Rams And My Community Tank

[athao04]

Hey everyone.

I just got a new stock of fish after receiving a gift card at a LFS of mine. I purchased:

2x Blue Rams
3x Dwarf Flame Gourami's
4x Neon Tetras

Now, I plan to get more Neons, but my question is this. Two days after I released my fishes into my 30g tank, I found that my female ram had died. Now they seemed stressed and were hiding in the plants the first day, but I made sure the temp was at about 80 F. Are there any indications as to why the ram would die? Also, I understand they are happier in pairs, but it will be a while before I can get back to a fish store that sells Rams. Would this be a problem with the health of my male ram? I am currently at college with no car and the LFS here doesn't sell blue Rams. The neons, gouramis, and ram are doing fine now, and it seems that my male blue ram wants to be one of the gourami's.

I just want to take all precautions.

Thanks.

BTW...I was thinking 4 more Neon's? That wouldn't be over doing it you think?


Thanks ahead of time!

 

[severum boy]

Adding more neons woudent hurt at all, they will make that tank more secure for your rams.
How new is the tank? Do you know what its perameters are? Rams can be delicate, and I woudent recomend them for new tanks.

 

[ox5477]

Adding more neons woudent hurt at all, they will make that tank more secure for your rams.
How new is the tank? Do you know what its perameters are? Rams can be delicate, and I woudent recomend them for new tanks.

I agree, that was prob what happened. The tank was prob too new for the fish and when you put them in you had a mini-cycle (if the tank is cycled to begin with) and ammonia spiked and the ram couldn't take it.....

 

[athao04]

The tank itself isn't new. Ive had it up and running for a while. Its just I had only a couple fish in there that I moved out. Mainly female bettas. The water was about 80 when I put them in and I did a water change after I removed my female bettas.

Could my ram have been picked on by the Gouramis?

and, how does more neons make my rams more secure? Is it just the amount of color? Now you got me more interested

Edit: Would increasing the amount of Gourami's also help?

 

[ox5477]

I would say no to the gourami's because they may have a tendency to pick on the rams. Like I said above, even if the tankisn't new, if you put in a bunch of fish all at once, then your filter has to adjust to compensate for a greater amount of waste and this will cause your tank to do a mini-cycle which will cause an ammonia spike and then a nitrite spike just like when your tank initially cycles. One of these spikes prob killed the ram as they can be delicate to water quality.

fish that are used to being in a community like to be around other fish. Your ram after hatching prob was in a tank with alot of its siblings, and at the lfs it was prob in a tank with lots of other fish, so the more fish around it, it feels safer. Plus, some fish just like to have other fish around them, no matter how big or how tough a fish is, it still doesn't like to be by itslef out in the open. My JD is liek that. He is basically a mature JD and about 5" in length, but he still hangs around the pleco in the tank with him because he wants to be around other fish. He also will hide away most of the day in a clay pot cave I have in the tank for him. Thats just how most animals are, I mean... you wouldn't want to be out in the middle of a open plain all day long with no one else around.... most fish are the same way

 

[severum boy]

My JDs the same, cichlids can be real cowards.
Neons help by swimming around in the open, and if they are not getting eaten, then the rams think they wont be eaten either. By adding in so called dither fish into tanks with scared fish, you will see a marked improvement on how much you see the no longer scared fish.

 

[athao04]

Awesome! Thanks. Now I understand what you were saying about the mini cycle. That really could have been it. Ill probably pick up 4-5 more neons when I goto the store next time. Ill probably be thinking about getting a few small cories.

Thanks so much for the input everyone! Its helped alot.

 

[ox5477]

My JDs the same, cichlids can be real cowards.
Neons help by swimming around in the open, and if they are not getting eaten, then the rams think they wont be eaten either. By adding in so called dither fish into tanks with scared fish, you will see a marked improvement on how much you see the no longer scared fish.

I agree, I got some giant danios for my JD when I move him over to my 55G. I hope they will help make him a little braver!