Awkward Ram Behaviour

[Fishy_7]

I have had a female blue Ram for over a year and last Thursday, I bought her a friend. I wasn't sure what gender I had bought as the fish was a little washed out in colour but it was soon evident that the new one was a male. The Female has always had quite a confident character but recently, she has changed a little, becoming a little more reclusive but that is not all the time.

Today, I peered into the tank first thing in the morning and the female was in the middle regions of the tank among the broad leaves of plants and the make was in the lower part of the tank. The female's colours were a little washed out. I proceeded to feed some frozen bloodwarm and brineshrimp. Later, looked again, and the female had a deep colouration and quite a deep purple belly. She was swimming along side or close to the male and there seem to be some courting activty. Just now, looked into the tank again and the female had retreated back to the middle parts of the tank and her colours had dulled again. Male is at the bottom and there is no change in his colours throughout.

Anyone explain why the female is changing all the time. Looks like the male has taken a little nip out of her tail as well.

Thanks.

 

[minxfishy]

It may well be that she is trying to coax him into spawning, maybe acting a little submissive in his presence.

Other than that, have you checked your water stats recently?

 

[Fishy_7]

Just did a water test:

PH = 6.4
Nitrite = 0
Nitrate = 10ppm

 

[youngfisher]

What about ammonia?

 

[Gilli]

Rams are complicated little personalities and just because you have a male and female doesnt mean that they are going to get along! Could be many things but maybe your male is not mature enough to mate yet, or he might just not feel comfortable in the new tank yet. keep a good eye on them - if there are no serious injuries inflicted they may settle down, but if not then you may have to take the male back because stressed rams are prone to go downhill.

 

[Fishy_7]

Rams are complicated little personalities and just because you have a male and female doesnt mean that they are going to get along! Could be many things but maybe your male is not mature enough to mate yet, or he might just not feel comfortable in the new tank yet. keep a good eye on them - if there are no serious injuries inflicted they may settle down, but if not then you may have to take the male back because stressed rams are prone to go downhill.

Thanks - will keep an eye on them then. I love these fish but do find them complicated. All part of the fun I guess.

Ammonia is 0

Thanks.

 

[CichlidGuy]

Well I know exactly whats going on here, the male gets aggressive and stresses out the female which is why her colours are dull. My pair actually i guess you could say broke up after a tank cleaning. the male would chase her all over and she would turn pale and hide. eventually it got to the point where the male was riping up her fins so i replaced him with a younger fellow and now they are breeding once again and back to being Very colourful.. Some males can get Very aggressive twords females that they dislike. So in all your male doesn't like your female.

I had an instance where they separated for a while then got back together so maybe it will change, but if you see the female injured more then they aren't compatible.

Like Gilli said stress kills, any ram death ive ever had was related to stress.

 

[bagu]

well everything seems bang on, so nothing wrong with water; i talso think she is trying to wooo the male =]

it should settle down, i had the same issue

 

[Fishy_7]

Well I know exactly whats going on here, the male gets aggressive and stresses out the female which is why her colours are dull. My pair actually i guess you could say broke up after a tank cleaning. the male would chase her all over and she would turn pale and hide. eventually it got to the point where the male was riping up her fins so i replaced him with a younger fellow and now they are breeding once again and back to being Very colourful.. Some males can get Very aggressive twords females that they dislike. So in all your male doesn't like your female.

I had an instance where they separated for a while then got back together so maybe it will change, but if you see the female injured more then they aren't compatible.

Like Gilli said stress kills, any ram death ive ever had was related to stress.

Interesting. They seem to have settled their differences today and she is pecking away at the top of a terocotta cave. Looks like she has secumbed to his aggressive charms.

The tank is only 10 gals and there are 2 Ottos in there as well as 2 peppered cories. Should they breed, are the 2 cories going to be subject to attacks from the would be parents? I didn't really want them for breeding, if I just let any fry be, I assume they will perish?

 

[Gilli]

If they do lay eggs then everything and anything large or small will be attacked if they go anywhere near the eggs and that includes even that end of the tank!! The eggs are unlikely to hatch for the first dozen or so attempts - they take a while to get parenting right and usually eat the eggs after a day or two.

 

[mark1979]

i also have weird ram behavior

i have 4 golds and 4 GBR's

the golds just get along fine,but the gbr's are totaly different!!

i have 2 fems and 2 males gbr's.

1 male is the most dominent and will chase the other male away,nothing agressive just until he's out of the way. I introduced 2 females and now they are fighting over the male it looks like.since this has happened the non dominent male has upped his game and now gives chase back!!

out of curiosity,if they do lay eggs,how easy is it to rear them and how do you do it? i would love to raise some gbr's

 

[bagu]

i also have weird ram behavior

i have 4 golds and 4 GBR's

the golds just get along fine,but the gbr's are totaly different!!

i have 2 fems and 2 males gbr's.

1 male is the most dominent and will chase the other male away,nothing agressive just until he's out of the way. I introduced 2 females and now they are fighting over the male it looks like.since this has happened the non dominent male has upped his game and now gives chase back!!

out of curiosity,if they do lay eggs,how easy is it to rear them and how do you do it? i would love to raise some gbr's

i dont think they are too hard in all honesty.

I would leave them in the tank with the parents as they will gradually become better at rearing them, if not, you will siphon them out into a separate tank, let them hatch, they feed on yolk sacs for a few days, then you feed them baby brine shrimp i think it is =]

I would love to have some GBR babies, but i cant get a pair

 

[CichlidGuy]

Well Fishy_7 If they do spawn of course they will probably eat there first 5 or or so spawns because they are new comers but they will definatly spawn again. The Otto's are fine i have 2 with my breeding pair and they just chase but no bite. the cory's will probably be the same way but 10 gals is rather small for a pair to breed normally 20 gal min is required so the male doesn't stress the female out while spawning. Some males will take charge of the brood and push the female away but thats some what rare.

My German Blues just spawned tonight in fact. they are finishing as i speak i estimate about 300+ eggs. new parents are around 200 eggs.

About Breeding Rams. Getting them to spawn Easy. Caring for the fry is hard. since so many pairs fail at parenting you probably have to raise them yourself. if you want to attempt this i will tell you some info if needed. but if not and you want alot of trial and error with your fish so its natural they will eventually get it right to the point where the fry are free swimming then you can remove them and grow them in a fry tank. German Blue Rams usually will care for there fry for about 20 days ive found then start to abandon them.

My pair had about 10 live for 14 days then spawned again with the 14 day old fry they all ready had. i thought that was weird.

for feeding wait until they are free swimming then Micro worms will have the highest success rate then after about 4 days of them eating that, go Newly hatched brine shrimp.

Mark1979

Usually the gold rams are bred from the German blues but in the process they will lose some aggressive behavior considering they are a mutation of the original. this is the same fro JD's and EBJD's.
Some fish still have there own personality's and you never know how they will act .

 

[Fishy_7]

Well Fishy_7 If they do spawn of course they will probably eat there first 5 or or so spawns because they are new comers but they will definatly spawn again. The Otto's are fine i have 2 with my breeding pair and they just chase but no bite. the cory's will probably be the same way but 10 gals is rather small for a pair to breed normally 20 gal min is required so the male doesn't stress the female out while spawning. Some males will take charge of the brood and push the female away but thats some what rare.

My German Blues just spawned tonight in fact. they are finishing as i speak i estimate about 300+ eggs. new parents are around 200 eggs.

About Breeding Rams. Getting them to spawn Easy. Caring for the fry is hard. since so many pairs fail at parenting you probably have to raise them yourself. if you want to attempt this i will tell you some info if needed. but if not and you want alot of trial and error with your fish so its natural they will eventually get it right to the point where the fry are free swimming then you can remove them and grow them in a fry tank. German Blue Rams usually will care for there fry for about 20 days ive found then start to abandon them.

My pair had about 10 live for 14 days then spawned again with the 14 day old fry they all ready had. i thought that was weird.

for feeding wait until they are free swimming then Micro worms will have the highest success rate then after about 4 days of them eating that, go Newly hatched brine shrimp.

Mark1979

Usually the gold rams are bred from the German blues but in the process they will lose some aggressive behavior considering they are a mutation of the original. this is the same fro JD's and EBJD's.
Some fish still have there own personality's and you never know how they will act .

Thanks for the info. If they do spawn and the eggs hatch, I will let you know. They seem to have gone their seperate ways today. I find that soon after a feed - be it frozen food or flakes, they seem to get into "the mood" but that is not lasting at the moment.

 

[CichlidGuy]

Anytime. If you want them to spawn you have to Feed the female untill she starts to spit food out every day then she will produce eggs in about 7 days.