I have a 55 gallon with two german blue rams, seven septra tetras and three giant danios. I am looking to add another pair of a dwarf cichlid or possibly another ram pair. Would this be a good idea? Any comment would be a great help.
Ram Tankmates
- Thread starter Hernandezj11
- Start date
Should be fine as long as you have hiding places for everybody (ie driftwood, plants, rock, etc). I'd go for a type of apistos for dwarfs btw
Rams are so pretty, why not just add more females? Do you know if you have a m/f pair now? If I recall correctly they tend to be harem breeders so having one male with multiple females will be more likely to stay peaceful and even the girls are beautiful. Most apistos- the males are pretty cool, but the females tend to be more bland.
Here they are now. I just took these pics just now, i know its not the greatest pics but, they will have to do... Can you help sexing them?
You are in luck- looks like you have two females already. Rams can be difficult to sex- especially the long fins and baloons, so take my ID with a grain of salt. I can't be 100% positive, but I'd put money on it.
The standard is almost certainly a female- see how the very farthest back end of her dorsal fin does not come past the beginning of her cadual (tail) fin? On a male it will be longer. The ballons, since they are smooshed up, its kinda hard to tell, but it appears as if her belly is pink (unless that's just the camera) a sure sign she is a female.
The good thing about having two females already is that if you add two more- the absolute worst case scenerio is you end up with two males in a 55 gallon- still plenty of room for territory. I'd shoot for one male and one more female. Even though there is enough space for two males to co-exist, each with their own two feet of tank space- undoubtedly they're both going to want the center 2 feet.
The standard is almost certainly a female- see how the very farthest back end of her dorsal fin does not come past the beginning of her cadual (tail) fin? On a male it will be longer. The ballons, since they are smooshed up, its kinda hard to tell, but it appears as if her belly is pink (unless that's just the camera) a sure sign she is a female.
The good thing about having two females already is that if you add two more- the absolute worst case scenerio is you end up with two males in a 55 gallon- still plenty of room for territory. I'd shoot for one male and one more female. Even though there is enough space for two males to co-exist, each with their own two feet of tank space- undoubtedly they're both going to want the center 2 feet.
wow, thanks for all that info. The balloon def has a pink belly so i guess that a female too. but yea ill def shoot for a male now that i know i already have to females. I do have a question though, say i get a male and another female, if im lucky enough and I get the male to breed with one of the females, will there be conflict between females?
I'd call that standard one a male.....can't say why...it looks male to me. I've raised a few batch of these fish is all I can say about my experience with them.
Here's some pics of a male and female that I had...might help. the first one is the female, pretty obvious by the red belly.
Female.....
Male......
Here's another pic of a male...
The best way I have found to tell male from female besides the obvious red belly....is the vent. Males have a small pointy protrusion from the vent when they're near spawning.....females have larger square blunt ovipositors. You can see the female's ovipositor in the first pic. Males also have larger fins in general but the ventral fins (the lower front fins, not the ones near the gill) are the easiest to go by.
I think that standard ram you have is a male though, the ventral fins look too long for a female......and yeah, the baloon is female for sure.
Here's some pics of a male and female that I had...might help. the first one is the female, pretty obvious by the red belly.
Female.....
Male......
Here's another pic of a male...
The best way I have found to tell male from female besides the obvious red belly....is the vent. Males have a small pointy protrusion from the vent when they're near spawning.....females have larger square blunt ovipositors. You can see the female's ovipositor in the first pic. Males also have larger fins in general but the ventral fins (the lower front fins, not the ones near the gill) are the easiest to go by.
I think that standard ram you have is a male though, the ventral fins look too long for a female......and yeah, the baloon is female for sure.
I agree with adding 2 more females (I concur with Emgs observation), a it will really bring out some interesting behavior in your fish, being a pretty approximate breeding harem. an extra danio or two wouldn't hurt either, as giant danios like being in larger groups than a trio.