Rams

[Arfie]

I rescued a Ram on 27th Dec from Pratts@home, when I noticed it in the unheated plant tank with loads of fungus and mould growing on the plants and water surface and it STANK , where it must have been since before xmas cos the store had been shut

Anyway I couldn't leave it there despite vowing never to buy anything alive from there (technically I still haven't cos I caused a bit of a scene and got it for free ), the girl was about to chuck it straight into a heated tank

Now my question is, it will be in with community fish like tetra's, corys, endlers, danios, ottos etc, so should I leave this one on it's own or get it some company? If it is better with others, how many? and what sex ratio? or are they better suited on their own in a community tank?

It's colour is not showing properly yet, not surprised really with what it has been through, but it looks like it's one of THESE if that makes any difference.

Cheers
Arfie

 

[Ben]

Is he going in the 160 litre?
If so, it should be fine with other community tank mates.
Have you managed to figure out what sex it is? Because rams prefer and are comfortable in pairs of male and female. So get it another ram of the opposite sex and its colours should become brighter and it should be more active in the tank.
But if you're planning on breeding one day, remove them as they get really aggresive during breeding.

HTH

DD

 

[Arfie]

Hi DD,

Yes it is eventually going in the 160, at present though it is in quarantine in a 60 litre as it had fungus when it arrived and it came from Pets@home. Tragically I got up this morning to find it rapidly swimming in a corkscrew motion across the back of the tank

I have not sexed it yet, it's difficult to see it as it's still hiding away. I have no intention of breeding them, in fact I had read that they are aggressive during breeding so I'd prefer not to.

Arfie

 

[Melangell]

I've been reading these forums for some time but just had to register to reply to this post. Just after Christmas also, I visited pets@home to get a pump to set up an air curtain at the back of my tank and of course had a peek at the fish though I have NEVER bought any fish from there for obvious reasons. I noticed they had 1 1/2 inch clown loaches in with the aggressive cichlids (can't remember the exact type) and there were 3 or 4 clown loach carcasses already. Also these clown loaches all had white spot but I felt I had to save a few at least so I requested 3. The guy said I can only sell you 1 or 2 at a time of these type, it isn't good to get more then that. I said no I think I will have 3, they must be in groups and I would have them all if I could fit them in my tank as I don't think the conditions they are in currently are very kind. Well he sold me 3 and I reluctantly left the other 15 or so in the shop. They are cleared of white spot now due to medication and slight temperature rise though for a few days I thought I would lose one. Conclusion to my story I guess is I don't much like pets@home and while they really do pretend they know what the heck they are doing I strongly disagree.
On the subject of the rams, I just aquired two this weekend (from a reputable fish store I might add!) and they are doing well. One is obviously a female as she started showing a pink belly last night though the other is totally not interested?!? Either another female or perhaps an imature male as it is quite a bit smaller. Anyway good luck with your ram and I think you rescuing it from that place was great

 

[Arfie]

I now think the ram is a girl, what do you think?

She is not colouring up at the moment, though she was on the 1st day here, I suspect she isnt happy with the meds and bare tank. You can also see the fin damage on the dorsal caused by the fungus infection she had too she has had a battel so far, but seems to have pulled through it all

The ram will be moving into the 160L tank soon once I have managed to get all the meds etc out of the tank she is in and she is used to clean fresh water.

I am getting 3 male cockatoo's towards the end of the month, which will be in quarantine for at least a couple of weeks, but my intention is to add them to the 160L too, do you forsee any problems with this?

Also if I get the ram a mate, are there likely to be any problems then (other than breeding times)?

One more question, do cichlids interbreed cross species?

Arfie

 

[Katchan]

First up, apistos rarely interbreed with other apistos, results are not good, and a apisto/mikrogeophagus is impossible sorry.

Second from that photo the sex of your fish is anybodies guess. Also from the photo it may not be a blue ram but a gold (same species different colour morph) mostly i believe this because of the lack of a black spot on the fishes side the colouring in the picture isnt the best

its a crappy pic but ok for demostration, with gold rams the back half often has a blue sheen, vaguely visable in your pic, but usually in golds the dorsal doesnt have black -which leeds me to suggest it may be a blue/gold cross but either way its not your basic blue ram

Thirdley
Whats the footprint of your tank? A male apisto generally needs at least two square feet of tank bottom So you should probably only have one or two in this tank plus add on at least one square foot for the rams (a pair takes up about the same room as one) means definetly not more than 2 apisto males probably - btw each female you get should have at least one square foot each (within a males territory)

nb. these are gudelines only and it possible to bend and outright break them if giving the fish the right conditions - LOTS of caves and hiding place, WELL planted then chuckin in some more plants more caves and maybe a bucket of leaves just to make sure - basically unless your experienced in this I wouldnt try it
Hope this helps some

Andrew

 

[DarkElf]

Just wanted to add that severely stressed MALE blue rams will sometimes "lose" their spot....never seen a girl do it though. It will however come out (if there) when fish starts to lose stress-even if it's super light.

 

[Seb R]

Hey there, you did a good thing saving the poor lil thing, hate it when you see awfully treated fish

Anyway I would say thats a female, because: more pointed face (males of that size have a more rounded one in my experience), small patch of pink- indicating female, also the two black bits on the front of the dorsal would usually begin to get longer by that age if it was a male. Anyway hope it does really well in your tank, but give it a few days to settle in before getting a male or any others, they may fight a tiny bit with the apistos, but if there is a pair they will be happy and not feel threatened.