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RE: Rams

David Lass — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 13:53:07 GMT

Depends on what you want to do with the rams. I would leave them in the tank for a while, and watch to see if they pair off. Then, if you have a tank you can free up, pull the pair and let them do their thing in a tank all by themselves. The guy that I get my German Blue Rams from is in the Tampa area, and they breed some very nice fish there.

Gold and blue rams are the same fish, and pretty much don't pay any attention to things like that.

RE: Rams

Lutzgator — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 13:23:46 GMT

David i just purchased 2 rams, last tuesday,was told they were a pair. I placed them in one of my communitity tanks with 4 rainbow fish, and 4 mollies. All seem to be doing well. It has lots of rocks, caves, and live plants. It is a 36 gal bowfront. Ph around 7.2, and temp around 78. My question is since they are doing OK and see no issues should i leave them there, or place them in a 14 gal biocube that has no fish but is set up and been running for a while, or i have a 29 gal that i am gonna get rid of the 3 angels(take them back to the store). The 29 gal has a few tetras also. Like i said the Rams are doing well, swimming with the other fish and looking very peacefull. I live here in Tampa, so i assume they came from a local breeder. The pet store had a ton of them. The store also had the Gold colored rams can they be mixed together?

RE: Rams

David Lass — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 09:43:57 GMT

There are two problems with introducing rams into a community tank such as yours. 1) with them being the newcomers, they will have a real problem establishing a territory for themselves, and they really need that. 2) Rams do best in soft and acid water, and your livebearers are probably not in that kind of water. Also, rams like it warm -- high 70's to low 80's.

If you want to keep rams they will do best in a tank with cardinals or rummy noses, or other South American tetras. They also like caves and plants to hide in and feel secure.

RE: Rams

Butch2693 — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 20:08:15 GMT

I've always wanted some rams but something always happens where I can never purchase them. One of my local fish stores always have beautiful rams that I would love to own. However, I've heard mix feelings about putting them into a community tank with fish like neons, mollies, swordtails, and other fish like the ones I just mentioned. I would appreciate to hear some outside opinions just so I don't make the wrong decision. I would much rather preserve my community and not have the rams then force the rams into the tank and cause problems. Thanks for the help

RE: Rams

David Lass — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 15:23:39 GMT

If you can't move the female give her plenty of places to hide -- caves, plant thickets, etc.

RE: Rams

Napalm — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 06:04:10 GMT

so I should remove my female?? I dont really have another tank to place her in...What if I dont want them to breed? I have the two rams in a 10 gallon tank with 5 small rasboras and a dwarf pleco. The female has also lost her colors and is too timid to eat... is their another solution for this.

RE: Rams

David Lass — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 11:59:53 GMT

Sounds to me like the male is rarin' to go, and the female doesn't want to breed right now. The best thing would be to put the female in a small tank on her own and fatten her up with frozen, or live, foods, and then re-introduce her to the male. Are they the only fish in the tank, or are there others sharing their would-be nest?

RE: Rams

Napalm — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 09:00:01 GMT

David...

My German blue rams have been doing awesome since I got them, and being new at this hobby you can undestand my excitment. However... Within the last week or so the larger male hasn't let the samller female eat. Their behaviour has changed drmatically as the smaller one rarely comes out of her hiding space, and when she does she gets chased around. Is this normal? How can I ensure that the female gets her share of food?

RE: Rams

kommander15 — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 21:11:38 GMT

David is this gravel color a problem or will it work fine? I have a couple of pics up in the intro section of these forums if you want to see what it looks like in the tank.

RE: Rams

kommander15 — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 19:25:10 GMT

its a combo of a royal blue, neon green, hot pink, and some white. it has made tetras look amazing

RE: Rams

David Lass — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 18:59:03 GMT

What color gravel do you have? Against light color gravel rams, like most fish, can pale out in color.

RE: Rams

kommander15 — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 19:06:00 GMT

Hello it is me again. i have another proposed ram setup in place it is a 20 long with 3 zebra danios and 3 little baby platies. I want to add a pair of rams and 3 more zebras so they arent as aggressive or nippy. My ph is 7.6, nitrate and nitrites are 0, and the hardness of the water is 200ppm(moderately hard). My lfs's both have water conditions similar to this. Does it sound like a good idea? i have lots of hiding places and a couple of caves. (All fake plants)

RE: Rams

Napalm — Thu, 15 May 2008 08:59:23 GMT

Hey thanks David! Yhea I got them some blood warms... they love it. How about their color? I've had them for over a month now. They seem healthy, but don't have much color to them. I want to stay away from color inducing foods, but do you have any other recommendations?

RE: Rams

sharonM — Tue, 13 May 2008 02:20:32 GMT

Great! Thank you

RE: Rams

David Lass — Mon, 12 May 2008 18:57:17 GMT

Rams can be pretty nervous fish, but the more places you give them to hide in the way of caves, rocks, etc. and the more plants in the tank, the more at ease they will be. A pair in a 10 should be fine. For food, you might want to offer them frozen bloodworm and/or frozen mysis shrimp. They really will be at their best on more than flake foods.

As for Lebanon Pet, I deliver fish to them every two weeks, so maybe you can coordinate with them for when you will be around there. They should be able to pack fish for you in a large enough plastic bag that they will be fine for a long trip. Just tell them the fish are going to be in the bag for a long time, and to please use larger bags.

RE: Rams

sharonM — Sat, 10 May 2008 17:39:12 GMT

David, How often do you sell your stock of rams to the lebanon store? I would love some rams and drive through there on my way home from visiting my mom. I am going there in mid August. Also, it still is a 4 1/2 hour drive for me from there. What would be a safe way to transport? My thought was to take my 2.5 gallon eclipse and use it as a means of transport. Will this work?

RE: Rams

Napalm — Sat, 10 May 2008 12:40:54 GMT

I have two German Blue rams and they are the only fish I have. A couple questions tho...

I find that they are very shy and skiddish. They always hide in the corner. My fish shop tells me I should get a school of rasboras or dandios which would make them more at ease. What do you think about this idea?

How long will it take to get their full color. I find some days their blue will really come out and other days it will fade but their eyes will be a brighter red. Is that normal?

For the moment I am only feeding them fish flakes and I am worried that the male is eating more than the female. Should I introduce a different kind of food?

How much water space do you think they need? I have posted a question about adding more fish and the general suggestion was that two rams should be the only fish in my 10 gallon tank. I would like to get more... not many ... but a few more.

Hope you can help

RE: Rams

David Lass — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 13:07:22 GMT

Most of the German rams that are available in the hobby have been bred in Florida. They are called in the industry "German Blue Rams" to specifically distinguish them from rams bred in Asia. With the dollar worth so little against the Euro, to bring them from German would be prohibitively expensive. The ones that I carry for my wholesale business come from my Florida fish guy, from whom I also get angels, swordtails, zebras, etc. One of his fish houses has RO water that he mixes with the hard/alkaline Florida ground water for breeding his rams and angels.

RE: Rams

Hailey — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 06:19:16 GMT

To me the fact that they were colorful and bright at the store points to them being Asian...there they pump them full of hormones that artificially and temporarily enhance their color. I have bought three pairs of Asian rams that were beautiful, but they all died within a month. Then I got two good pairs of German rams, and though they were much duller in color and are still less colorful months later than the Asian rams were when I bought them, they are still doing very well.

I finally have a group of rams I am not afraid I am going to lose, so in my experience with them, it is worth the trouble to find rams of German descent (bred in the US maybe, as many of them are, but the German ancestry is important). Mine came from a Florida fish farm I believe, and I'm not sure if they were bred there from German stock or shipped straight from Germany.

RE: Rams

filipem — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 02:38:33 GMT

Sorry to hear about you luck, rams are great fish, in fact I picked up two more today. Rams are known to be sensitive fish. Don't worry about the water hardness most fish can adapt to higher or lower levels of hardness or PH. The most important thing is consistency. swings in PH and hardness can easily shock a fish.

After reading your post I suspect that your problem might have to do with how you inclimated them. If your water is hard then it's probably stable. Rams are delicate fish and inclimating them properly is very important.

Most Rams found here are bred in the US, Asia and Germany (I think). Asian Rams are known to be of less quality. The fact that they were very colorful leads me to believe that they probably we not Asian bred, and that they were is good shape before you brought them home.

As far as the Dancing is concerned if both were male then yes they were fighting for territory. If you had a male/female then the male was trying to entice the female. The way they fight and dance both look very similar.

You will need to answer a few questions in order for us to try to determine what is going on.

- What are you ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and PH levels in numbers please?
- Explain how you change your water and what additives to you add to the water if any.
- What other fish are in the tank?
- What temperature is water? Rams prefer slightly warmer water then most tropical fish.

Another thing you might want to try is to compare your water with the store you bought the Rams from. If you bring some of your water to the store they usually will test it for you. I've only owned rams or fish for that matter less than a year so my knowledge of them or fishkeeping is somewhat limited. Lot of the members here are a lot more experienced than I am so I am sure if you answer these questions someone will try to help you.

RE: Rams

Peanutfishy — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 00:10:31 GMT

I bought a couple of these guys a few months ago and one died within 24 hrs the other lived and did REALLY well for over a month until I bought another and within a few days the new one got a fungus or something and died- a few days later the one I had the longest lost all his spunk and started just sitting on the bottom so I moved him to my 20 gal (thinking maybe it had to do with water quality because the other two died within hours after a water change) but he passed away too I loved that little guy and I would REALLY like to have some success with these fish- Their personalities are amazing! My PH is high and water is quite hard here in south Texas- do you think if I set up a tank with spring water I might have greater success? I have only seen one store in my area that carries them and none of the workers can tell me where they come from. They were very colorful even in the store so I do fear they are coming from the middle east but who knows.

When I introduced the last one the pair started doing this crazy dance like fighting where one of them would lose all color and sort of tilt, put all fins down and swim in circles- for a while I thought for sure that the one got his fin ripped off because it was so weird...Was this a usual reaction with these guys?

RE: Rams

jfish13 — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 11:29:09 GMT

Ahh..well.

RE: Rams

David Lass — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 11:08:13 GMT

I would be concerned that the bushfish will eat the rams.

RE: Rams

jfish13 — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 10:53:44 GMT

Can rams live w/ leaopard bushfish?

RE: Rams

David Lass — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 19:22:28 GMT

There are so many lfs's in your area, I would just call around -- I'm sure you'll find some.

RE: Rams

Steve653 — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 15:29:49 GMT

David,

I would like to purchase 6 German rams. I live in Staten Island, New York. I cannot locate any quality Bl Rams here.

Thanks,

Steve Placido

RE: Rams

David Lass — Sun, 09 Mar 2008 13:41:50 GMT

I am not a retail store owner -- I wholesale fish to retail stores in New England, and I live in the Boston area.

RE: Rams

jfish13 — Sun, 09 Mar 2008 11:24:45 GMT

David Lass (12/20/2007)

How about Laconia Pet in Laconia, Lebanon in Lebanon, or One Stop Country Pet in Brattleboro, VT?

Wheres is you're lfs located David?

RE: Rams

BonnieandClyde — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 18:25:14 GMT

well with one pair you should be fine but if they are the only fish.

RE: Rams

johnny chimpo — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 07:35:08 GMT

we're still talking about blue rams right......i don't see any reason why a pair in a 10G would pose a problem.

RE: Rams

BonnieandClyde — Sun, 24 Feb 2008 19:33:51 GMT

yes you should buy them in a group of about six and you need at least a 30 gallon tank for them.

RE: Rams

kommander15 — Sun, 24 Feb 2008 19:23:36 GMT

What would be any appropriate tank size and tankmates for them?????? I have a ten gallon, is that too small?

RE: Rams

BonnieandClyde — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 11:32:52 GMT

yeah i hope that they live as well i guess i will find out in about a week. i will let everyone know how it turns out.

RE: Rams

Lumberjack — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 11:15:32 GMT

filipem (1/31/2008)

submission meaning male dominace over another. Or the female accepting his advances?

AYE, there the rub, no way to tell....Dominant males in nature frequently treat other males as female....

RE: Rams

Hailey — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 09:55:23 GMT

BonnieandClyde, I hope the ones you ordered live. If you work for a chain store I suspect your rams would be not be the good German ones. The ones my lfs gets are in pretty sad shape, and they very rarely order them because so many die in the first few days.

RE: Rams

johnny chimpo — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 08:56:51 GMT

BonnieandClyde (1/31/2008)

i have been reading about the Rams and i am falling in love with them. They are some beautiful fish. So i took the liberty of ordering them for my store so lets hope i can get more people into this fish

ditto that. they were the first fish i really wanted.....however i could NEVER find them in any fish stores. one LFS ordered them for me and now i have two who are doing great. really nice fish.

RE: Rams

filipem — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 08:34:51 GMT

submission meaning male dominace over another. Or the female accepting his advances?

RE: Rams

Lumberjack — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 07:42:33 GMT

The faded colors and hiding are both forms of submission...

RE: Rams

BonnieandClyde — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 06:43:35 GMT

RE: Rams

filipem — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 09:26:45 GMT

Thank you David I will try that. They do fight alot and one always goes off to hide. The color on the one that hides fades very quickly.. Funny how they show signs of a male and female pair and 2 males at the same time....