Keyholes with rams??

[dumber]

What do you think? Anyone keep them together? I have a pair of keyholes, the only cichlids in my community tank and I'd like to add a pair of rams, probably bolivian or golden.

My tank is healthy and peaceful and I don't want to cause problems if I mix these two cichlids. Other tankmates wont be a problem, tetras etc.

Tank is well planted, 50 gals. Thanks

 

[Reiner]

I keep 4 Bolivian with 2 Keyholes in a 4 foot 25 gallon tank and never had any problems. The Bolivian scuffle amongst themselves at points but the keyhole and the Bolivians totally ignore each other.

 

[blueturq]

NOOO!

Don't mix the two. I would just get one or the other.

Rams will bully the Keyholes because they both swim in the area of the tank (bottom part) and keyhole are more timid, and thus they will have a turf war.

I have mixed German Blue Rams with Keyholes and the above is what happened ^

And this tank was a 55 gallon community (which is plenty of room!) :mad2

Bolivians may be different than german blues in temperament but I don't know if they would be because they are larger than german blues

 

[Reiner]

That's the thing with fish I guess. Until you try it you will never know if it works or not. For me it works (maybe because I have 4 Bolivians and not just 2) and for blueturg it didn't work out. I say try it with lots of driftwood and plants and see what happens.

 

[dumber]

Doh! Not much wiser then. Thanks guys, food for thought but I'm not into just trying fish out as my favoured lfs wont take them back if it all kicks off.

Can't seem to find much info on their compatibility, I'm only curious because I've read of bad experiences with agasizzi and rams.

 

[dumber]

Just thought I'd update you, after a bit more research I went for it and bought a pair of gorgeous rams. The keyholes hardly noticed, certaintly no aggression on their part despite being 3 times the size of the rams.

The rams are very placid but have started displaying and will warn any fish away when they're loving it up, they haven't paid any special attention to the keyholes tho.

Incidentally my water is typical hard p.h 8 but the rams are colouring up furiously, I don't expect them to spawn in these conditions, but what do you think?