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Well yesterday i went out and bought a 10 gallon tank for a pair of boliv rams i hope to be getting soon. Assuming i can get a pair (they are hard to tell apart everyone is telling me) what temp, food, etc. will suit them to breed? Also what is the usual price for these i found them for like 13 bucks each at a lfs. I don't know if thats way overpriced or not but i haven't seen them anywhere else.

Last edited by Azrael_Darkness at 31-Dec-2004 15:47

seems overpriced to me... at my lfs i paid like $6.99 for the pair i used to have. the guys that own my lfs are marine biologists and one of them told me that the spike on the dorsal fin of the male will be much taller. hth!

I just bought 1 today for 6.99

By all means marry; if you get a good wife, you'll be happy. If you get a bad one, you'll become a philosopher.
Socrates-
I happen to have become a philosopher

honestly i don't mind paying a little extra for healthy fish as long as they are a male/female pair. Like i said though i haven't seen them around here anywhere else. I just really hope i can get a pair to breed.

I don't know about the prices, but I can give you breeding information. Bolivian rams aren't the easiest cichlids to breed, so you often have to condition them well to get them going. Live and frozen foods work great for this, just make sure they are fat and happy. Water conditions aren't too important, and they will breed at a neutral pH. 75 degrees is a good temperature for them. If your rams are mature and happy, they will sometimes spawn with no urging at all.

However, I think that you should provide the pair with more room. Ten gallons may not be enough for these fish to spawn in (especially if you use dither fish), and the tank will still look empty with just two rams. I would go for a fifteen gallon tank with the rams, and a school of 7-9 tetras. That would be more visually pleasing, and the rams would probably feel more secure in a setup with small schooling fish.
Just my opinion.

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And when he gets to Heaven, to Saint Peter he will tell: "One more Marine reporting, Sir! I've served my time in Hell."

well my only option right now is the 10 gallon which they eventually will probabally be moved out of and put into a 20 or so. I'm not as much concerned about it looking empty. I assume i could add a dwarf gourami or something. Also have you ever heard of a product by the company "Seachem" called "Stability"? I picked some up the other day to try it...it says it will help cycle a tank better and keep it healthy. Its a liquid that says it contains the bacteria.

Yeah, I've used Stability. It helped me cycle my 29 gallon tank. It must have worked pretty well, as I never experienced an ammonia or nitrite spike.

Oh, and I'd leave out the gourami. It wouldn't help the stocking level any, and it would afford the rams less privacy. They are too big to be dither fish, and I don't think they are effective target fish.

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And when he gets to Heaven, to Saint Peter he will tell: "One more Marine reporting, Sir! I've served my time in Hell."

ok, well how bout zebra danios? or a pair of cherry barbs? I don't know just let me know what you think.

Also i have another question would small snails bother the rams or their eggs? As i plan on to get live plants and any snails the reproduce in my tank will be fed to my puffers when i find them.

Last edited by Azrael_Darkness at 02-Jan-2005 10:05

Snails shouldnt bother your rams baby rams or your eggs. The eggs will hatch fairly fast and rams are agresive when breeding and may peck at the snail if it gets to close.




good luck with your rams,
fish1

at first they wont see snails as a threat but after a few eggs have been stolen they will pick up on it quick. they will actually suck the snail into thier mouth if its small and swim across the tank and drop it off. really good parents just give them time to learn.

well what would be some suitable fish to keep in the 10 gallon with them? if anything at all

ottos
this is just a guess

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''All the clown fish and yellow tangs in the world cant save you now!''

in my 10 gallon i have 3 blue rams (juvies, i am going to move one of them out eventually) 6 threadfin rainbowfish and one otto. the threadfins are awesome but they are hard to find.