What to do with a Ram.........

[snakeskinner]

well, I finally broke down and bought a single male gold ram and put it in my 36 gallon 1/4 cylinder that is heavily planted. I was worried about the tiger barbs or possibly the serpae tetras but much to my suprise, my adopted gold gourami was the culprit. He wouldn't leave the ram alone and would actually hunt for it when it was hiding so I pulled out the gourami and put it in my wife's 10 gallon along with her dwarf gourami's and put her pair of congo tetras in my 36 gallon. But.... a couple of my tiger barbs couldn't resist the tails on the congos so I was forced to net them back into the 10 gallon which is way too crowded anyway. At about the same time, my wife noticed the gold gourami was chasing anything that would move in the 10 gallon so I netted him and let him dangle into the 36 gallon while I contemplated what to do (I felt like giving him to my cat but I restrained myself). I finally decided to add him back to the 36 and netted the ram to put in my 55 gallon community tank with lots of tetras, mollies, platies, etc. He seems ok there except one lyretail molly is horrified of him and of course the ram wants to be his buddy so he's constantly following him around and the molly is running away. Kind of comical since this molly has been a bully in the past. most all the fish are scared of the ram but I have yet to see the ram actually go after another fish. I think I'm gonna get a pair of Kribs for my 36 instead of rams. I thought the rams would be able to hold their own better than this one. Is mine just a wimp or is this normal? I assumed they would be a little tougher than to let a gourami mess with them. He was fine around my tigers and serpae's but anytime the gourami spotted him he was fleeing for his life. Do you think if there was another ram in the tank along with him that they would team up or just fight eachother? thanks, KYle

[LMOUTHBASS]

well - he prob is a little tougher than he is showing - when he was first introduced he was prob scared ab it not having a clue where he was or how he got there ! plus he was in someone elses turf - if you had left him afte a while maybe a week or so he woulve have toughened up when he coul claim a spot for himself - i have a platinum gourami who chases everything but isn't to bad - anyhow he never paid any attention to my gold ram - the ram finally claimed a spot as his own - he problem is that it's right next to a very much used cave - anyhow the gourami swam by n the ram took a nip at him! the gourami has never bothered him and didn't even fight back he just swam away n he is 3 times bigger than the ram

[snakeskinner]

the way they were going, I think the ram would've been dead in a couple days. Either from stress or lack of fins the way the gourami was going. Also, I was just talking to a guy at my Petsmart and was telling him the story and he said his gold gourami had actually killed a couple of his other gourami's and as a last effort, he put the gold into his large tank with an Oscar and a Jack Dempsey and the gourami actually keeps them cornered. I'm not much of a gourami fan, too bad they're so colorful and my wife loves them. I went to my LFS over lunch and was looking at their Kribs. They have a M-F pair that look good and I was going to get them but he said they noticed some Ich in that tank yesterday and would not sell me any until they were sure it was gone. That's a good feeling that they did that. At least I know they're more worried about the experience with the fish living instead of just making a sale. That's probably why they've been there so long. We bought a cat from them when I was very young so they aren't a fly-by-night LFS. cya, Kyle