What Can I Keep With Rams?

[Becca1]

Hi guys, i wondered if anyone could tell me a good fish to keep with my Blue Rams. I bought a lovely Kribensis but he ate all my bamboo shrimps,so he sadly went back to the shop. Any ideas on an interesting species? Thankyou.

 

[nmonks]

Blue rams -- Mikrogeophagus ramirezi -- need fairly warm water (28-30 C). So avoid things that need cool conditions, such as neons and most Corydoras. Concentrate on other "hothouse" species. Cardinals are classic choices, but angelfish also work well, as will most gouramis.

You'll also need to keep them in soft and acidic water, and that rules out livebearers.

Cheers, Neale

 

[minxfishy]

Tank size will also help with some suggestions, its difficult to give options without knowing

 

[Becca1]

sorry tank size is 60l which is about 13 gallons i think, pretty small compared to people on here, however it looks abit empty with only 2 rams in it.

 

[TigerIssey]

In a tank your size I would only keep one ram, I allow at least 20g US per pair and with the ones I have at the moment I have given them 33g US per pair. If you have two males they will constantly fight over territory in a smaller tank and a male can harass a female for breeding purposes in a tank where she cannot get away from him.

Your tank is too small for angels so I would stick with nmonks suggestion of cardinals. Some corries will work temp wise but as rams are little eartheaters (microgeophagus) they inhabit the same area of the tank and can bully corries, it can work in larger tanks but I believe a small tank like yours would be a problem.

 

[simonas]

I keep mine with discus and Uarus and Neons!!! ( I didn;t realise Neale that they needed cooler water!!)

 

[Becca1]

oh ok thanks. i really like the rams even though i have perhaps limited myself to getting other fish. just one more idea, could i get some glass catfish and what are cardinals? (sorry)

 

[simonas]

oh ok thanks. i really like the rams even though i have perhaps limited myself to getting other fish. just one more idea, could i get some glass catfish and what are cardinals? (sorry)

cardinals tetras are beautiful, simila to neons except the red goes the whole length of body like the blue.

 

[Jim Curtis]

I keep mine with discus and Uarus and Neons!!! ( I didn;t realise Neale that they needed cooler water!!)

You keep Uarus with Discus??!? Dont they get like a foot long? That would make me nervous more so than the Neons. I've heared of neons with discus before.

 

[nmonks]

Nor did I until fairly recently. Turns out their natural habitat is relatively cool, so at least one reason people like me completely fail to keep neons alive for long is likely keeping them too warm. Fishbase reports 22-25 C, similar to danios and Corydoras.

Because oxygen concentration goes down with temperature, while metabolic rate goes up, even small temperature "errors" can cause major stress on fish. So it's worth spending a bit of time understanding this issue. I'm not saying you can't keep neons warmer than 25 C; quite clearly lots of people do. But if you're having problems maintaining them, or want to maximum your chances of keeping them right from the start, then turning the thermostat down a notch or two could make all the difference.

Interesting, green neons (Paracheirodon simulans) come from similar conditions as cardinals, so should be kept fairly warm.

Cheers, Neale

I keep mine with discus and Uarus and Neons!!! ( I didn;t realise Neale that they needed cooler water!!)

 

[simonas]

I keep mine with discus and Uarus and Neons!!! ( I didn;t realise Neale that they needed cooler water!!)

You keep Uarus with Discus??!? Dont they get like a foot long? That would make me nervous more so than the Neons. I've heared of neons with discus before.

the uarus are only about 3 inches and far too small to go in my bigger tank as they would get eaten

they are peaceful cichlids very similar in nature to discus and they get about a foot long but then discus get very large themselves,they live in the same river so I don;t think its that odd a combination