Rams- care and compatibility?

[Sacha]

I am having a bit of a re- stock of my tank and am thinking of maybe getting a pair of rams. First of all, will they be too territorial for my current fish?
125 litre heavily planted tank:

17 cardinal tetras
3 Pentazona barbs
2 corydoras trilineatus
3 zebra danios

I used to have more barbs, cory and danios but their numbers have depleted over the years.

Will the rams pick on the cory?

Is there enough space in the tank for all the fish to have their own territories?

Are GBRs really as difficult to keep as people keep saying? Will Bolivians be a better choice? I prefer the look of GBRs.

Water is RO re- mineralised to 150 TDS with JBL Aquadur. KH is about 2, GH is about 5.

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,
You could have either Mikrogeophagus species in your water, Bolivian Rams (M. altispinosa) would be a better match with your other fish, as they don't need really warm water. The other issue is that the quality of commercial Rams (M. ramirezi) is appalling, and I wouldn't buy them unless you could buy locally bred (or wild caught) ones.

cheers Darrel

 

[alto]

I'll disagree with Darrel a bit, I don't think that rams need any warmer water than cardinals or cories, so I think you're likely fine to add rams (you don't mention a tank temp but if the cardinals are thriving I'm assuming it's suitable) - the trick is in getting decent rams.
Lately I see loads of those bizarre balloon versions (there is obviously a contest: how many color themed names can we apply to a (deformed) fish) for $$ or bizarrely massive (hybrid???) pale "rams" - with & without the "german" epithet.

Best odds are to find a shop that skips the above sort & is bringing in wild rams or locally bred F1's etc, look for juveniles that are active & friendly.

OTOH I'd not really be inclined to add more fish to your present tank, for me, you're pretty much at upper stocking levels - if you're able to trade out some fish, I might do 12 - 14 cardinals, 5-6 cories (I prefer to see these kept in groups of min 5), 5 juvenile rams: you may need to remove some as they mature depending how your tank works for territories - also somewhat dependent on the individual fishes (I had one female that ended up in her own tank)

 

[Michael W]

I agree with Darrel regarding the temperatures require by the Blue Rams are relatively high compared to the needs of your average fish. I have always kept mine in the low 80s and they have spawned plenty of times, raising the fry on the other hand was another matter. As mentioned in both the posts above finding good stock is key, locating local breeders are best as suggested by Darrel as it can mean that the Rams are better adapted to your local water, unless the breeder used RO water to mix their own.

I also want to mention that sand is absolute key, rams are geophagus (Eartheaters) so they will like to take mouthfuls of sand to sieve out food. Many people even in their fry tanks will put a thin layer of sand to promote and encourage this behaviour. I have no scientific data etc but I do believe dwarf cichlids in general do better in a sand substrate after keeping Apistos and Rams before.

Here is an article which provides a lot of information regarding the care of Rams http://www.dwarfcichlid.com/Mikrogeophagus_ramirezi.php noting that Rams can even be found in the wild in waters 'as warm as 88 degree F'. It is also a reason why you can see a lot of the times those who keep discus will also keep rams.

Another site which you can visit is the Apistrogramma forums http://www.apistogramma.com/forum/ members on there have a lot of knowledge regarding dwarf cichlids, it is well worth a look.