What do you mean "too quickly" ? 2 weeks ? 4 weeks ?
Yoyos and Barbs Eating Veggies
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He's an awesome little guy!
I imagine he loves being chief anyway, and might not appreciate some other fish entering his turf!
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The small pieces about 3 weeks and when you touched them, they disintegrated. That larger piece is about 5 weeks old, and feel like soggy breakfast cereal. The pleco absolutely loves it though, so do the shrimp in my other tanks.
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He tries, but he is one of the smallest fish in the tank so they mostly ignore it. He gets one of the tetra occasionally, and that probably makes him feel like Mr Big Britches.
Haha! Making me really want one now!
Pretty sure I saw @Byron mention recently that he had a Bolivian that decided the whole 5 ft tank was his territory. They sound like great little fish, and easier to keep in a community than the other rams, that need higher temps. Prettier than they're given credit for too.
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The ones at my LFS had some very nice colors, more colorful than my guy. Theirs had a lot more red and in the tail, and color everywhere else. But my guy is competing for territory and food with the Yoyos.
I think if I could do it differently, I would. I might redo my 20H or 29 and one of my 10 gallons in a couple months. Trying to source bulk black sand, but the stuff at Petco is the cheapest at $20 for 20lbs.
@AdoraBelle Dearheart drew this thread to my attention, so I will offer some advice here. I will take it as confirmed that the 55g tank is 4-feet (120 cm) in length, it needs to be for the loaches.
Bolivian Ram males are territorial. The extent of an individual's territory can depend upon a few factors, but it is never advisable to add fish of the species once a male has settled in to a tank. He probably considers the tank "his," this is their inherent nature. If you were to add several rams, say 7 or more, likely some would be female and he might decide to pair up. Rams must select their mate from the group, they will not accept any female (or male by a female). Once a pair seems to have formed, all the other rams may need to be removed; their presence may or may not work out, depending upon the initial fish.
Another male might or might not work. The male now in the tank may have decided this is his space, or maybe not. It is however a real risk.
I acquired a beautiful male Bolivian in 2008, and he was housed in my 5-foot well planted Amazonian riverscape tank all his life. About two or three years after I acquired him, I found a group of rams in a local store that were in very good condition, so I thought I'd get him a mate. This was obviously before I understood the species. They seemed to accept each other, though in hindsight now I can see there were very clear signs that this would not last--and it didn't. They spawned four times, then the male decided he'd had enough and he killed the female overnight. Even in that long a tank there was no escape.
This species has a 4-5 year lifespan. My male lived into his ninth year. During his life, it was obvious that the entire tank was his space, and every other fish knew it. Rams are substrate feeders, so he ate the sinking shrimp pellets, tabs, etc that the cories ate, and there were 60 cories in this tank, mixed species. He would poke any away from "his" pellet or tab, but nothing worse ever ensued. I noticed that he had much less acceptance/tolerance for cory species that were not spotted; the spotted ones, like C. schwartzi, C. leucomolas, etc were always ignored, but the C. duplicareus, C. panda, etc were always poked away from his space when eating.
One day I noticed the group of nine Bleeding Heart Tetras were hovering in the upper third of the tank, midtank. I wondered why--then I saw why. The Ram was below them, and whenever one of the BH began to move outside this tight group, the ram charged toward it, and back it would go. There was never any physical contact, but the Ram was clearly exerting his "right" to the tank, and the BH had obviously riled him over something. Fish use chemical communication as well as visible, and the Ram was likely releasing allomones that the BH could read, exerting his authority.
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Wow very short time ! But is there anything I wouldn't do to make my fish happy ?
Small cichlids (rams, apisto) are all territorial aren't they ?
Yes. the males of all species of cichlid are territorial, to varying degrees depending upon species and individual fish. Same holds for gourami species. And a lot of other fish.
I've been told bolivian rams, esp males, do not like company. They will of course breed with females but other than breeding they prefer to not have them around so they are not the best species for a group....
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I haven't had any aggression at all, and they are often recommended as a community fish. He patrolls the tank and occasionally steals a piece of food from a tetra. Certainly no fin nipping. I could see not having too many in a small tank, or not with other bottom dwellers in a small tank, but I wouldn't tell someone they are species only.
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If it lasted a bit long, I don't think I would have minded. I just ended up putting them in the tanks with shrimp or snails mostly.
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I had originally ordered 5, but the store only got 3 in. I lost the first very early on, it just wasn't eating and died within 2 days and one had shifted the sand under a rock too much and got squished by it.
At least I know not to get anymore for the tank. Still might set this guy up in a smaller community tank eventually, so he doesn't constantly have to compete for food.
Edit*
Yes, the tank is 4 feet long. Forgot to mention that.
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