Aggressive Blue Ram Help BR experts!!

[jasurf21]

Hey everyone: I got two blue rams about 3 weeks ago, a male and female.

The male killed the female after about a week of seemingly getting along great.

The male has since killed a guppy, otocinclus, and nearly killed a balloon molly before I pulled him from the community tank into a separate tank.

Did I just get a bad one? Should I try another male blue ram or try getting another male and female pair? (would love a pair, or just male), but I love all my current fish and don't want to take any chances losing more of them.

Thanks for your help!!

BTW my tank is 30 gallons, well planted, has 3 different caves, plenty of hiding places

 

[HN1]

Are you certain the ram is killing the fish? Most are territorial and they can be violent when breeding, but typically not to murderous levels in an appropriate tank. I wouldn't recommend adding anything just yet. All that said, you could have gotten a "bad" one. I had a gold ram that was flat out pyscho.

 

[jasurf21]

Are you certain the ram is killing the fish? Most are territorial and they can be violent when breeding, but typically not to murderous levels in an appropriate tank. I wouldn't recommend adding anything just yet. All that said, you could have gotten a "bad" one. I had a gold ram that was flat out pyscho.

Thanks for your input.

Yes it is definitely the blue ram. The first few days of having the male/female ram, the male began chasing around the female. They were always swimming together so I thought it was just playful. Then the day before DDAY I noticed the female swimming and breathing heavy behind the heater hiding. It looked like she had bite wounds but I wasn't positive. I thought about removing her but her coloration was okay. The next morning she was dead. This was about 1.5 weeks ago.

A few days ago I had an Oto turn up dead out of nowhere and could not determine cause of death.

Then today I was home during lunch and noticed one of the guppies in the tank upside down on the sand. He had a large gash down one side. I thought he was dead. He then swam up to the top of the tank with his guppy tankmates. He then stopped swimming and began to fall to the bottom of the tank. The Blue Ram then swam over and started chewing on all of his fins and nibbling his side. The guppy swam away again before the blue ram finished him off. So I'm thinking the ram may have taken out the oto as well.

We also have a balloon molly who I just noticed today has a very badly nipped fin. This is a new development because her fin was fine yesterday. The balloon molly and guppy are both yellow, so I wonder if the color has something to do with it. There is also a black balloon molly who's tail is not nipped.

There aren't any other fish in the tank that could be nipping fins either...what do you think?

6 neon tetras
6 guppies (now 5)
2 nerite snails
2 balloon molly's
1 cory catfish
1 oto

 

[jasurf21]

Turns out the ram was falsely accused. Fish were dying in the tank because of a fin rot outbreak not aggression from the ram. Everything is under control now thanks!

 

[HN1]

Good deal. Glad to hear. Clean water will keep most nasties at bay.