Rams

[bloatedguppy]

I was thinking about getting a pair for my tank but was wanting to ask some questions first! Ok, I've heard both things while rams are hardy or not please let me know your experiances. 2nd let me tell you a little bit about my tank, It a 25 gal, 4 years old, fully cycled, No real plants but nice looking ones, My ph is around 7.3, I'm getting rid of some fish soon seeing as there over growing and need larger tanks but what I'm going to keep are 2 otto cat's, 3 pearl gouramis, 5 dwarf aussie rainbow fish, 1 swordtail, and 4 young yo-yo loachs. Now the only chiclids I've had in the tank since the beggining where angel fish and they thrived but got to aggresive. I did very well with them and was sadden when I had to let them go. But could I get a pair of Rams for my tank?, also right now my pearl gouramis are the crown jewels of my tank so I'm wanting somthing thats not aggresive but I heard rams are quite peaceful. Over all I would have 16 fish in my 25 gal. Also I'm looking for some that are unexpensive but are still nice as I don't have much cash right now. My local specialist aquarium shop has some blue rams but for $20bucks a pair which is a little high, I'm trying to find some around $12. Please let me know your oppions and if theres any other chiclids that I should look for!,My most concern is I want my gouramis safe.

 

[emmsy]

GBR (German blue rams) are extremely pretty, but not many people have had much luck keeping them. The water quality has to be spot on. If you did want rams, I would suggest Bolivian Rams


Emma

 

[LosC519]

I would get rid of the Gourami's and get the GBR's and maybe in the future you could add another 2 GBR's. GBR's will do better in 80F+ temps Keep up with water changes, give them a varied diet and they should be fine. I have the same pH as you and I've never lost a GBR out of the 5 I have. They will become territorial and may pick on your Gouramis and it may get a little tight in there with three Gouramis and 2 GBR's

 

[emmsy]

Good on you mate! I could never keep GBR, could never get it right

Emma

 

[skimmy290]

I was thinking about getting a pair for my tank but was wanting to ask some questions first! Ok, I've heard both things while rams are hardy or not please let me know your experiances. 2nd let me tell you a little bit about my tank, It a 25 gal, 4 years old, fully cycled, No real plants but nice looking ones, My ph is around 7.3, I'm getting rid of some fish soon seeing as there over growing and need larger tanks but what I'm going to keep are 2 otto cat's, 3 pearl gouramis, 5 dwarf aussie rainbow fish, 1 swordtail, and 4 young yo-yo loachs. Now the only chiclids I've had in the tank since the beggining where angel fish and they thrived but got to aggresive. I did very well with them and was sadden when I had to let them go. But could I get a pair of Rams for my tank?, also right now my pearl gouramis are the crown jewels of my tank so I'm wanting somthing thats not aggresive but I heard rams are quite peaceful. Over all I would have 16 fish in my 25 gal. Also I'm looking for some that are unexpensive but are still nice as I don't have much cash right now. My local specialist aquarium shop has some blue rams but for $20bucks a pair which is a little high, I'm trying to find some around $12. Please let me know your oppions and if theres any other chiclids that I should look for!,My most concern is I want my gouramis safe.

your gourami's should be fine if you were to add a pair of rams. blue rams are pretty peaceful in terms of cichlids, i have four in a community tank and the only bullying i see is amongst my two males. so if you were to buy a pair i would go for two females or one male and one female (females have reddish bellies and blue specklies in the black spot on their side) you're tank does sound a little over-stocked and rams need pretty good water. i tank about 10-15% out every other day. just make sure to keep up with you're water quality. bolivians are also a good choice, not as colorful but definitely hardier. they get an ich or two larger though,

 

[Gouken]

very great fish to get I have 5 German Blue Rams and they are very great in a large communtiy tank, when they start breeding though they can get a bit aggresive defending thier eggs. I moved my breeding pair into a 20 gal tank so that they can spawn in it with no problems.

 

[rammingspeed]

Hoping not to be redudant, but instead reinforcing.

I have a 30gallon tank and there are 5 fish that spend the majory of their time in the mid-level of the tank. 2 of them are rams, the other 3 celebes rainbows, which are all pretty small. At times even this can appear overcrowded, but I should note this is a hexagon aquarium so its much taller than it is wide.

My only point is that with some larger gouramis loafing around you might consider 2 rams (2 female or 1m,2f) your maximum.

As someone else said the rams won't really get aggressive until there's eggs around. Even then most of the aggressiveness is more bark than bite unless some poor cory is wandering a bit too close to the reason for the defensive tactics. Generally they'll probably be more mean to each other (in a m/f situation) than anything else.

For now I've actually witnessed mine schooling with my panda corys as if they were confused or something. That's just how friendly they are.

They do need very clean water and usually won't tolerate >10ppm nitrate. My tank is heavily planted so I don't need to do water changes as frequently as some others (like skimmy290) may.

Goodluck.