no they are both faster moving fish, and the ram can stand up for itself or at least mine did.
you want a good ciclid center fish? and it has to be SA ciclid? find a rare morph of an angle and ditch the barbs. it is going to be hard to get a nice fish to put in that tank with that barb, they love to munch fins good luck. my lfs had an angle with NO fins left on it from a trade in from a barb attack. maybe get some really nice looking clown loaches. like 3 of them. maybe a few nice rainbows
My Cherry Barbs don't seem to cause any problems. Of course, they're currently only in with some cardinal tetras, harlequin rasboras, and cories. I've alsobe been thinking of adding a pair of either rams or apistos to my tank, and/or an angel.
Is it specifically the apisto <-> angel conflict, or would Rams have a similar problem with angels?