Udate on my rams =D

[hsherman1986]

So I ended up purchasing the last four that they had. Got two males and two females, but one of the males didn't make it. No sooner did I net him out of the bag, he sunk to the bottom and started breathing heavy. I let him be til this morning, and found him dead this morning. The other three are doing very well so far though, two out of three are starting to show their colors really nice, one of the girls is just now starting to come out. She was in hiding all night last night, she started coming out this morning, she isn't showing her colors yet, she is really dark yellow with dark black stripes, like the other two were at first. She was really pale when she did come out last night, so I am looking at this color change as a small improvment. Haven't tried to feed them yet, its almost feeding time though, so we will see how they do!

Here is a few pics

I believe these are both girls

This is one of the girls today...

and this is the same girl, yesterday...

this is the second girl that would not come out of hiding yesterday...

and i believe this is my male (pic taken yesterday. He is in hiding today, can't get a decent pic of his changed color)

and lastly, this is what the other male was doing right after i put him in the tank

 

[tbonem91]

hoe long were they in the bag and were they all in the same bag? if so, it is very possible that one suffocated. I lost a cory this way - when the fish lady bagged them all in the same bag and i still had a couple stops to make on my way home

 

[hsherman1986]

all four were in the same bag, for about an hour and 15 min. It was a 45 minute drive back to my house from the fish store, and they were floated for 30 minutes. The back was closed for the first 15 minutes of floating, then I opened the bag and started adding my tank water to the bag. Then I netted them out and released them into the tank. That last one just sunk to the bottom breathing heavily. It wouldn't surprise me if he suffocated hopefully they will get more in.

The other three are doing very well though.

 

[Burks]

Sorry to hear about the one that did die. The other ones are really attractive.

You just can't find rams in my area. I want a pair for my 20g hex but just aren't available.

 

[Lonewolfblue]

all four were in the same bag, for about an hour and 15 min. It was a 45 minute drive back to my house from the fish store, and they were floated for 30 minutes. The back was closed for the first 15 minutes of floating, then I opened the bag and started adding my tank water to the bag. Then I netted them out and released them into the tank. That last one just sunk to the bottom breathing heavily. It wouldn't surprise me if he suffocated hopefully they will get more in.

The other three are doing very well though.

Next time I would request to put no more than 2 per bag. Or even 1 for that length of drive. Sorry to hear about him....

 

[hsherman1986]

Yea, I couldn't find them in my area either (and I live in Dallas/Fort Worth in TX), thought I was going to have to have them shipped to own a pair. Then a local Petco got some in, and I decided to take my chances. They are in QT now, will be for two more weeks, or until I am sure they are disease free. The tanks at this petco were really nice, no dead fish, all the fish looked healthy, otherwise I wouldn't have bought anything there.

edit: the lucky man just came out for a picture...here he is

 

[Jaybird]

I've had that happen a couple of times with GBRs. Sadly, that's why I don't have any at the moment, but I am going to give them another try soon.

Nice pics.

 

[hsherman1986]

thanks. The camera i am using sucks, but its all i got right now. All three are still doing very well, just can't get them to eat yet. What do you guys feed your rams?

 

[Guest]

I hate to be the one to speak about this but you've got your sexs mixed up the one in the frist picture with no color is a male and the other is a female. Then in the secound picture that's a male. picture 3 male, picture 4 male, pic 5 female, picture 7 or the last one is female.
Look at the dorsal and anual fins if they go past the start of the tail fin it's male only in wilds does this no count. Mostly the long fin is a trite that's breed into them and not a normal trite you will see in wilds.

 

[hsherman1986]

I hate to be the one to speak about this but you've got your sexs mixed up the one in the frist picture with no color is a male and the other is a female. Then in the secound picture that's a male. picture 3 male, picture 4 male, pic 5 female, picture 7 or the last one is female.
Look at the dorsal and anual fins if they go past the start of the tail fin it's male only in wilds does this no count. Mostly the long fin is a trite that's breed into them and not a normal trite you will see in wilds.

can anyone else confirm this or sex these fish by the pics posted? I am so confused now

 

[Guest]

[/quote]can anyone else confirm this or sex these fish by the pics posted? I am so confused now [/quote]

I'm sorry guy don't mean to confues you. LOL But male rams there dorsal and anual fins won't go pass the start of the tail the blue sparkles on the female is over layed on the black dot on the side,where as the male the black spot on the side is less domnet and the blue dosen't cover it til spawning colors come in. I have a link that shows some really good ways of telling the sexes but I can't get it to load. My PC is acting up this week so bad. I'm ready to throw the damn thing away. As soon as I can get it I'll send it your way.

 

[hsherman1986]

hey its cool, thanks for helping me out. I had looked at a lot of pics before I went and bought them, so I thought I knew what I was looking at lol. I hadn't really been able to tell by color differences until today, yesterday, I was relying on the first three spikes of the dorsal fin, and on the largest ram, the third spike is much taller than on the two smaller rams. Plus that, they are only an inch long right now, if that makes a difference in what you are looking at (or what i am looking at for that matter)

 

[hsherman1986]

ok, so in the original post, the picture of the one laying on the bottom (not the dying one, but the other female, or the one i thought was a female), she passed away this morning, my boyfriend found her dead. And the one that i thought was a male doesn't look too good either He is swimming close to the top right now, breathing really heavy compared to the other one. So it looks like I may only be left with one, if any

That is really disappointing, I was really hoping to be able to keep these fish. All the rest of the fish in the tank are fine, and all the parameters are pristine.PH is at 7.0 because of the driftwood. (normal ph for my water is around 7.6)

I found another place that might have them, I am going over there on friday to take a look around, we'll wee how that goes.

Everything I read about them being very sensitive and finiky must be true. I know it is not my tanks though, i tested them over and over again since I got them, and everything is fine Here's to hoping it was darn petco fish!

 

[Guest]

Petco Rams are really bad about not ajusting to new water. I have a friend who lives in Massa something or other. Everytime she bought Rams from petco they lived for a day or two. Then dyi but that's not just a petco thing it's a GBR thing. I've found that looking for a breeder or a shop that keeps them in a harder water and not RO water. I know that's harder then it sounds. Most shops will only use RO water.
Then others will say just ajust them to the new water better. That works some of the time in my case and a few others. But i've found that being housd in harder water in the shops then placing them in harder water in your tank is alot easyer and works 90 times better. IMO I know everybodys still going just adjust them better . But again IMO just find someone that has them in harder water already and you have them around longer. LOL
I just found a guy on aquabid that has them in hard water breed and riased in it. When i got mine I never had to ajust them any differnt then I do any other fish. I've had them for going on 3 weeks and none dead. So knock on wood they'll stay that way

 

[Lonewolfblue]

Our lfs here only get's non-domestic GBR's, when they can find them, and also keeps them in hard water. When I got them to my tank, all were as happy as can be. Didn't have any that looked like they might not make it. Within an hour, they were exploring my planted jungle, lol. So yes, I completely agree, if the source has harder water, then your chances are a lot better.