Species Only Blue Ram Tank?

[craigybaby37]

Got a rekord 96 tank currently set up as a community tropical tank which has the following stock.

2 marble mollies (with about 25 fry in a breeding tank)
4 neon tetras
2 blue rams
2 other type of cichlid only about 1 1/2 inches long
and a honk kong plec.

Anyway ime looking into setting up the tank purely as a blue ram setup and ive been reading a few things on the internet about it an ive read that it will be ok to keep the neon tetras in aswell??? shouldnt see why being in with more rams would cause any problems but let me know if it will.

And secondly how many rams would u reccomend keeping in a UK 20 gallon tank??

o and almost forgot will i need to make any changes to filtration or lighting. ime currently using the standard jewel filtration and 24" 18 watt light.

What kind of aquascape is best for rams aswell.....dense plants and rocks prehaps or driftwood

 

[Larissa]

One pair in a 20g. Neons or other tetras (or pencil fish) as dither fish work out very well - they make rams feel more comfortable because in the wild they use them to tell if there is danger around. That sound like a perfect aquascape for rams. Dense plant areas with bogwood, river rocks and open swimming space.

 

[craigybaby37]

only 1 pair thats supprising.....was hoping to be able to have at least 6 and thats fish not pairs. o well guess my plans stop there then.

 

[Larissa]

20g is usually recomended for a pair because they are territorial by nature - also, if you have a pair it is possible the male will want to breed but the female may not be 'in the mood' so you need to provide enough space for the female to hide and evade the male. It would be lovely to have a small species tank full or rams - it would be sooooo colourful - but you have to remmember that even though they are small, they are still cichlids which means they need their space. HTH.
-Larissa

 

[craigybaby37]

Yea i see your point. Just had an idea.......how about having a pair as the main feature of the tank with a variety of tetras of some sort???

would u have any ideas of the type of fish i could have with the rams and how many i could have???

 

[Larissa]

If I had a 20g that is exactly what I would do! (my dream tank really) A pair of rams and some "dither fish." In terms of good dither fish for rams, I would say just about any tetra that isn't to nippy or energetic. The list is huge, glowlights, neons, cardinals, head and tail lights, rummynosed,...it goes on and on. I would avoid tetras like black widdows (too big) or serpaes (nippy) but really anything else goes. Even some dwarf pencilfish would be nice! You could do something like:
2 rams
6-8 tetras (depending on filtration, water changes etc)
3-4 dwarf pencilfish (again depenging on the above and number of tetras)
2-3 otos
Have some bogwood, densly planted areas, some river rocks, floating plants and open space and it would be a lovely South American themed tank! HTH - I'm sure other people can chime in with stocking ideas too.
-Larissa

 

[craigybaby37]

Sounds like ime getting somewhere with this now lol

Thanks for your help ill have a look at some of the "dither fish" you suggested and see what takes my fancy.