New GBR addition!

[Todd2]

Well I finally did it. I finally added a GBR to my tank. I've overcome my procasination and indecesiveness and just did it.

Today at work I eyed up the one good looking GBR in the discus tank and decided I had to have him. I wasn't going to wait for myself to set up the 10G or re-do the 20G. Who knows when I'd get around to doing that. He was going in the 20G today whether I liked it or not! I can always move him in the future. No need to wait. No time like the present, hehe .

The discus tank which he was in is quite warm (And uses RO water) and my tank is 78F w/ a pH of 7.4 - 7.6 so proper acclimation is a must! I think thats one of the reasons I had 2 GBRs die on me about a year ago, too short of an acclimation period.

So here he is sitting in a bucket w/ an airline hose and water dripping into the bucket. I acclimated him for ~55 min. before adding him to an already dark tank. The tank is planted with 1W of light over it (I know I need to replace/fix the other one, hehe). So with the dim lighting and plant cover he should be right at home. Hopefully I'll get better pictures tomorrow when the lights are on. Sorry for the crappy picture, there wasn't much light in my room.

 

[cappieBridget]

way to go for rescuing him! I hope he loves his new home. I rescued a lone krib from petco a few weeks ago. I couln't have him be all alone anymore Now I had bougth 2 GBR's last week, lost one that night, the other is fine, but needs a mate adn I can't find anymore in the stores. :?

 

[Todd2]

Well he didn't eat flake today when I fed it, but maybe thats because he's still "shy' and adjusting to the tank. As I was taking pictures I saw him rumaging around the bottom picking at things. He'd pick at something, "chew it" than spit out some sand.

I also just realized that at work we feed the "discus tank" frozen blood worms, so he's probably not used to flake. Hopefully he'll start eating it. And not a lot of flake made it to the bottom. I kinda forgot he's bottom - mid level fish. That could also be a reason he didn't get much food.

I tryed my best to get a decent pic, he wouldn't stop moving.

 

[JRagg]

Yeah, most fish coming from the stores are fed frozen type foods. I'm having a hard time getting my apistos to eat flake or pellets. They love bloodworms and daphnia, and they'll touch flake. They won't do a thing with the pellets though.

Congrats on your new addition.

 

[cappieBridget]

yeah, I bought tetra chiclid mini granuals and they all spit them out, the GBR spits out tubiflex worms and flakes. The danios and the rosy barbs will eat anything I put in there, edible or not, lol. I know they willl love some frozen blood worms though. I will have to try that. Here's a pic of my guy washed out looking 2 hours after introduction to tank:

His colors are back to normal now, but with the blackout from the algae bloom, I can't take pics yet.

 

[bs6749]

Are you sure that is a GBR and not just a golden ram cappieBridget? I know that the picture is not all that clear but I don't see any black spots or the black stripe by the eye. Hard to tell but it looks like a golden to me.

 

[cappieBridget]

his colors are back, I know I was thinking the same thing, lol. Here he is tonight

sorry, having cloudy water issues.

 

[Lonewolfblue]

Golden rams are GBR's. They just have a little different color variation. Same fish. Some have more gold, some more blue, and some tend to have more red. But they are the same fish.

 

[cappieBridget]

you could be right, it was seperate from the gold rams and they looked different.

 

[Sicklid]

They are the same fish, just different name... Also, I have found that many times new Blue Rams have Camellanus (sp?) worms, and it's best to treat them right off the bat for the parasite upon bringing them home. The treated food is good and mine always eat it no problem...

 

[Todd2]

You remineded me Sicklid, I didn't QT the guy. But, since I work at the store I am 95% sure he didn't have any diseases/parasites/fungus. All the other fish in the "discus tank" (baby discus and cardinals) looked great. But I guess there is always the possibility that he could have some type of internal parasite, but I doubt it. He ate bloodworms and picks at stuff during the day so that's good. Now all I need to do is find him a mate!

 

[cappieBridget]

I did today! Found my guy a pretty little lady

Ok, my picture quality SUCKS!!!

 

[Todd2]

Flake was consumed succefully today. So that's good.

I think the trick w/ these fish is that once you spot one in an LFS, wait a week or too. Come back, and if the same ones are still there then they're a "good batch" and chances are they'll make it fine.

One of the reasons they might get a bad rep for not being that hardy is that people buy them right when the store gets them in and they've only been there a couple of days. They're stressed from the shipment and that weakens them further.

 

[bs6749]

his colors are back, I know I was thinking the same thing, lol. Here he is tonight

sorry, having cloudy water issues.

Yeah, I can see it now even though the water is cloudy. The black spots and the red on the very top of the dorsal fin says GBR to me.

 

[cappieBridget]

here's a better pic of the female