Information on German Blue Rams

[NatureGirl]

Hi, all! Recently I’ve been thinking about adding some fish to my two (empty but running and cycled) aquariums. One is a 10 gal. I call my Peaceful Nursery, and the other is a 26 gal. bow-front that I hope will one day be my lesser Community Tank. (My dream one will be extra long to house a whole school of rose (purple passion) danios! [emoji7])

Anyway, I’ve been looking at fish to go in these tank, and I just love German blue rams! They’re perfect! The only drawback is the short lifespan and health problems . (I’m also looking into Bolivian rams, but to me they just don’t look as cute as the GBRs.)

I just don’t know if my 10 gallon can house a single GBR. Some people say that even singles shouldn’t have anything less than a 20 gal. And others say a breeding pair and their fry will be fine in a 10 gal. I’m thoroughly confused...

Also, would a German blue ram hunt nerite and mystery snails or ghost shrimp?

Oh, and do any of y’all have experience with the balloon versions of these fish? Usually I’ll shy away from anything so genetically altered, but the electric blue balloon German ram is literally one of the cutest fish I’ve ever seen! Are they noticeably more prone to disease, sickness, and stress? How long can they live? How does it compare to the normal German rams?

Oh, and my 10 gallon has a few juvenile ghost shrimps too. I’d like to get snails, but I won’t if a GBR would put them in danger.

I could also put the fish in my 26 gal. But it seems like a really big space for one little fish... I wouldn’t want to get multiples for fear of fighting and breeding. (Of course I’ll also want to find some nice schooling fish to live in there too. And maybe some guppies, platies, or mollies? Problem is, I hear these guys are sometimes aggressive too...)

Also, I’ve been interested in dwarf gouramis for a while. Are they compatible with GBRs?

I also need to do a thorough testing of my aquarium water to figure out if it’s soft enough for the GBRs and if the other parameters are up to par...

 

[King Fisher]

Unless you have extremely hard water it shouldn't matter.

There's a member here by the name of Coral Bandit that breeds GBR and sells them. He will ship them as well. He could set you up with a few female GBR?? If you do a single male I'd definitely get something of similar size that's peaceful as a tank mate. The consensus is GBR love a group so maybe you will have to try and put two males together in your bigger tank with decor and plants to break line of sight and for them to claim territory. It would be pretty cool to have a couple GBR with a schooling fish and some bottom fish like Cory cats.

Definitely a no for GBR in a 10 gallon tank IMO.