That's pretty much what I had expected. The tank right now is currently set up with 82° water. I've heard that's the temperature most fish stores will keep them at, so I'm assuming it will be easier to get them adjusted before raising the temperature a bit. From what I've read, 84° is generally a good temperature? Last question. Without dither fish, will the rams be skittish and hide all the time? Last time I had them, I kept a pair in a 65 gallon with plenty of other fish and they did great.
Yes, temperature at 80F/26C is minimum, and it can go much higher. The main reason this species does not last long [the normal life expectancy is 4-5 years] in most tanks is the temperature, it must be warm. Data collected in the habitat and reported in Linke & Staeck (Dwarf Cichlids, 1994) has water temp at 28.5C (83F) at 10 am on an overcast day which was relatively "cool" with an air temperature of 31C (88F). It gets
much hotter.
Finding suitable dither fish is not easy due to this temperature, but there are some. The green (false) neon,
Parachierodon simulans, is one that would be ideal, as is the closely related cardinal tetra P. axelrodi. They are sympatric species (meaning, they occur in the same watercourse together) in some of their habitats but not in others.
P. axelrodi inhabits waters that do not exceed 30°C, and
P. simulans lives at temperatures that can surpass 35°C (D.F. Campos,
et al, 2017).
I'd have to go through my profiles for others, this is not something I retain without looking it up.
And yes, the rams would be more at ease with fish around them. If you want successful spawning, forget substrate catfish as they are nocturnal and the eggs will not likely survive, nor the fry if they do.