Aren't rams benthic?

[ZivaD]

We recently added four Bolivians to my daughter's 75. It's an upgrade for her project and she got out of guppies so we are just now stocking it so it's the four rams, four glowlight tetras (bumping that up to eight as soon as I find healthy ones) and three tiny bristlenose plecos (will be adding the bigger guy from my tank down the road). The rams have been quite happy to stay towards the bottom. They aren't really acting shy, but do like to hang in the plants/caves at times things get too busy around the outside of the tank. They have been a lot of fun to watch.

 

[gmh]

I noticed that my Bolivians were more prone to stay near the bottom than my GBRs. I've seldom had a GBR come al the way up to the surface however. On the other hand my Rainbow cichlids spend most of their time on the bottom but will quickly zip up to the surface when I feed flakes or pellots.

 

[wesleydnunder]

I was under the impression that rams stayed close to the bottom of the tank. I was also given the impression that they're kind of shy eaters and such. My rams are all over my tank, top to bottom, side to side, and they're.... assertive eaters. When they want some of the food, they'll make sure they get some. Does that mean there's something wrong, or is it just one of those things with cichlids that you may just get fish with different personalities? They were even bracketing my hand as I was trying to net some shrimp (19, including 5 berried ones) out of the tank. They seemed curious and unafraid, even when I mocked attempted to net one, just to give myself room to not risk smacking one with the net. The male moved just fast enough to not get caught by the net, almost as if he was daring me to catch him.

FWIW, I haven't measured parameters since Sunday, but then they were ammonia/nitrite/nitrate at 0/0/10-20 and are historically 0/0/40-80 (I have a hard time telling the color difference on the 20, 40, and 80 ranges, so I assume the worst) prior to my Saturday water change. PH has dropped from the 8.0 range when I first set up the tank to 7.4, I guess due to the driftwood. 55 gallon tank, 80 degrees (though it felt cooler to the touch, the heater and 2 different thermometers were all sitting at 80), lots of tank mates. They're listed in my profile, and I'm pretty sure the tank set up section used to be added to my posts in the past, but I haven't figured out how to get to appear there now. I have a BN, 16 cardinal tetras, 2 neon tetras, 5 glow light tetras, 4 orange von rio tetras, 12 espei rasboras, 15 rummy nose tetras, 7 nerites, a few dozen RCS, at least 4 pond snails, and at least 10 MTS.

I tend to associate benthic with deep-water fish. The biotope the Rams come from isn't very deep, comparatively. However, since benthic means bottom-dwelling it probably fits them in their native habitat. The original name of the ram was papiliochromis ramirezi. The taxonomists changed it to microgeophageous ramirezi; microgeophageous meaning, tiny earth eater. In the wild they're likely bottom-dwelling and peck at invertebrates and other food on the bottom.

If we were to keep them in a 15 or 20 foot deep tank with multiple levels of fish, you'd probably see them hugging the bottom where they may find ample cover for their small size. In a tank that is only 12 to 30 inches deep they probably don't associate the depth they're in as deep enough to stay on the bottom; much the way that schooling tetras don't show typical schooling behavior in our small aquaria.

Mark

 

[steffish]

My Bolivians tend to stay towards the bottom 2/3 of the tank unless they have some reason to come to the top(chasing or feeding). They are definitely NOT shy eaters, but I don't have them in with anything bigger than them. They come to the top for food, over which they frequently squabble - bluffing & puffing, chasing, & brief lip-locking, then they are all over the tank.