Nipping Rams?

[Scunny]

A couple of weeks back me and the mrs went to the LFS to buy some new fish, she wanted two dwarf gouramis, i wanted two apistos rams. We cam home with two dwarf gouramis

Today i dragged her back there and we got two lovely apistos rams (rodney and rodge). I've been watching them to make sure there settling in fine, and i've noticed that one of them seemed to nip at the fins of one of the gouramis, and the same gourami nipped back shortly after.

Are they known as nippers or not?

any help is appreciated

 

[thegnu]

rams are normally very placid with non rams until they spawn and they don't have a territory unless they spawn, preferring to roam the entire tank. if the dwarf gourami had had a go at the ram earlier they might have formed an uneasy relationship with each other but rams and dwarf gouramis can stick up for themselves!
by the way, rams are not from the apistogramma family

 

[Scunny]

yeah they'll probably be fine i guess.

So you mean my rams aren't apistos rams?

Im sure thats what it said on the sticker on the tank at the LFS. And they look the same as the ones in the pics when i google it.

 

[severum boy]

I take it here we are talking about Rams, Microgeophagus ramirezi, not Apistogramma sp..
Rams are cichlids and so will be territorial in aquariums. They are not known for being fin nippers, but are fish nippers when the situation calls fot it. It may be that the tank is of such a size that it views the tank as its terratory, and as DGs can be aggressive at times, the ram will be making sure that it is the boss. This should settle down in time. How big is the tank?

So you mean my rams aren't apistos rams?

Im sure thats what it said on the sticker on the tank at the LFS. And they look the same as the ones in the pics when i google it.

And they will show the same pics if you google Rams. Apistos rams dont exist. When Rams were first described, they were called Apistogramma ramirezi, but that name does not exist. The LFS has got it wrong.

 

[Scunny]

i've just taken a picture. Could you please tell me what kind of ram this is then. Sorry if all this is real simple stuff i should understand.

 

[severum boy]

AH-HA!
This is not a Microgeophagus ramirezi, this is a cousin called the Bolivian ram, or Microgeophagus altispinosa. A larger fish, it will reach 3". These guys are very similar in temperament to Rams, but just bigger and more subtley coloured. How big is your tank?

Dont worry about understanding this, there are thousands of different fish sp. out there and just wading through the common names people shove onto them is bad enough.