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Strange Ram Behaviour

2K views 9 replies 4 participants last post by  iamntbatman 
#1 ·
Hello everyone!

I just recently introduced (24 hours ago), my frist ever cichlid to my 35 gallon aquarium, a Bolivian Ram. The tank currently is home to a school of 6 danios, 4 tiger barbs, 1 blackfin cory, 1 bamboo shrimp, and one bristlenose pleco. Ever since the ram has been introduced it has been fairly calm considering it is surrounded by a lot active fish.

All it seems to be doing is swiming against the glass "trying to get out", swimming back and forth from one end to the other, against the glass. The tank has two heavily artifically planted sections, one on either end of the tank, so it should have someplace to hide (the pleco hides on one side only). Happened to eat a little bit of a sinking wafer tonight, it was still quite hard so I don't think it managed to eat much. I've tried feeding several different types of food, from floating flakes and pellets to sinking wafers and freeze dried brine shrimp.

Should he settle down a bit over the next few days and start searching for food a little more actively? Is this normal behaviour for these fish when first introduced?
 
#4 ·
No. Were it me I'd add more corys as they most certainly do better in groups and prefer to be in a group. I'm not sure but I think the ram may be able to eat the shrimp once the ram is full size. Someone else will have to confirm this.
 
#5 ·
Well the shrinp is quite large, one of the largest things in the tank at the moment at about 3 inches or so. I'm letting my tank adapt to the new bioload I just added (4 tigers and the ram)... Once everything has been good for a week or so I will add a few more corrys.... I was looking at spotted corrys at my LFS, would you suggest mixing different size/species of corrys? Or should I add a few more blackfins?
 
#6 ·
I don't know the answer to those questions. Someone with much more experience than I will have to confirm. I know you can mix cories but I don't know if cories "prefer" to be in a group of their own species.

Thanks for the info on the shrimp. I had no idea freshwater shrimp got that large. Rams max out at 3 to 3 1/2" so no problems there.
 
#7 ·
Ya, before I found this guy I had no idea you could even get freshwater shrimp for aquariums! They were by themselves in a tank at the store, so when I saw them I immediately thought saltwater, nope!

I think I'll just get 2-3 more black fins once my bio-load is adjusted for!
 
#10 ·
I'd stick to cories of the same species. They may not school with each other if they don't at least look similar, so it's safer to get just one type. Even though your shrimp is pretty big, I would watch out for your ram trying to eat it. Rams have pretty small mouths but they can be pretty predatory so I'd keep an eye out.
 
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