gold and blue

LMOUTHBASS

LMOUTHBASS

My hypocrisy goes only so far
Jun 17, 2003
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Boston , MA
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Mark
hi guys
i finally found some blue rams!!! they were at a petco they looked really good but not crazy colorful well they are young anyhow - two are more colorful then the other twoi think their males cause they are locking mouths a little bit - think im gonna have to seperate them? anyhow can i keep them with gold rams - i think the plan is to as well - unless i can keep them all in my 55 ???
 
You already have two pairs of gold rams, which in my opinion is too much for the 55. Yes Rams are peaceful....to their non related tank mates. When you add another pair or have multiple pairs in a tank, they don't care if each can have an adiquate territory in the tank or not, they don't want the other in there. Eventually what will happen, even with just two pairs is that one will dominate over the other, and just keep beating on them untill they get stressed and die. Gold rams and Blue rams are the same species, just different variants. Secondly I will just about gaurentee you that those blue rams from Petco are from Asia. I'll have to root out the source, but I've read that 75% of the rams that are bred in asia and sold in the US will die within 6month due to their inability to adjust to the water conditions here. They are bred in very soft acidic water, and have been for so many generations that they do not adjust well to harder water and become prone to various skin diseases and parasites because of the harder water. I would not adivse getting another pair of rams, unless you want to have three tanks, one for each pair. Also not to be a jerk or anything, but rams are cichlids, so you probably should have posted this in the cichlid forum.
 
Bass,
he had some valid points there. I am not sure about the Asia Rams but if you post in the Cichlid forum there are those who know their stuff on these guys. I know of a few people from this board who have bred them and I am sure if you post on that section of the forum they will be able to help you.
I tried my hand at rams but never been able to keep them for more than 6-9 months and gave up. I hear bolivian rams are much hardier. But i have tried the pairing thing as you are doing, watch these guys, you may actually see them pair off gold with blue and if this happens i would move those pairs to another tank. But yes, the stronger male or female will bully the weaker ones until the are stressed out.
So NatakuTseng had some really cool points and really no issues. He is just trying to help out and give some advice.

jim
 
pup

thnaks for the info - i posted in the cichlids section and he was making me out to an idiot for asking questions - then he took a shot at me here abouit posting in cichlids when he knew i posted there as well about similar issues thats all -
anyhow i was not aware that you coul only keep 2 rams per tank - i was reading on them and never came across this info :( i've heard so much on them and then saw pics i was blown away and started an all out hunt for them which has been tough - when i finally found some i was excited so i got 4 figring maybe i woul get 2 pairs - those are the gold ones i bought - one of them is really getting unbelievaby colorful maybe i'll post a pic! so anyhow i was out and about and popped into a shop i hadnt been to in a long time anfd what'ya know blue rams! so i bought 4 more - i figured 4 in each tank (55 as well as 20 g)i wanted a gold pair and blue pair in each tank - right now they are only an inch big and getting along fine - they prob are the asian bred rams cause they are from petco but hey i coulnt find the things aywhere - if they kick the bucket i will try to get some in the summer from jeff rapps tangled up in cichlids -
so i will expect the worst and see what happens -
does anyone think a pair of each in the tanks will be ok orit won't matter?
i plan on moving blue pair to my55 and a gold to the 20 - what if i keep males in one tank females in another?
although i'd like to see if they do their thing - this is my learning experience - sometime in the future i will shell out the cash for wilds i am falling for this cool fish!so i will learn all i can now
 
I think a pair in the 20g and maybe 2 pair in the 55g is there is lots of decorations dividing the tank up and breaking the line of sight. Rams are small but still have the attitude of larger cichlids.

I think i read somewhere they need a min of 2 square feet of tankspace per pair.

I used to have a pair of blues in a 15g planted tank and tey were always chasing eachother. so i dont' think 2 pairs would be such a good idea in a 20g.

As for where to buy rams.Sometimes its very hard to find good stock.The ones in most stores can be sickly or look fine then die for no reason we can tell. Try your local club ot see if anyone breeds them. I got locally bred ones from my LFS and they are doing great, even in my water witha ph of 7.8-8.0
 
I'm not tryin to make you seem like an idiot Bass, but when you get advice given to you, and then go do something even though it was advised against it gets kinda fusterating. Now as for the space issue, I have tried keeping two pairs in a 40gallon breeder sytle aquarium, 36longx18inches wide= 648square inches/ 144 (inches in a square foot)= 4.5 square feet, a 55gal is if I am not mistaken 48x13=624square inches/ 144= 4.3 square feet, a little less than the 40 breeder. The rams simply would not coexist together in that 40breeder, one pair dominated the other, who then went hiding, wouldn't come out to eat for fear of being beat on. I simply moved them back into the 20 they were in and all is well again. I would really only suggest one pair in that 55. 10gallon tanks are very suitable for a pair of rams, and they are perfectly happy in there. They just become too aggressive with each other to keep more than a pair in a tank less than I'd say a 90gallon. Trust me I've tried a couple times to get both my ram pairs to coexist in the 40gal and it won't work. If you can only have two tanks, and want to keep both golds and blues, then take a gold male and female, and a blue male and female, put one pair in the 55 and one in the 20. They are great and peaceful fish with their other tank mates, except other dwarf cichlids, they inhabit the same area as the rams, look for the same structures to establish a territory, and thus are seen as a threat. When I got both my czech bred german blues, they were about 2months old, just starting to pair off, they were fine in the 20gal together for a while, about a week, and then one pair took over the tank beat on the other, so I had to move that pair into a 10gal. Since then the pair in the 10 has been relocated into the 40breeder, I tried adding the pair that was dominante in the 20, into the 40 and they got beat on. I won't say its not possible because I am sure it is, but you need to have the right fish, with the right conditions for it to happen. I mean Puma and I had 2 male bettas and 3 female bettas in our 75gal, all of them shoaled together which was odd, and every week or so one of the males would spawn with the same female every week. Everyone was fine, no problems at all with keeping them all together. I do not advise trying that, we got lucky with our expiriment. Strange things do happen, just they aren't common.
 
ok

thank you for your advice - i didnt know you coulnt keep groups of rams before i bought them though - so i did not snub anyones info i simply was unaware of only being able to keep one pair per tank - i woulnt have bought more if i knew that beforehand - oh well i will try to figure something out - i think i will give a pair to a friend
 
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