37 gallon freshwater aquarium, first fish tank in over 6 years

Nice! Can't wait to see pics when you've got the tank filled with fish and the driftwood.

I love my little kribensis pair! They are SO adorable, colorful, and interesting to watch and their spawning behavior has to be some of the best among smaller fish. The only things that you have to watch with them is that they can be defensive when they're breeding, and judging from my pair which spawned a whole 8 days after I bought them, it will be a relatively constant thing. Mine are in a 38 long tank with 3 guppies and 4 swordtails and a rubberlip pleco. Generally they leave the other fish alone except when they get too close to their breeding cave. You definitely dont want to get other bottom dwellers with them since your cave is a tall and they hang out in the bottom. Mine rarely go more than 6 or 7 inches from the bottom of the tank, and that is usually during feeding time. Top and mid swimming tetras would be a good bet. Something hardy and fast. Make sure that you add some rock caves to the tank for them to breed in. They still might breed without a cave, but IMO its better for them to have an enclosed area for them to defend rather than a section of driftwood or a corner of glass. Sand or fine gravel is the best substrate, which it looks like you have cause they like to dig out their cave areas. You might want to make sure that any plants you get are either like java fern or anubias which you can tie to something or figure out a way to weight it down. Mine have already dug out most of my potted plants (kept them potted so they wouldnt float).

I have a female german blue ram in a 40 breeder. I'm going to get a male for her tomorrow. She's in with a chocolate gourami (they're buddies), 6 ember tetras, 4 otos, and I just added a stiphodon goby lastnight. She's so full of personality. I did a water change the other day and had my hand in the tank to rearange some plants and she was right there picking at my fingers. She's so colorful I'd say she was a male if it wasn't for the fat pink belly and shorter rounded fins.

My ram has not shown breeding behavor yet as she doesn't have a male, but she is very nice to the other fish and asside from chasing the tetras (who can outswim her no problem) she leaves everyone alone, and even plays follow the leader with the gourami, who is very shy.

Generally Rams are protective and territorial while breeding, but they won't actually harm any fish that is smart enough to get away from their "spot". I've heard some people say that cories have a hard time grasping the concept of "leave us alone!" but fish like tetras and rasbora tend to cruise around in the open, mid-level areas of the tank and won't spend alot of time in the hidey-holes that rams are likely to claim for their eggs anyway.

I had a krib pair once...pretty colorful and interesting fish. Same with the rams, but I liked the rams more.

:cheers:

If you pass through Spokane, the shop I get my Ram's at has some. It's called Aquarium Solutions and run by a nice lady named Barbie who's a member of this forum. She doesn't post here anymore, but she used to.

Great start! I have this exact size tank. I have it set up with pretty low tech plants, mostly swords that are getting big, and basic stuff like crypts on the bottom, java fern and some hygro polysperma. I have tetras, rainbowfish, and danios which makes for an active tank. It's a pretty tall tank so plants at the bottom have to be pretty low light tolerant, or you need good lights. Your water is on the alkaline side which rams won't like, although I think the bolivians are more tolerant of that? I live in the Portland area and there is a local source of rams here that my LFS has once in a while. I think you will do well with the AC filter. Mine has a pretty long intake tube which is needed in a tank this tall. Nice stand by the way!

If you call Barbie about two weeks before your trip and tell her your situation she will either hold a pair of rams for you, or make sure she has some ordered and in when you get there so long as they are on her order list.

To make the trip a little less stressfull, you could prepare a 5 gallon bucket. Get an AC adapter for your car with a normal outlet on it and put a heater and a sponge filter with a bubbler in the bucket. It would be even better if the sponge filter was cycled and you could keep it fed during the trip.