New blue ram

[Venturer4life]

Hey everyone, so I have had a female blue ram for about 2 month now and she is the queen of my tank. I just bought a male for her today and I am a little worried about him.

He seems quite healthy (He is eating, is curious, and is picking at things all around the tank) but his color is cruddy. His blue highlights are bright (even brighter than my female), but his black and orange coloring is completely washed out. He seems to be completely avoiding my female, which is odd, because when he was sitting in the bag and I was acclimating him, he was brightly colored and desperate to get to her.

This is also completely opposite to what my other pair was like. When I introduced the male to my other female, they immediately were attached at the hip and the male never lost his color.

My female wants to breed badly (as she laid a bunch of eggs the other day in my tank when I introduced another female (long story short, I thought she was male, opps!)). She keeps coming up and kinda poking him. She does chase him a bit when she get frustrated though.

Do you think he will come around and start standing his ground? I know it is in him cause he was the dominate male in the tank at the LFS (I picked him specifically because of it). Thank guys! You are life savers!

 

[Rivers2k]

Sounds like stress to me. I would give it time.

The first thing most people ask for is water perimeters even if it is obviously something else, so I typically don't. But in this case I would suggest checking water. Maybe something is off and your female has adapted to it.

 

[Venturer4life]

Nope, I regularly check my parameters. PH-7 (I wish I could get it a little lower cause I know that rams like it around 6.8, but I am using Seachem Neutral regulator and it only goes to 7), Ammonia-0, Nitrites-0, Nitrates- 1 or 2. I know there is no copper or anything in the water cause I use spring water because my tap is bad. I do add fertilizer and calcium (for my snails), but I don't think that either of those could mess with it (I do not overdose either). I am actually going away for the weekend and I think I am going to put a separator in the tank until I get back, just to make sure he does not get too stressed with her around. Thanks!

 

[Rivers2k]

Nope, I regularly check my parameters. PH-7 (I wish I could get it a little lower cause I know that rams like it around 6.8, but I am using Seachem Neutral regulator and it only goes to 7), Ammonia-0, Nitrites-0, Nitrates- 1 or 2. I know there is no copper or anything in the water cause I use spring water because my tap is bad. I do add fertilizer and calcium (for my snails), but I don't think that either of those could mess with it (I do not overdose either). I am actually going away for the weekend and I think I am going to put a separator in the tank until I get back, just to make sure he does not get too stressed with her around. Thanks!

yeah most likely stress then.

 

[TheCommunityCichlid]

Are sure they are male and female. Females can fight too or dominate one another.

 

[Venturer4life]

I am 100% sure the one I had already is female, and I am 99% sure the one I bought is male. I only have a couple of photos and they are kinda cruddy. I can take more when I get back to my dorm (I went home for the weekend), but until then, here are the ones I have. The first two are of him after he got stressed and I put a separator in (to make sure he made it through the weekend till I could supervise them), and the other two are of my female and him while I was still acclimating him.

 

[TheCommunityCichlid]

They look like males to me. They one outside the bag is not a female, and the one inside the bag looks like it could be a young male, slight chance it's a female. What size tank?

 

[bettaowner]

They both look like males

 

[TheCommunityCichlid]

I think the problem is you got two males in a small tank and aggression is running high. (I'm an niu student and know there's dorm restrictions)

 

[Venturer4life]

I understand that the one outside appears male, but she does have a pink stomach (though it is light) and she has laid eggs before (I originally thought she was female, but posted on here just to make sure, and everyone said she was male, so I bought a female and when I introduced the female into the tank, my original female I guess thought it was a male and laid eggs on a piece of my driftwood. I know it was her and not the other female because I saw her laying them.)

 

[Venturer4life]

Also I dread saying it, cause I know some people will say it will not work, but I know people who have has spawning pairs with my same conditions. It is a 10 gallon planted tank. I watch my parameters very closely and do water changes every week to week and a half (depending on my schedule and on whether it not it really needs changed before that (nitrates above 5 (I try to keep it as low as possible)). I understand 2of the same sex will not work, which is why when my original female laid eggs, I brought the new female home and put her in my 42g community tank, and bought her a male, which turned out wonderful and they are an adorable couple that is attached at the hip.

 

[TheCommunityCichlid]

Are you sure the original was laying and not just fanning the eggs?

 

[Venturer4life]

She absolutely laid them, the other one was completely stressed in a corner and I took her out. And she completely abandoned the eggs. She and the others in the tank ate the eggs by the next day.

 

[TheCommunityCichlid]

If you insist but I still believe you have a two males

 

[Venturer4life]

Hey everyone! I just wanted to give everyone an update and to also to ask some more advice.

So since I last had been on, I had my rams separated in the tank. I then tried to reintroduce them again and the complete opposite reaction occurred as last time: my original female got completely dominated by the new male. I separated them again and a few days later, tried one last time to reintroduce them. This time they both stood their ground and neither backed down. There was a good amount of flaring and chasing (though neither were being harmed) for 2-3 days. Then one day I came back from class and they were swimming around like a couple! There was no flaring or dominant behavior.

2 days later I had to bring bring my tank home for winter break. When I reintroduced them into the tank again, they became closer than ever. My female was even sharing her highly guarded algae wafers with the new male! Normally when I give her the occasional piece of wafer, she viciously guards her treat, but they were sitting side by side taking turns taking bites.

Then today (two days later) she laid eggs!!! She is guarding the eggs very well, but the male is not paying much attention to them at all. He occasionally will come by and look around and then go away and continue with his normal investigations of the tank. The female keeps swimming up to him and trying to get him to follow to the eggs, but he just does not seem to get the message.

I know that the first few batches if eggs for a new pair don't normally turn out, but with time do you think he will start paying more attention? Just wondering. I am just so happy to see me female being such a great mom, and kinda want my male to step up, lol!

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!!! Thanks!!!