What is the lifespan of rams?

[Tomsfish]

Mikrogeophagus ramirezi grazing.
View attachment 385969

She looks to be loaded with eggs.
Are you seeing any breeding behavior?
Can you see her ovipositor?

 

[gwand]

She looks to be loaded with eggs.
Are you seeing any breeding behavior?
Can you see her ovipositor?

This is the first time I’ve had Rams. I am not certain of their breeding behavior. However, the female is not tolerating the presence of the male currently. I’ve had to separate them into two different tanks until I sort this out.

 

[Tomsfish]

She looks good and not beaten up.
They play rough when breeding.
I only separated if there was physical damage like nipped fins or such.
If possible, keep tanks next to each other so they can see each other.
Make sure when you re introduce them the male goes into the female's tank.
She needs all the help she can get.
My experience with the Electric blues was that they were the most peaceful of colors with gold and black having the homicidal possibility.
Yours looks gold/EBR mix.
Sometimes after breeding they needed to be separated if the male was too protective and not letting the female near the eggs.

 

[Back in the fold]

This is the first time I’ve had Rams. I am not certain of their breeding behavior. However, the female is not tolerating the presence of the male currently. I’ve had to separate them into two different tanks until I sort this out.

If anybody can do it YOU can ! Get going on them Man !

 

[fishorama]

I was gifted a ram female ram from a friend unexpectedly to go in my then angel tank. She was at least 2 years old. I had her for at least 2 more. She laid ~100 eggs with no mate & died a few months later. So I'm going to say 4+ years. But so many variables...temp ~80F, soft water ~2GDH both KH & GH, TDS ~80. Other than regular water changes nothing special AFAIR.

Breeding can put stress on pairing fish. Picking a nesting place & defending it are work...& that's only if you have a compatible pair. I'd guess a slightly shorter lifespan for 1 of a pair.

 

[GaryE]

Cichlid pairing can be a white knuckle fishkeeping experience for us. We have to try to understand what is their testing of each others' usefulness as a parent/partner, and what is their having decided the one they're dating is a loser. When the line tilts to the latter, in a glass box, fish get killed. All that behaviour is boxed in by use with the aquariums that they can't swim out of to find a more compatible partner than the one we picked.

I had a pair of Nanochromis splendens that spent a week in the wildest fighting I've seen. But there was little damage. Then they stopped, laid eggs and were a lovely couple for the rest of their lives, with many broods. But I also had Rubricatochromis that physically harmed each other before every spawning, worked as a unit to protect the eggs and lead the fry (while they grew back the damage), then half killed each other again before the next spawning.

In my teens, I learned with angelfish that if I put two together, I needed to have two tanks they could live in. Ideally, they could stay together, but since I was doing the putting together, then it was on me to have a possibility of permanently separating them. How does a guy end up with a fishroom, rather than just one showtank?

Cichlids of any size'll do it. From rams to jewels, from mild to psycho, it's the same.

 

[gwand]

She looks to be loaded with eggs.
Are you seeing any breeding behavior?
Can you see her ovipositor?

I thought the fish was a male since it was bigger than the other fish and more colorful. Here are pictures of both fish. The first is the fish you think is female and the second picture of the other smaller fish I thought was female. What do you think?

 

[Tomsfish]

Well they both look full~!
My experience in sexing is that 90% of the males anal fin extend into the tail fin.
Both look like the anal fin ends before tail although #1 does have 'more' male looking features then #2.
I have been wrong before.

 

[gwand]

Well they both look full~!
My experience in sexing is that 90% of the males anal fin extend into the tail fin.
Both look like the anal fin ends before tail although #1 does have 'more' male looking features then #2.
I have been wrong before.

Both fish have been eating live BBS every day for two weeks. That may explain the big bellies. Lol.

 

[gwand]

One week of quarantine to go.

 

[Back in the fold]

What do you think of them so far ? Do you like them ?

 

[gwand]

What do you think of them so far ? Do you like them ?

They are feisty and beautiful. I love the pair.

 

[Back in the fold]

They are feisty and beautiful. I love the pair.

They do have a personality . That’s what I like about them .

 

[gwand]

They do have a personality . That’s what I like about them .

You have personality too.

 

[Back in the fold]

You have personality too.

Oh thank you Dear . It’s so kind of you to notice .