[musho3210]

My two new bolivian rams are starting to show aggression, they are restricted on each others side of the tank, one of them gets the left side of the tank while the otehr gets the right side of the tank, when one of them invades the others territorry they start to fight and go lipped lock until one swims back to there territory, is there any way to stop this aggressive nature?

Please note that before they enter each others territory they "warn" each other by widening there fins and flaring there gills, if the other fish doesnt back down they will fight.

 

[Lupin]

Bolivians are cichlids. What would you expect from cichlids? Cichlids have multiple personalities thus making them either predictable or unpredictable. Just leave them alone and keep a watch on them. No serious damage will happen. You need to provide them more plants and slates for them to hide. They do not really mark territories but merely try to spar and fight a lot based on what I had observed with my own bolivians.

 

[pleco_cory_fan]

All rams will usally show aggression somewhere down the track if you have a male and female they wont fight often just to find there space and get used to each other as long as they have enough space they should be fine.

 

[musho3210]

ok but ive noticed my fat dark one on one side all the time, while the other lighter color one stays on the other side. I have plants in there and in my main tank there will be tons of hiding spots.

 

[pleco_cory_fan]

If there just settling in don't worry about it they will probaly swim together soon.

 

[scottysgirl]

I have three rams in my 30 gallon, and they fight quite a bit. They never do any damage to each other, but they do the flared out gills, biting each other--the whole bit. As mentioned earlier, they are cichlids, they'll probably always fight a little. As long as one isn't getting picked on severely you should be fine, besides they are right entertaining!

 

[musho3210]

my bolivians are growing gold chests, is this a sign of maturity, secual readiness or something bad?

 

[Lupin]

my bolivians are growing gold chests, is this a sign of maturity, secual readiness or something bad?

It's part of the natural coloration as they mature.

 

[musho3210]

ok good, i was getting a bit scared then

 

[evvabeing]

no damage eh?

i have 2 rams (bolivian / golden...not sure what sex they are). i've had them for about 6 weeks and everything was fine until a few days ago. up until then they would only do the display stuff and the lip lock, but then, one of the rams started bowing down to the other, and the one not bowing would peck the others head. so now, the ram that would bow has quite a chunk missing...i can see some blood and skull. it's trying to hide (there are lots of plants and rocks to hid in) but the aggressive one keeps finding and chasing. what do i do?!?!? it's so not a fun thing to watch...

 

[Lupin]

Welcome aboard, Evva.:wave:

Try to add more plants and slates for the other to hide. If not, try to isolate the stronger one for a few days and let the weaker one recover and find time to establish territory. Then return the stronger one in the main tank. The weaker one should be able to defend himself.

Hope it helps.

 

[evvabeing]

thanks for the welcome and thanks for the advice! i'll try that. i'll let you know if it's successful. at least one more set of questions for now though...why were they okay for 6 weeks and then started this now? shouldn't they have their territory worked out already?

 

[evvabeing]

ram colour changes...and an update

unfortunately i am not able to take out the aggressive ram. i think trying to catch him will stress the injured one to the point of death. the injured one looks really bad...barely breathing and changing colour. it's become almost entirely black. what does that mean? when the head pecking first started, the one being injured went soooo pale...what did that mean? i can't find any info on the internet about reasons for rams changing colour...

 

[musho3210]

a picture will help us diagnose it much faster, do you think you can upload one?

 

[evvabeing]

hmmm... i don't really see how a photo would help. as i'm sure you know, rams change there colours all the time (e.g. my bully ram now has stripes that aren't so black, but more blue instead) i'm just wondering why / what the different colour changes mean. as for my injured ram, i'll try to get a picture but it's hiding pretty well today. unfortunately it looks like i just have to wait and see what happens...

 

[mvirata]

I would isolate the bully ram immediately. I have a special fish prison set up for naughty fish. Sometimes i wave it around outside the tank as a warning if I see bullying. You can leave him in prison in the same tank so he can reflect on his bad behavior. Might be better than isolating him in his own so that his tank mates can still see him.

Here's a link of what it looks like

http://www.e-aquarium.com.au/fish_breeder_net.htm

You can do a yahoo search for fish breeder net, your LFS probably has one.

Well thats my opinion, good luck.

 

[evvabeing]

the fish prison idea is something that crossed my mind. i've done something similar with a guppy before...but using a zip lock bag left in the aquarium. (don't worry...his water was changed often and he was fed.) it took being put in there twice before he totally reformed. (i.e. after the first release he was a repeat offender.) A ram is different though...wouldn't feel right leaving it in a bag...so yeah, i'll look in to the breeder. (thanks for the link!) i still want to wait a bit though. my injured ram has become much better at hiding. which is good for the recovery, but bad for pictures. i've tried to take some and either it's too dark to really see what's going on, or, i try to light it in various ways, and you can't really see what's going on in those pictures either. the injured ram does seem to be getting better though. the wound is healing a bit, and its breathing is better. i'm waiting to see a bit more strength before i go in a disturb and stress everyone. i'm also still waiting to see if anyone can educate / inform me about ram colour changes...

 

[mvirata]

My friend has 3 full grown rams with Discus. The discus are laying eggs and apparantly bit off a part of his Rams head and you can see the blood. He survived only a few more days later. I know you don't want to hear that but hopefully he makes it. I was going to take it from him but went against it but I feel bad now

 

[evvabeing]

unfortunately, it died last night / this morning. so...i guess i'm still hoping to find out about their colour change capabilities. e.g. the dead ram is now just yellow and blue...no back stripes...no darkness...no red. someone's gotta know why / how...

 

[lioness501]

all my fish lose their colour wen the r stressed. my bf made a mistake once and left the light off and i didnt come back til the next night. wen i turned the light on all of the fish were sat on the bottom of the tank, and almost completely colourless