for Mrs Ram to make sure she is ok?
2) Will here fins grow back?
3) What should I do with Mr Ram? If he kills Mrs Ram I don't want to put another one in there to be killed but then will he go after the other fish? Is it cruel to keep him on his own? Is it cruel to keep the two Rams together now?

Ok that was more than 3 questions.

All advice is very much appreciated - I am very concerned about this psychotic behaviour and worried for the safety of all of the other peaceful fish in the tank.

Thanks

Emma

 

[newtotropical]

Can you give details of your stocking & size of tank etc?

Ive had no problems like that with my rams!

 

[emmaisaguppy]

Can you give details of your stocking & size of tank etc?

Ive had no problems like that with my rams!

Rams are apparently "peaceful even when breeding" according to my book. I have a 35 litre tank:
2 Rams
3 Guppys
6 neon tetras
4 pentazona barbs

(Aware that when all of my fish are fully grown tank will be a bit overstocked and am planning to get a second tank before this happens)

 

[newtotropical]

Can you give details of your stocking & size of tank etc?

Ive had no problems like that with my rams!

Rams are apparently "peaceful even when breeding" according to my book. I have a 35 litre tank:
2 Rams
3 Guppys
6 neon tetras
4 pentazona barbs

(Aware that when all of my fish are fully grown tank will be a bit overstocked and am planning to get a second tank before this happens)

mmmmmm dont think thats true. They can be aggressive when breeding and they breed easily. Your tank is overstocked, it could be that fact that the fish are stressed due to not having swimming room.
I would say you need a 60ltr. My rams are in a 126ltr with apistos and tiger barbs and i have no problems i think that is your problem. Sorry

 

[emmaisaguppy]

Can you give details of your stocking & size of tank etc?

Ive had no problems like that with my rams!

Rams are apparently "peaceful even when breeding" according to my book. I have a 35 litre tank:
2 Rams
3 Guppys
6 neon tetras
4 pentazona barbs

(Aware that when all of my fish are fully grown tank will be a bit overstocked and am planning to get a second tank before this happens)

mmmmmm dont think thats true. They can be aggressive when breeding and they breed easily. Your tank is overstocked, it could be that fact that the fish are stressed due to not having swimming room.
I would say you need a 60ltr. My rams are in a 126ltr with apistos and tiger barbs and i have no problems i think that is your problem. Sorry

No apology necessary - advice apreciated. I didn't realise as I was stocking (first time fish keeper) that I had too many but I have since and as I say I plan to get a second tank but thought I had a little longer to get it sorted - it seems that I have to do it quicker than I thought. Thanks very much.

 

[thegnu]

to state rams are peaceful even when spawning is just ridiculous, and printed in a book that you have to actually pay money for to find advice like that is bad. i would burn it

 

[Miss Wiggle]

1) What can I do for Mrs Ram to make sure she is ok? separate her and Mr Ram for now, put her in a hospital tank if possible so she can rest peacefully and you can treat her with something like melafix which should help the fins grow back. watch out for fin rot as secondary infections can come on when a fish in injured like this
2) Will here fins grow back? yes, but this may take some time
3) What should I do with Mr Ram? If he kills Mrs Ram I don't want to put another one in there to be killed but then will he go after the other fish? Is it cruel to keep him on his own? Is it cruel to keep the two Rams together now? a larger tank should help, it would give more room so you could encorporate plenty of hiding spaces so if Mr Ram turns nasty other fish can get away. However he may just be a nasty bugger, rams are cichlids and as such personality can vary quite a lot. You can either keep him in his own tank (not cruel if the tank's big enough IMO) set up another tank with more aggressive fish who can stand up to him or give him to a friend (or forum member) who has a tank with aggressive fish. Fish will often pick on a wounded fish, so you should seperate them at least until she gets her strength back and has recovered

 

[fishboy619]

i added 2 male rams into a 60lt with 3 platies and they terrosied the lot of them, with in a week, one ram had been killed and the platies were unhappy, i returned the one male left. i found that they are very aggressive even in a large, planted tank.some times fish just dont get one.

 

[TerraDreamer]

I don't know a lot about Rams, but the males are probably like most other fish and are highly protective of the eggs. They'll attack anything that comes near them, even the female.

 

[Zeoth]

I've got 2 rams. They do nip each other's fins once awhile but never enough to seriously damage each other. They tend to leave other fish alone. What type of ram do you have exactly? I've got Bolivian Rams. I suppose that there are always bad apples for every species.