German Blue Ram Question

[LindsayBlum]

Hello everyone,

In my 40 gallon aquarium I have 5 german blue rams (3 male and 2 female). Things have been great until recently, and I think it has to do with the females being ready to breed.

It seems like two pairs have been formed, leaving one guy without a lady. He has lost some of his color, and the other rams are harassing him a bit, to the point that he is really shy, even when I feed them.

Right now, I have moved the little guy to a 3 gallon aquarium which used to house a betta.

I guess my question is, what do you all think I should do with him? He is a beautiful fish and would HATE to give him away. I have a 12 gallon aquarium at work that he could move to, but it houses 1 ADF, 2 Balloon Mollies, and 2 bumblebee catfish. Should I move him there?

Thanks for any advice. And in research about this, I have learned a lot about rams.

 

[harmy4993]

im no expert on german blue rams but i do have 2. i know they are not recommended for anything less then a 20g tank. the others may chase him away but they are not likely to do any real damage to him. they are likely just protecting there mating spot and will stop pushing the male away when mating is finished and eggs are hatched or eatten.

one thing to note thou is gbr's are usually best kept with the females out numbering the males.

 

[harmy4993]

btw the pic of your female ram is very very nice. extremely pretty fish. my male has that kind of coloring but my female not so much.

 

[bs6749]

im no expert on german blue rams but i do have 2. i know they are not recommended for anything less then a 20g tank. the others may chase him away but they are not likely to do any real damage to him. they are likely just protecting there mating spot and will stop pushing the male away when mating is finished and eggs are hatched or eatten.

one thing to note thou is gbr's are usually best kept with the females out numbering the males.

Breeding pairs of GBR's can be kept in 10 gallon tanks. That's what I used for my setups.

It's not true that GBR's should be kept in any ratio with females outnumbering males or vice versa. They are not harem spawners and thus the males do not require multiple females to spread out aggression. Microgeophagus ramirezi are best kept in multiples of sexed pairs. I have 4 pairs in my 55 and once I had a male died the other 6 would continuously harass the lone female.

The male described by the OP is pale because he is not showing his colors (obviously) because he is stressed and because he is not the dominant male in the tank. I'd recommend trying to get a 10 gallon tank for him or get rid of him alltogether.

If you post some pics/video of the rams I may be able to tell you if they are close to breeding or not.