German Blue Ram Discussion

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yep, i love these blue rams but i think i am going with bolvain rams now. not as pretty, but who know maybe i will get lucky and get some pretty ones.
 
I kept one German Blue about 6 months ago in my ten gal with a quarter-sized angel (was planning to move him to 55 gal) and two cory cats. I bought him from a LFS in a bare tank (he was about 1 in. long). I acclimated him for 20 min and just opened the bag and released him into to the tank. Within hours, he was eating the frozen brine shrimp I put in and was very active. Three weeks later my german blue angel had died after I introduced 3 otos. There was nothing on his body and I concluded the otos must have introduced an internal parasite? At this point, the ram is still healthy and active until a week later I find him dead in the corner of the tank :( . I looked at him closely and found nothing externally, but I did notice he was very pale :? . So, I tore down the entire tank and cleaned it out :x . The corys and otos got moved to another tank and were treated using salt and a higher temperature and are doing great :) .

I like German Blue rams, but I'm not going to keep them for now. I guess I'll choose other interesting dwarf cichlids. :wink:
 
I estimate that you had him for @ 4 weeks Justin? That seems to be a common duration so far that I've seen. This was your 10 gal planted (as in your sig)?

I'm sorry to see that you are a part of the German Ram mysterious demise syndrome and thank you for contributing your story.
 
Well, here's my ram story...

I went to my LFS last week to pick up some blue rams for the planted 55 gallon tank I've been telling you guys about that I keep at work. They had a bunch of them, but they had not come out of quarantine yet as they had only been at the store for 5 days at that point. I didn't get any blues, but I got 2 gold rams instead (They are a color variant of the blue ram, for those who didn't know, and I'm still going to add 2 blues later). I didn't know if they would make it since I've heard they are even more unforgiving than the blues, but I thought I'd give them a try. They had been at the LFS for 3 weeks already and seemed very healthy. I bought them and took them back to work, and something came up unexpectedly while their bag was floating in the tank and I wasn't able to acclimate them the way I wanted to. The bag floated in the tank for over 3 hours before I could even get any of the new water in there. Finally I was able to actually acclimate them, and by the time I let them out into the tank they had been in the bag for over 4 hours. 8O I wondered if they would make it through the night, they must have been so stressed. Later that afternoon I fed the tank and to my surprise the gold rams began eating immediately. :D They were very active and eagerly staking out their new territory. It's been 8 days now and they are still eating like pigs, and they even fight sometimes. :roll: After reading all these other stories I'm really interested to see if they make it past the 4 week mark, but so far so good. :D

In case you are interested, perams are:
pH 7.0
ammonia=0
nitrite=0
nitrate=10

and tankmates are 6 juvie angels, 6 flame tetras, and 10 green fire tetras. The tank is 55 gallons and moderately planted, with driftwood and sandstone caves.
 
I have a behavior question. The larger ram was over on the small ones side of the tank today, and they were so preoccupied with each other, they did not race to the front of the tank like they usually do for feeding when they see me. I don't think they were hurting each other, but they kept pecking almost like fighting, then they would side by side but head to tail for a minute, then back to "fighting". What is this all about?
 
What you are describing sounds like courtship and mating behaviour to me Meredith. No, I don't have rams, but my keyholes do the exact same thing.
The fighting you see is most of the time very innocent.

Did you check for eggs where your female was resting after her stomach got very thin?

The behaviour you are describing is that of either preparing to lay eggs (this would mainly consist of the head to tail, side to side 'shaking' motion.
Or either that the eggs have gone bad, been eaten, or fry is all dead (normally before a spawn they don't really fight)

HTH!
 
I did check for eggs. I can't see any. But this is where my confusion is. I thought I had two boys. The smaller one has the longer dorsal rays like the bigger one, just not AS long, and no pink on the belly. And it changes its markings a lot. Plus my water has a higher ph.
 
I bought a pair of blue rams a little over a month ago. They seem to be doing well. One is much brighter in color than the other. I hope this is cause they are male/female though I am not certain. The lighter one seems to change color intensity often. Lighter,when swimming near the other ram, more intense colors when swimming alone. Also it's (mohawk) I don't what else to call it tends to fluff more when the other ram isn't nearby. So lately I have been wondering if the coloring is more an indicator of dominance than gender. Sometimes they do a kissing/fighting thing, other times the darker one chases the lighter, and other times they swim close together quite peacefully. So who the heck knows. They are my husbands favorite fish though due to the cool way they swim and then stop completely still, then swim again.
 
In regard to sexing, the males will have a dark vertical black band on the dorsal (mohawk) fin. This band should not vary in intensity. Color changes in the body when flaring, "kissing" or challenging other fish is common. The female will sometimes look completely gold with only the blue neon showing.

Your observation about the swimming techinique is also amazing to my spouse. She calls them "helicopters" for that reason.
 
Thought I'd share a few pics of my rams. Here are the oldest ones who spawned. The eggs got eaten.
 
Here is the younger pair. The colors seem to be a bit off on these. Not to sure about that. ? The pic of the female isn't so good but, she was having no parts of the camera. Even enticed with food. lol
 
Ok, so both of mine have the black stripe on the front of their dorsal. So they are definitely boys?
You can see the difference in the two in this pic. The lighter one does have the black in the dorsal but it seems really hard to get a pic with it sticking up.


*edit** :oops: I just noticed how dirty the leaves are :oops: I had just done a water change before I took the pic, a lot of guck got stirred up. They are not always that dirty.
 
Looks like a pair to me. Subtle difference but they are there. I do use the standard way of sexing. Of course, the pink belly is a tell tale sign but, my females have narrower heads and less intense colors. I could be wrong, but looks like a pair to me. Time will tell.
 
when I purchased my rams they were in a bare tank. I keep them in my 55 gallon planted. Only one has a dark band on the dorsal fin, so I guess I have a male and a female, which is cool. The male is the one who is always brightly colored. The female is the one who varies alot. Should rams be kept in a pair, or would it be better to have an extra female around? Them seem to like plants and caves. The go in and out of the caves in my tank alot.
 
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