Ram behaviour help!

[STANNY]

A couple of weeks ago I purchased a pair of electric blue ram. They are only young so I'm unable to sex them yet. From the moment they entered the tank, one was always more confident and brave but they did tend to stick together most of the time. Recently I've noticed that the more confident one doesn't seem to want the other one any where near it. If it gets too close it chases it away. There is no nipping, simply just chases it away then goes back to what it was doing. Is this normal behaviour? Could it become a problem? Is there anything I could do to stop it?

 

[Borderlesscott]

Perfectly normal for dwarf cichlids like rams.

 

[STANNY]

Cool ill stop worrying about that then. One other thing while I'm here, I've fed them many different foods, from live bloodworm, brine shrimp to various frozen foods and flakes and pellets. While they instantly eat the flakes and pellets, they tend to chew the frozen food for a few seconds then spit it out, befor chewing it for a few more seconds, then spitting it out again. They sometimes eventually get round to ingesting it but more often than not one of their tank mates will nick the food when the ram has spat it out. Is this something I should worry about? am I doing something wrong?

 

[Borderlesscott]

That's normal also, they will do it with pellets to. Give them boiled deshelled peas once or twice a week - they love them, plus they are really good for them. Boil standard garden peas for about 10 mins, let them cool, then if you squeeze them between your fingers they should soften and pop out of the shell, add a few just - no shells though.

Make sure you defrost the frozen food first, leave it on kitchen roll for an hour, this will soak up the liquid, and use mini bloodworm.

 

[STANNY]

That's normal also, they will do it with pellets to. Give them boiled deshelled peas once or twice a week - they love them, plus they are really good for them. Boil standard garden peas for about 10 mins, let them cool, then if you squeeze them between your fingers they should soften and pop out of the shell, add a few just - no shells though.

Make sure you defrost the frozen food first, leave it on kitchen roll for an hour, this will soak up the liquid, and use mini bloodworm.

Great, thank you very much for your replies. I'll try the peas. Boil, cool, peel, easy enough and more variety, sounds good. I always defrost the frozen food but was told to just leave it in a pot of the tank water. I gather your method is better?

 

[Borderlesscott]

Just added a bit on to my previous post, about defrosting frozen food first.

 

[STANNY]

Just added a bit on to my previous post, about defrosting frozen food first.

Lol, yeah I noticed, then edited my post.

 

[Rivercats]

All my fish love cooked, deshelled peas. My rams think they are candy. I usually add a few peas into the general feeding mix about 3x a week. They also help keep my angels desire of greens satisfied so they don't do so much plant nibbling.

Not too long ago I added a pair of Bolivian Rams to my 220g that houses GBR's, Golds, and Electric Blues, and that male and female do exactly what your describing. Just because you have a pair doesn't mean they will accept each other either. That's part of what makes them such interesting fish IMO.