Was I starving my gbr's?

[CICHLID_LOVER]

Nope. I'm good. I do not befriend people who are comfortable with giving inaccurate information, and calling me out as ignorant. I am far from ignorant thank you.

I respect that i can be a bit ignorant too.I was just talking about my experience with these fish maybe you are much more experienced than me.But hey i can move on.

 

[Mebbid]

Wow, I feel that I need to address all of these.

Yes they are very social fish. 80 gallons is more than enough for him.I would put at the very least 3 more GBRs with him. The maximum i would put in their is 5 GBRs. It would also be alot better if you leave it a species tank with just GBRs. If you want breeding.

GBR pair are aggressive towards other GBR pairs. Even in very large tanks 125g+ a single pair will usually end up dominating the rest of them and slowly pick them to death. It's pretty much a 1 pair per tank deal with GBRs. That is, unless you completely dedicate your tank stocking to GBRs then it could possibly work out long term. 5 GBRs is a recipe for disaster.

GBRs do eat plants in the wild do you think people would be feeding them algae wafers. Do your research.

Just because a fish eats algae wafers DOES NOT mean it eats plants. Any aquarium fish I've ever seen will gleefully eat algae wafers and yet non that I've ever owned have eaten plants. Carnivorous fish like oscars will eat the crap out of algae wafers as well.

oh ya and reduce your water changes to about 15% instead.

It's rare that a tank only gets 15% water changes and is generally ill advised. The more larger water changes that are done, the better the water parameters will be and will also keep fish healthier. If you want your nitrates to sit at 10 with a production of 10ppm nitrates a week (which is a fairly average number) then you would have to do a daily 15% water change to keep the parameters at that level. Seems silly to me when a single 50% water change will do the same.

For your info most cichlids are carnivorus. And what. There is such thing as wild GBRs most are just commercially bred ones from asia. They originate from the Orinoco River, Venezuela and the savannahs of Columbia, South America. So isnt algae a plant? They cant be omnivorus without plants. I would love a snickers but you already ate them all.

Just because fish pick at algae does not make them plant eaters. I've seen many many fish that pick at algae and completely leave any live plants alone.

Ummmm GBRs are social fish. And sometimes male Cichlids kill their own pair just to kill it. Fish arent humans they live to survive not to cry about a dead mate.You seem a bit misinformed

What?

Yes i have had a pair of german blue rams(which mated for a year and a half). The male killed off the female in a 40 gallon tank. I put another female in their and they have been mating for 4 years now with no problems.Your point?

A 6 year old GBR? You must be a master among fish keepers since their life span averages 3 - 4 and maxes out at 5.

 

[emilygupps]

Sorry OP, back to your tank

Your tank is amazing by the way. I really like it! Instead of going the route of more rams, you could look into some less common species, like maybe biotodoma cupido (cupid cichlid) or maybe cleithracara maronii (keyhole)? Not as colorful as rams, but a bit bigger, and will be more visible in a tank of your size. Both species are extremely peaceful, and uncommon.

Peaceful is good! I will look in to all of those! It's so full right now. Though

5 Juvie angels
15 danios
1 gbr
10 ottos (in qt for now)
10 khuli (I think, hard to count them)
15 amono shrimp
18 nerite snails
1 farlawala cat (I def want 1 more!)

We have a 30 tall, 10g betta, 20g long , and getting a 17g rimless plant only tank (for now) started. Maybe I could move some fish around to make room for one of your cool fish you recommended!



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[Freakgecko91]

I don't know mebbid, I have seen larger numbers of GBRs work in a larger tank, given there are defined spaces for territories to be made, like driftwood, dense plants, etc. As long as they are true pairs and not just a bunch of individuals, I think 2-3 pairs is entirely possible. An odd number though would be a disaster more than likely

Everything else is spot on and I completely agree with

 

[CICHLID_LOVER]

Wow, I feel that I need to address all of these.



GBR pair are aggressive towards other GBR pairs. Even in very large tanks 125g+ a single pair will usually end up dominating the rest of them and slowly pick them to death. It's pretty much a 1 pair per tank deal with GBRs. That is, unless you completely dedicate your tank stocking to GBRs then it could possibly work out long term. 5 GBRs is a recipe for disaster.



Just because a fish eats algae wafers DOES NOT mean it eats plants. Any aquarium fish I've ever seen will gleefully eat algae wafers and yet non that I've ever owned have eaten plants. Carnivorous fish like oscars will eat the crap out of algae wafers as well.



It's rare that a tank only gets 15% water changes and is generally ill advised. The more larger water changes that are done, the better the water parameters will be and will also keep fish healthier. If you want your nitrates to sit at 10 with a production of 10ppm nitrates a week (which is a fairly average number) then you would have to do a daily 15% water change to keep the parameters at that level. Seems silly to me when a single 50% water change will do the same.



Just because fish pick at algae does not make them plant eaters. I've seen many many fish that pick at algae and completely leave any live plants alone.



What?




A 6 year old GBR? You must be a master among fish keepers since their life span averages 3 - 4 and maxes out at 5.

Ya hes 6 years old

 

[Freakgecko91]

You're actually pretty lightly stocked IMO, given that the danios, kuhlis, otos, amanos and nerites all have a very low bioload.

 

[Brookster123]

Ya hes 6 years old

Did you make a tiny little cane and bathrobe for grandpa ram?

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[emilygupps]

What brand pellets are you feeding? I strictly feed NLS (New life spectrum) and have had nothing but success with it. Very high quality, and most fish love it. I have Thera A as well as small fish formula, and a cichlid formula.

They definitely do NOT need algae wafers by any means

these ones


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[Freakgecko91]

View attachment 243513these ones


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My fish were never fans of that one, I would definitely look into NLS. Fish love the stuff and it's one of, if not the best food on the market!

 

[emilygupps]

Will do!!


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[Mebbid]

I don't know mebbid, I have seen larger numbers of GBRs work in a larger tank, given there are defined spaces for territories to be made, like driftwood, dense plants, etc. As long as they are true pairs and not just a bunch of individuals, I think 2-3 pairs is entirely possible. An odd number though would be a disaster more than likely

Everything else is spot on and I completely agree with

Rivercats was the best example of this happening that I'm familiar with. In her 180?g tank she tried 4 pairs and continuously ended up with a single pair.If you've seen her tank there is a TON of cover in it.

 

[Brookster123]

Rivercats was the best example of this happening that I'm familiar with. In her 180?g tank she tried 4 pairs and continuously ended up with a single pair.If you've seen her tank there is a TON of cover in it.

Might it boil down to individual temperment? Do you know if her remaining pair was always the same?

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[Freakgecko91]

Rivercats was the best example of this happening that I'm familiar with. In her 180?g tank she tried 4 pairs and continuously ended up with a single pair.If you've seen her tank there is a TON of cover in it.

Her tank is the exact one I was thinking, I had only seen it when she had the 4 pairs in there. Makes sense now. I couldn't remember her username and was going to use it as an example.

 

[emilygupps]

My rams were completely oblivious to any of the other species when they were spawning. Only would chase other rams away. Oh! A snail wants to make a dinner of our eggs? No problem, the danios want a bite? We should get out of the way. Holy crap! That angel is looking at us..., act natural. Who does that balloon jerk think he is? Let's kill him!


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[Mebbid]

Might it boil down to individual temperment? Do you know if her remaining pair was always the same?

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I'm not sure. It was a long long time ago she was talking about it.


As for pellets, I find that Hikari are excellent pellets to use. They always went over VERY well with my cichlids. My oscar has been growing like a weed on them.

 

[emilygupps]

Yeah we put all 8 in at once... This male is the sole survivor


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[Mebbid]

Yeah we put all 8 in at once... This male is the sole survivor


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It was a vicious week of fighting but the last survivor has emerged as the victor of the hunger games.

 

[Brookster123]

It was a vicious week of fighting but the last survivor has emerged as the victor of the hunger games.

Hahah katniss everram

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[Gillie]

Man I miss all the fun in these threads

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[Dallascowboys16]

There is no such thing as gbrs in the wild, i have wc rams in a heavily planted tank and they don't eat the plants... other cichlids eat plants, i think you're confused, maybe a little hungry? Have a snickers. .

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Ok, just read through this thread now and almost passed out laughing when I saw this.