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I finally got more rams. Everytime I tried to keep them before they wouldn't color up and eventually died. I'm pretty sure it's because my stepdad would walk by the tank so heavy and slam the doors so loud the tank water would actually shake sometimes or it could be that surround sound system set up in the same room. A few days ago I walked by a planted tank at the store with a mix of small cichlids and saw 2 beautiful male rams fighting over a section of the tank. I solved their problem by taking the bigger of the 2 and then picked out 2 from their other tank. The littler one is definitely female and with bold black markings and sparkles all over like the male but with a big pink blotch. The other I thought was also female but got more out of pity. The fins were all torn up and I thought the fish was just faded because it had no black markings and was more a pastel color. After a few days I'm not sure it's female(no pink and might be growing a spike) and still has no black markings with the sort of pastel coloring. Maybe a poor expression of the gold color morph? Does anyone have some good pics of gold rams? Are they always somewhat light colored? The other 2 have paired up already and swim everywhere together.
They are currently in my 20g tank and I might leave them there to spawn once but I have other plans for that tank and would like to move them to my community tank. Would they kill anything off if they tried to spawn in there?
The tank is 90g planted with congo tetras, threadfin rainbows, gouramis, dojo loaches, male guppies, panda cory, and a few plecos. I would think majority of the fish would stay toward the top away from any potential spawning sites and the rest would be fast enough or tough enough to get away. The dojo loaches will probably make off with any eggs or fry though so the poor rams wouldn't manage to raise any offspring from their attempts.

Congrats, rams (both species) are pretty nice fish.

Sound sure can harm fish, though it is difficult to tell the extent of damage. If your previous rams were stressed by the noise and vibrations outside their tank, it may well be that something else killed them off. Weakened fish are a great target for pathogens.

The coloration and patterns of your "pity" fish could just be an expression of stress and ill health. If the ram had torn fins, it was likely beaten around at the store, and is probably also upset at the move from store tank to home. A picture of the fish would help with sexing, or you could just try to vent the fish yourself. I am not sure abuot the gold ram bit- I've always seen either blue rams or gold, never in between.

The rams *could* kill guppies or Corydoras catfish, but it is unlikely in a tank so large. Guppies aren't bottom-dwelling fish anyways, and cories do have tough armor. The other fish in that tank likely won't suffer any damage from the guarding rams at all.
If your rams managed to spawn in the ninety gallon tank, I agree in that the eggs would be quickly eaten.

Last edited by sirbooks at 04-Dec-2005 21:33

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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 I didn't really know what I was looking for to start with but if I look between the fins on these little guys the faded one matches the one that I know is male. I moved him to the 90g because the other 2 were picking on him and then he ran into the young opaline gourami that I'm growing out in there and got attacked again. After moving him he finally started showing black markings so I think he's much happier.