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I've got my 55g (4 ft) cycled and running well. Last week I grabbed a nice little group of peace-loving tank mates: 2 flame gouramis, 1 honey gourami, 4 fancy male guppies and 6 neon tetras. They have been in the tank about a week, thriving!

The same LFS where I got these fish has my beloved Bolivian Rams, although they call 'em Ruby Red Rams. They are Bolivians alright!

He has them in a fairly high pH (8.0) like mine (8.0-8.2), and he has them fairly regularly. The ones he had in looked to be fairly juvenile, but certainly not tiny.

I don't have a quarantine set up, so that's not a possibility. My tank has some anacharis floating and a potted amazon sword, a few small anacharis and wisteria clippings, rocks, 2 large pieces of driftwood and a terra cotta pot half buried as a cave.

I really want to get 2-4 Bolivians as feature fish for the tank. Is there anything I need to do in order to prepare to get them? I intend to plant the tank more as time goes on, and I intend to have another species of tetra or two, a few more gouramis, corys and other small peaceful fish.

I have good parameters (other than the high pH), excellent filtration (UGV and an AquaClear 50 HOB), rounded pebble substrate.

Any and all sugestions are welcome to help me make a nice home for the Bolivians. Oh, and I am not really looking to try to breed them...

Bolivians are hardy and come from areas with higher pH, so you're good to go. I'd suggest getting 6 - they'll likely be fine forever or at worst you'll need to take out maybe 2. They're more fun in groups.

In that space i'd probably just get four so the fun doesnt include getting nasty with each other, though not especially feisty they are hard to sex. Lots of plants , loads of cover, light level not too intrusive, dark substrates, and plenty of bogwood at either end for refuges. Youll probably not see the best of them at ph 8 , be better if you could bring it down to 7.5. Some might adapt, but most wont long term. Warmer end temps about 79f would be fine, lots of frozen wormy livefoods, dont expect them to be overly impressed with flake. Most bolivians dont live above ph 7 , those are reports of extremophile behaviour at the limits of their range, peoplefind em in cattle troughs, drainage ditches and stuff, but it wont be very healthy for them. Most rams are best kept under ph 7, preferably closer 6. I think the long term quality of asian bred specimens in ph 8 or so, plus all the antibiotics they are given to combat the immuno supression they get at high ph bears that out, good rams are few and far between these days. They havent really adapted to harder water conditions, they will on average live only 2 years whereas those kept soft will do rather better like my own, I have a 6 year old.

Are you sure about such low pH's for Bolivian rams? Blue rams sure, but I have a book at home listing collection sites that says 7.5 or 7.6 and Randall Kohn on Apistogramma.com lists the ideal pH range of 7.0 to 7.5.

If enough driftwood is added to the tank, I'd bet that pH would drop to 7.7 or 7.8 which the rams would appreciate.

My tank's pH is about 7.6 (it's closer to 8 out of the tap but I have lots of driftwood and my water has a low KH), and I had a breeding pair of 4 year old Bolivian rams I traded to a club member.

Eric