Electric blue ram increased aggression?

[2epicfish]

For about 6 months now i have had 2 electric blue rams in my 130l long community aquarium. They had been doing well, one had asserted itself as the dominant of the pair and claiming the front of the tank as his territory. However, in the last few weeks it has gotten noticeably worse, with the bigger of the pair chasing and trying to nip the smaller whenever he gets a look at him. I had bolivian rams years ago and i never recall having this problem so im open to suggestions as its beginning to stress my other fish out too.

*Also i may ad initially, i never actually intended to buy rams at all for this setup. Originally i wanted a single apistogramma to avoid problems of aggression between members of their same species, however my local fish store refused to sell me a single male as apparently they "cant be by themselves" even though a one of the display tanks had one by itself along with neon tetras . Im not wrong in saying this is something very doable no?

Thanks

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[Byron]

This ram issue is not at all unusual. Males of this species (Mikrogeophagus ramirezi is the natural species from which all the varieties have been developed) are territorial, and they will establish "their space" in any tank; this can be the entire tank in smaller tanks.

Two rams may or may not work, depending. First, two males will never work, unless the tank offers a lot of space for their respective territories. Two females can work, depending upon the individual fish. A male and female may or may not work. Rams must select their mates from within a group and bond, but even then a divorce may occur in time.

It depends upon the degree of aggression, but it may remain as it is, or it may worsen and the fish picked on will b dead within weeks if not days. A video of the interaction would probably tell me/us something, but the fore-mentioned needs to be kept in mind.

As for the Apistogramma advice, it is not correct, though I suspect I can work out what thy were thinking of in giving it. Apistogramma species are usually kept as a male/female pair, or a harem (one male and two, three, four females). Provided the tank is of sufficient space, as a breeding pair can be rough on the other females.

 

[2epicfish]

This ram issue is not at all unusual. Males of this species (Mikrogeophagus ramirezi is the natural species from which all the varieties have been developed) are territorial, and they will establish "their space" in any tank; this can be the entire tank in smaller tanks.

Two rams may or may not work, depending. First, two males will never work, unless the tank offers a lot of space for their respective territories. Two females can work, depending upon the individual fish. A male and female may or may not work. Rams must select their mates from within a group and bond, but even then a divorce may occur in time.

It depends upon the degree of aggression, but it may remain as it is, or it may worsen and the fish picked on will b dead within weeks if not days. A video of the interaction would probably tell me/us something, but the fore-mentioned needs to be kept in mind.

As for the Apistogramma advice, it is not correct, though I suspect I can work out what thy were thinking of in giving it. Apistogramma species are usually kept as a male/female pair, or a harem (one male and two, three, four females). Provided the tank is of sufficient space, as a breeding pair can be rough on the other females.

Im not sure on the gender of the Blue Rams, i assume they are both of the same gender. The tank isn’t super small, its 35 US gallons and 3 feet long but i guess thats not enough for 2 males/2 females. I’ll take a video later. If it comes to it i might try and rehome them or find a fish which is easier to sex as i really couldn’t tell in the store when i initially bought them!

 

[Guyb93]

What other tank mates do they have ? Sometimes you can decrease cichlid aggression by giving them something else to chase