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I have a 42-gal established moderately-planted hexagon tank. Temp 77F, ph 7.0 Current stocking is 3 keyhole cichlids, 5 black phantom tetras, 4 sidthimunki loaches, an oil cat, a clown pleco, and a small school of otos.

I'd like to add some color. I was thinking of getting 1-3 German rams. Does anyone foresee any problems?

By my count I would be okay in terms of the 1" of fish per gallon rule. Ph and temp should be okay. What about temperment? My keyholes are really peaceful and I've never seen them bother the other fish in the tank.

If you think it would be okay to add rams, how many should I add? If you don't think rams are a good choice, what other colorful fish would you suggest?

I would not go with german rams as they are hard fish to keep and need near perfect water chemistry. I would look into apistogramas or Bolivian rams if you want a south american dwarf ciclid.

The 1" rule is not very accurate especially with hex tanks as they have less area for gas exchange.

The tank looks nice!

"A noble spirit embiggens the smallest man" Simpsons

I agree with bcwcat22. German/blue rams are extremely difficult to keep and are e to internal parasites which lead to a shortened life. I also concur that based on the shape of your tank I think you should say away from adding more Cichlids. You might just want to increase you school sizes.


My Scapes

I tried looking up your "Oil Cat", and Planet Catfish doesn't have much data on them. I'd keep an eye on that fish in case it grows large. in which case, you're looking at rehousing.

UPDATE : sigh of relief. Fishbase has the species listed as Tatia perugiae, and says it's 5.0 cm Max SL. If this is true, you have a nice small catfish there!


Last edited by Calilasseia at 08-Jan-2006 15:48

Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002