Pair of German Blue Rams?

[alex07]

Hmm thank you, never noticed those before, how do you recommend slowly getting it down? Take the fish out, lower the tank to the desired ph, than slowly acclimate the fish back? Or every other day slowly add a little more RO water?

May I ask why do you want to use RO water?

 

[JacksonJigsaw]

It was suggested to help lower the ph of the water to help get my rams to breed?

 

[jpchin]

i would take water out 10-15% every 3 days and add the ro water as your replacement water. check the ph of the ro water. it should be around 6-6.5. when you add it, put the ro water directly into the tank. it doesn't need any water conditioner. make sure to mix it with the existing aquarium water really well. i use my hands to mix it up after it's in the aquarium so there aren't any pockets of the low ph. after you add the ro water test your aquarium's ph. it might take a bit of time until your ph reaches the desired levels. this ro water will also help to soften your water. once you've reached the correct ph start to mix ro and tap in a bucket. test your ph as you're mixing to know if you need more ro or more tap to get the correct ph. remember you have to treat the tap water with a water conditioner to remove chlorine etc. i use seachem prime. it's highly recommended on this site. it's important not to use all ro water because that has none of the good minerals or anything else so some tap should always be used. also make sure your temperature in your new water is close to your tank water.

 

[alex07]

It was suggested to help lower the ph of the water to help get my rams to breed?

There are several ways you can lower the ph as well. You can put put peat moss in the filter. Boil peat moss and add the water to your tank but this will make you water look like tea, depending in the amount you add the color can be brighter or darker. Adding driftwood also lowers the ph and add the teaish color if you don't boil it.

 

[posleen103]

Where did you get them from. My rams are paired up and in 7.1 ph have spawned twice so far lasting 3 days first time and I got 3 wrigglers from the second spawning.

 

[jpchin]

Fishkeeping - Caresheets - German Blue Ram (butterfly cichlid, Germans.) - Microgeophagus ramirezi.

here's ram info on ph, etc.

 

[gatorjon]

I have GBR fry that have been free swiming for about 2 days. I'm feeding them shrimp brime. Last time the parents ate them and just don't want them to do it again. Any advice??? Ty

 

[JacksonJigsaw]

Just saying, the ram on that link is awesome

I got them from a lfs who gets them from a breeder a lil up the road.

I have two large peices of drift wood in the tank and a few oak leaves that I will add to when my trees start dropping leaves, I thought about the peat moss but idk the best place to get it. I hear homedepot. But to watch out that they dint add anything, than I should put it in my canister filter? I know it lowers the ph but it won't help lower the hardness will it?

 

[ilostnemo]

My opinion and what I did with my current tank which has a pair of breeding gold rams is use ro and peat moss, black water extract, and acid buffer to all get my ph and gh and kh low. Ph is 5.4 very soft water with around .5 kh. Everything loves it from cardinal tetras to my rams

 

[jetajockey]

One thing I can tell you is that ram fry are too small to eat brine shrimp until they are several days old. You may get lucky and have a few that are keen enough to pick the bbs apart, but you will lose most of them from starvation.

I've had my most successful ram spawns by squeezing plants like java moss into the fry tank, keeping a heavy amount of java moss in the fry tank, and inoculating it with green water. Vinegar eels seem to work, but only if they are feeding near the surface.

Feeding with microworms seems to help as well but even they are a bit big at first.