German blue rams

Hi everyone, so I saw rams tend to be a bit agro sometimes. I selling most of my guppies and only keeping the best ones in one tank, and some in another , now I want to know , in the second tank want to get blue rams, will they harm guppies if I put some guppies in there? Saw at n lps some with guppies and wasn't bothered at all. Also I need to learn about blue rams since im getting some soon maybe.. its a 100L tank , no gravel , cascade 300 HOB on the left side of the tank and a corner filter on the right side,also a long 60cm earthstone at the back of the glass, will this be okey? What will make best spots for them, like hiding and so on, for breading, if they will. Any tips on what some of you guys had learned, also will have plants in there and moss with drift wood

 

Hey there. I have a tank with 4 rams and they are absolutely stunning - my favourite fish at the moment. I have them in a tank of their own apart from 2 zebra loaches. I have 2 dominant males that have stunning colours, 1 male that is less dominant that has dull colours (not wanting to stand out) and then a female. I am waiting to swop mine to have more females than males.

All I can say is they are stunning. The males do have a go at each other however they are in quite a heavily planted tank with ton of plants, wood and pots. They do make territories so as long as you can make some proper natural borders so to speak you won't have any problems. My female laid eggs once which was super exciting, hoping to breed them.

Your setup sounds great I too have moss and driftwood etc. Mine are very shy for the most part. What I recently heard was that if they are in a tank of their own they are shy, that's why you should put a few guppies or neons etc. Not sure how viable that is but @WillemNicolaas has beautiful rams in a tank filled with other fish , and his gf has another 4 in a different tank and all I can say is they are extremely lively and active so there could be truth to the theory.

Lots of plants and wood, maybe a pot or two and you will have some happy rams .

Just shout if you have any more questions. I am by no means an expert but more than happy to share my ram journey thus far

Darren

 

German blue rams are really like mini rainbow coloured oscars.:laugh:
I only had 1 for 2 months before it died mysteriously.
They tend to be picky eaters in my limited experience.

 

I have had a female now for four months & a male for two months and they are extremely healthy & active, the male gets a little cheeky every now & again.
They are kept with cardinal tetras, harliquin rasbora, 1 honey gourami, pr of guppies and some corydoras in the following conditions,
temp 28°C
pH @ 8.3
nitrate @ 8ppm
nitrite @ 0ppm
dGH @ 5.2

As for feeding I give them the widest variety of food I can, they love frozen bloodworm and catfish/cory tablets and are first at the front glass at feeding time.

 

I have 2 German blue rams as well....they do extremely well and have had them for over 2 months...kind of peacefull, but gets a bit frisky with the female now and then and shows her whos the boss in the relationship, so spawn as yet, but they def are sexualy mature. My kribe are more agressive then the rams by far esspecially the male.

 

Hi Marius. I currently have 2 females and a male in my 300l with Angels, Cardinals, guppies, harlequins, black emperor tetra, cory's etc. They are all cool together until they lay eggs then they get very protective. I would suggest a nice planted tank with lot's of flat stones, moss, good filtration.

I have awesome news. My pair in my planted 100l have bred and i have free swimming fry. Woohoo. Have removed all their tank mates except the cory's. I can't catch them!

 

Thats good news Hawk.:top:

 

Well done....:star:@Hawk

 

Thanks @slowpoke and @HennieRoux. I'm so stoked. Hope they survive...

 

@Hawk that's awesome, would love to buy rather fish that was born in sa than inported. Where can I find these pots? NEONS--- I always wanted some, but arnt they a bit sensitive?

 

Also, if I select them, any chance youll notice a breading pair? Also should I choose younger ones or adult size?

 

@Marius Swart - Let's not count the fish too soon but if they are successful I will certainly offer them here first.

I'm a little confused by your post. What "pots" are you refering too? Also, I wouldn't combine GBR's with Neons if you can help it. Neons like 22 degrees and GBR's like 27/28 degrees. Rather get Cardinals. More expensive but so much better in my opinion.

 

I will certainly be able to distinguish male from female but I'm not sure how big they would need to be before they start pairing. The hardest part about removing a pair is you remove one then lose the other in amongst your other GBR...

 

Those orange pots they usually use for say discuss and so, I might get 4 blue rams, my lps in George are getting 20 on Thursday, but want the setup as good as possible , aslo I might need to built a 100cm by say 30, 30, only for guppy fry, but will check out everything before making my final choice. @Hawk post us a pic of your ram tank, would love some ideas.

 

Hi Marius

My GBR tank is here:
http://www.tropicalaquarium.co.za/showthread.php?13036-The-End-of-100l-of-Emptyness/page36

I wouldn't worry about pots. My GBR always spawn on flat rocks. When they developed from eggs to wrigglers the parents moved them to a spot on some driftwood and when they first became free swimming they moved them to the back of the tank in amongst the plants. Now they move around with the parents.

What I did was put flat stones down and then planted around them to give them cover. Give them a few different spots like this to chose from. Get your water soft and add some driftwood...

 

@Hawk , sweet, see guppies in there on the last page, that tank? CANT WAIT!!!! will be counting who of the guppies is going, and then tomorrow will try to rescape the tank if I find some of those rocks, have one peace of drift wood in there and about 6 peaces im soaking at the moment,but will take a long time. Im planting lpants this way But will get new stuff to plant in, Got my hand some a few nice plants :burnout: Been floating for more than a month since I have no place to plant and need more pool filter gravel. All getting on Saterday :driver:

 

Post some pics when you get the new gravel in and plants planted. For the flat stones, go raid the Ostriches. They like to eat flat stones if I remember correctly :blink1:

I see you have some seriously fast growing plants there so just keep cutting them in half and planting and in a week or two you won't be able to see the fish for all the plants.

 

Does cutting improve growth? Not going to add the whole tank with gravel, this way it stays clean and only filter to clean every few months. But ill check it out, planning on adding this female guppy with these 2 lyre tail males Later will add more guppies- (basters) like we call them, the pretty ones we want to keep but not in my main tank. Anyway I went to look at rocks, couldn't find any nice ones. Ja die volstruise eet als. Maybe a lps in George may have, anyone?

 

Well I came back here to tell you my bad news. For some reason my GBR's ate all the fry!

 

Well I also believed they would, but that's live foods :dontknow: But sad also. So @Hawk http://www.tropicalaquarium.co.za/showthread.php?13036-The-End-of-100l-of-Emptyness/page34 is that creamy colour rocks the flat rocks all is talking about? I know where to find some in a river in the George pass, but they smell like fish