snakeskinner
01-22-2004, 1:15 PM
I'm sure you're tired of Ram questions but I did do a search and came up with no results on my question so here goes. I've been tossing around rams for a while and I'm almost to the point of purchase but I have a question or two that needs answered. I have a 36 gallon 1/4 cylinder tank that is heavily planted (fake plants but going to add some live plants once the season comes around to get good plants). I have a couple caves and several decorations for hiding. I have 3 giant danio's, a gold gourami, some ottos, a couple small cories,a large pleco, a quartet of serpae tetras and 7 smaller tiger barbs (3/4" to 1"). The barbs and serpae's are not very nippy at the moment but I guess things can change in the future. I'm wanting a pair of rams and have been searching every shop in the area and finally there are some choices after bugging all the shops. I found one shop with some 1" blue's, another LFS got in 6 2" blue rams and about 10 1.5" rams and the local petsmart got in about a dozen fingernail sized blue rams (were ordered as XL rams but came in very small). The Petsmart guy said they were ordering some more for next week and should get some larger blues and golds. I'm not sure which I like better, wish they'd get along with a few but it sounds like this isn't such a good idea, or is it? I've seen several people say they have 3, 4 or 5 rams in their tanks. Have they just purchased them and don't know they're gonna be separating them later or will they actually coexist like this if they have some areas? The first place I went had the 6 large blue rams and they were all facing off in about a 15 gallon tank but no real damage was being done although several had the lower half of the tail freyed which could have been done in transport I guess. I've been doing a lot of searching the last hour or two and found out about the pink bellied females so I'm a little more confident on choosing a pair and I know finding an established pair is the best but I don't think they'll be in the shops long enough to establish a pair. If I get a pair or even a couple males, do you think they would coexist if they have plenty of areas to call home and defend? What do you think the possibility of getting a single blue and a single gold in there? Can I intermingle a male blue and a female gold? How do you tell the male/female on the golds? I guess my #1 question is do you think the rams could live with the tiger barbs. Most places say to keep them with peaceful fish and my tigers are what I would call peaceful right now but I know they could turn any time. I notice many people have rams with gourami's and bettas which also can be bullies (and usually are in my experiences). I know kribs would probably be a better choice but I just don't care for the coloration of the ones I've seen around here. The ones in most pictures have red and blue on them but the only ones I can find are brown and dark pale green, more like a leaf fish. thanks for any advice, KYle