They have white or grey sand (grey is just white with organic matter in) but usually they have leaf litter over the sand and trees and plants along the bank so there is less light getting into the water and virtually no light reflecting off the bottom. A lot of areas also have tannins in the water, which reduces the light.
I'm getting a ram! Any advice?
- Thread starter Seisage
- Start date
Not much ram specific advice for you in afraid, wanted to follow the thread though since rams are on my " want!" List. 
found the info and pics from Cass and Rebe so useful too!
Re floating plants -success with particular ones varies on so many factors and tanks. Nutrient and mineral content, the light you have, surface disturbance... One type not thriving for you doesn't mean they all will! I've had Amazon frogbit & water lettuce thrive for years (and duckweed of course, despite all my attempts to murder it), haven't tried Salvinia yet.
But I desperately wanted RRF. Tried at least five times. Grown in- vitro, melted away to nothing in days, no matter what tank. Some from fellow hobbyist, since larger and more of them, lasted longer, but still just dwindled down til I had none left, in each tank.
Have given up my RRF dream for now. But will still try again someday! In the meantime though, frogbit & water lettuce still working well for me! And no worries growing plants in sand either. Root tabs added, especially greedy root feeders like swords, crypts, and vallis also does much better with them. Just stick with name brand ones. Even Tetra root tabs have done well for me, but seachem and API good too.
Just don't make the mistake I & another member made of buying cheaper, no name tabs that could have anything in them, and cause an ammonia or nitrite spike. But I know you're a researcher & would get quality.
I would add a good amount of leaf litter & maybe botanicals especially because of lighter sand, but you know what you're doing! Happy you got him, and that he's less stressed and settling in now!
found the info and pics from Cass and Rebe so useful too!Re floating plants -success with particular ones varies on so many factors and tanks. Nutrient and mineral content, the light you have, surface disturbance... One type not thriving for you doesn't mean they all will! I've had Amazon frogbit & water lettuce thrive for years (and duckweed of course, despite all my attempts to murder it), haven't tried Salvinia yet.
But I desperately wanted RRF. Tried at least five times. Grown in- vitro, melted away to nothing in days, no matter what tank. Some from fellow hobbyist, since larger and more of them, lasted longer, but still just dwindled down til I had none left, in each tank.
Have given up my RRF dream for now. But will still try again someday! In the meantime though, frogbit & water lettuce still working well for me! And no worries growing plants in sand either. Root tabs added, especially greedy root feeders like swords, crypts, and vallis also does much better with them. Just stick with name brand ones. Even Tetra root tabs have done well for me, but seachem and API good too.
Just don't make the mistake I & another member made of buying cheaper, no name tabs that could have anything in them, and cause an ammonia or nitrite spike. But I know you're a researcher & would get quality.
I would add a good amount of leaf litter & maybe botanicals especially because of lighter sand, but you know what you're doing! Happy you got him, and that he's less stressed and settling in now!
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Have you got any other fish in the tank with it?
When I got mine, I also got 18 tetras that were all quarantined together and are still together in my 75gal.
I had floating plants, java ferns and anubis attached to some rocks.
Here is a clip of them when they were first in QT and some pictures
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The tank has no light. All light in the tank is ambient room light. As I said in my previous post, the reason that photo looks bright is because the camera took a longer exposure. Again, as I mentioned in my previous post, there is an artificial cave. The ram has, I think, finally realized it's a viable hiding spot. I do also have a few branches in the tank, but I'm planning on getting some fake plants (or live ones if I can manage it) to provide even more hiding spots today. The fish seems less stressed this morning.
I do have five neon tetras in quarantine with it
After being around them at the fish store, I’m strongly considering getting some Bolivians instead of apistogramma agassizii for my new tank. So we’d be in kinda the same boat!
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OP
We would be in the exact same boat, actually! I was also planning on getting an A. agassizii at first, but ended up falling in love with bolivian rams instead
As an update for the thread: I got some artificial plants for the tank. Not my favorite, but I unfortunately don't keep any fast-growing plants aside from floaters, so I didn't have any live plants that would provide good hiding spots. I have an LPS that technically sells aquatic plants, but they're always dingy and dying, pots laying on their sides strewn about the tank. So, plastic plants it was. The ram still seems to appreciate them though. It's been out and about more and has actually been earth-eating! It's still very easily spooked, but I think that will simply take time.
I also had to block out 3 sides of the tank with paper because it was glass surfing. It's weird though.. blocking out the sides seemed to actually confuse it more, at first. It kept staring at the paper and then surfing against the front glass. It's since calmed down, but it was a strange reaction. Meanwhile, the neons didn't care a whit. I don't even think they noticed that anything changed. Having a fish that actually has a light on up there has been throwing me through a loop...
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