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New Rams....

5K views 24 replies 5 participants last post by  magic_marty 
#1 ·
Hi guys n gals..

today i got 4 bolivian rams and i need some help telling if i got males or females.I hope i got 2 of each but i doubt i got that lucky cause the dummy's at petsmart told me on the phone they had one worker that could tell and when i got there she said that was the only fish they had that she couldn't tell male or female.. :x ..So i did the best i could do from what i read on the internet on picking them out myself.Ill get some pics in a few minutes and post them and hopefully you all can help me.I have them in a 1 gallon with a slow drip acclamation going at this time.Cause i requested there water parameters and there PH is over 8.. :shock: ..and mine is about 7.2 so im slowly getting them used to the new water.They are still young and appear to be about half grown.I wanted young ones so it would increase the chances of getting a bonding pair and hopefully some day spawn..Back in a few with some pics... :)
 
#3 ·
yay another ram member, i love rams


You cant really tell until they are mature, the females have a pinker belly.

Can i also say that if you turn off the lights in your tank and dim your room lights the color of the ram gets very nice, when my lights go off there bellies become a dark redish/gold with rainbow "dust" spots on there gills and upper body. There black stripes also come out better.
 
#6 ·
I've had them on the drip acclamation for over 2 hours and they are becoming more actively swimming around, i hope they are doing well tho it seems they are,only noticed one of them kinda nudging the others around.I read alot about these guys and 99% of what i read says they are non-aggressive and i hope its true.It only says they become slightly aggressive during spawning but rarely results in any injury's to the other tank mates..
 
#7 ·
magic_marty said:
I've had them on the drip acclamation for over 2 hours and they are becoming more actively swimming around, i hope they are doing well tho it seems they are,only noticed one of them kinda nudging the others around.I read alot about these guys and 99% of what i read says they are non-aggressive and i hope its true.It only says they become slightly aggressive during spawning but rarely results in any injury's to the other tank mates..
well all i can say are that mine cant stand each otehr and when one gets near another, they will fight, also blue's blue rams had a few, uhh should i say "eating" problems in the main tank, with tetras.
 
#8 ·
I just have in the small tank for acclimation..

Ut oh...well all the other tank mates are some what larger to the acception of 3 cherry barbs and 2 of the 4 corys. should i be concerned that they will attack the other tank mates? /platys/blue flame tetras (2 large and 3 half grown) 3 sword tales and a couple of molly's...

My wife will skin me if they hurt her other fish.. :shock:
 
#12 ·
ok thanks a bunch..

i am so excited and really hoping that they like there new home and settle in good with little or no stress.I hope i don't have all males but if i do its ok ill still give them the best home i can and later on continue the search for females...
 
#14 ·
I've been closely watching them in the accl..tank and i havent seen any fighting as of yet..but they are prolly still kinda shy from the transport from the lfs. I will definatly be watching them like a hawk for several days to make sure things don't turn nasty..
 
#15 ·
So far so good, they seem to be doing well and at first 2 of them went to one side of the tank and the other 2 went to the other side.But today 3 are staying close together and the 4th kind of stays to itself most of the time.I can't get them to come to the top to eat and the other fish rarely let any food get past half way of the tank.So i put a few extra of the sinking pellets that we feed the cory's and they seem to like eating them if the platys and molly will let them.I must admit i am a little concerned about the one that is staying off to itself but there seems to be no rapid gill movement or any signs of stress, or clamped fins.And so far (fingers crossed) no signs of aggression..
 
#16 ·
magic_marty said:
99% of what i read says they are non-aggressive and i hope its true.It only says they become slightly aggressive during spawning but rarely results in any injury's to the other tank mates..
I find this erroneous and if I'm wrong, I'll eat my words. Bolivian rams are no exception to the rule that cichlids have different personalities. They can still get aggressive.
musho3210 said:
You cant really tell until they are mature, the females have a pinker belly.
There is no accurate way of distinguishing sexes although most often, females are generally smaller. What you said simply applies to the blue rams.
well all i can say are that mine cant stand each otehr and when one gets near another, they will fight, also blue's blue rams had a few, uhh should i say "eating" problems in the main tank, with tetras.
Doesn't happen unless the tetras weaken due to certain circumstances but I haven't had this problem for quite awhile. It happens mostly to tetras that are newly-bought.:) Still, new fish will always be considered as intruders anyway.
 
#18 ·
when picked them out i went by the dorsal and caudal fins.The females dorsal is supposed to be shorter on the first few viens.On the males the caudal fins are supposed to be more pointed then the females, (this is what i read online so i am not positive this is correct).....Also the males are more colorful then females and more slender but at the lfs they all looked slender due to prolly under feeding or poor quality food thats why i only went by the dorsal and caudal fins along with the color variants...
 
#19 ·
RAm

Watch out for Ramirez agresion Marty it is not active and non stop but it can be brutal... here is what hapened to my fish : i had just 1 couple of almost juvenile Ramirez in 50 litre aquarium well planted and with some stones in the midle i feed them best i could few weeks and they soon got amazing colour one day i raised temp a bit and wached them mate soon the male kiled the female and the eggs didnt hatch and i am sure if i had another couple inside or just some fish of other specie the male would not kill the female and the eggs would hatch cause the male would take better care of them and i definetely recomend you a biger tank with some plant or stone to hide :)
 
#20 ·
Re: RAm

Nikola said:
Watch out for Ramirez agresion Marty it is not active and non stop but it can be brutal... here is what hapened to my fish : i had just 1 couple of almost juvenile Ramirez in 50 litre aquarium well planted and with some stones in the midle i feed them best i could few weeks and they soon got amazing colour one day i raised temp a bit and wached them mate soon the male kiled the female and the eggs didnt hatch and i am sure if i had another couple inside or just some fish of other specie the male would not kill the female and the eggs would hatch cause the male would take better care of them and i definetely recomend you a biger tank with some plant or stone to hide :)
well thats a simple reason, the tank wasnt big enough to fit there agression and stuff. A 20 gallon is bare minimum with 30 gallons reccomended minimum, its hard to have in a 10 gallon, you would have to be lucky. Anything smaller is near impossible
 
#21 ·
Surely a 55 gallon is big enough i dunno how many liters it is but they have tons of room and there is plenty of caves and stuff for them.All tho i rarely see them exploring them.They seem to be doing very well and have never bothered any of the other tank mates.I have seen them lock lips a few times tho, but so far it is very short and last only a few seconds..
 
#22 ·
magic_marty said:
Surely a 55 gallon is big enough i dunno how many liters it is but they have tons of room and there is plenty of caves and stuff for them.All tho i rarely see them exploring them.They seem to be doing very well and have never bothered any of the other tank mates.I have seen them lock lips a few times tho, but so far it is very short and last only a few seconds..
55 is fine, i have mine in a 20 gallon, there is a small bit of agression but no injuries, neither of them are in hiding, there both to brave for there own good.
 
#23 ·
these little guys are so cool, the other day my wife and i were doing the weekly gravel vac and the rams were all just so curious as to what was going on they kept going up the the vac tube, it was so funny.I could just picture a pop up thing over there heads saying "umm what the heck are you doing"..lol

They keep teasing me cause 2 of them are staying mostly together on one side of the tank, gets me hoping they are pairing off but after a while they stop doing it.The way they raise there dorsal reminds me of the cockateil birds i used to have years ago.
 
#24 ·
I have 3 bolivian rams. Got them about 2 weeks ago and they dont seem to bother any other fish species but they sometimes do get picky towards one another. I just today bought 3 blue rams so now I am waiting to see how well they will react to one another. I have a 90 gallon that has 4 pieces of driftwood and quite a few plants to hide around so I think that will help. All of the rams are the smallest fish I have in the aquarium except cories. My other fish are gouramis and long finned black tetras and some giant danios so I think they all will be ok.
Good luck with em.
 
#25 ·
update.

so far they seem to be doing good but i am concerned about one of them.
Today i noticed he or she is not eating and is staying off to the corner of the tank away from the other fish.I tested the water and all is good amn-0 nitrite-0 and nitrates around 20ish,doing water change tomorrow with a gravel vac to reduce the nitrates..
 
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