Q About My Ram

[AshleySpatula]

I purchased what I thought was a pair of gold rams.
I am very sad that one of my two new rams died.
I believe that I got two males and the larger one basically beat the smaller one up till he died.

How important is it to have a pair? These fish are hard to come by here and he seems to be doing ok now
on his own. Doesn't seem stressed at all, eats well and looks good.

I can go back to the place I got them and try to get a female... What specifically should I look for to tell?

 

[I Love my fishies]

I purchased what I thought was a pair of gold rams.
I am very sad that one of my two new rams died.
I believe that I got two males and the larger one basically beat the smaller one up till he died.

How important is it to have a pair? These fish are hard to come by here and he seems to be doing ok now
on his own. Doesn't seem stressed at all, eats well and looks good.

I can go back to the place I got them and try to get a female... What specifically should I look for to tell?

Gold Rams are very senstive and can easily die from unstable water levels and also from stress

Sexing: Look at their dorsal fins. The first two spines are longer on the male. Males also show more color and grow larger. Females are stockier, plumper.

what are your levels?

Amonia?
Nitrite?
N03 Nitrate?
PH?

They should be:

Amonia 0
Nitrite 0
N03 should be no higher than 20
PH 7-7.5

 

[AshleySpatula]

I only have the liquid ammonia test, I need to get a master test. My ammonia reads 0

the box it came in though says ammonia NH3/NH4+ test kit so I thought when I bout it, it was
for ammonia, nitrites and nitrates but it doesn't tell me any way to read the latter two.

I have had the tank up and running with fish since late july so it's been going for about 8 months.

The reason I think I had two males was the bigger one seemed very aggressive towards him
and he became very skiddish. I had him for 4 days and the return policy was 3 days so I couldn't
return or exchange.

should I get the test kit first then if all my levels are good go try to find a female??

Is he ok on his own or do they really need to be in pairs?

 

[I Love my fishies]

He will be ok on his own but he would be alot happier with a mate, since gold rams are so sensitive to water chemistry I suggest you get a tester kit before you get another. it sounds like your tank is matured and levels should be fine but testing your water weekly or fortnightly is a must when you have gold rams.

 

[AshleySpatula]

Ok, definitely will do. I think I saw a master test kit for like 30$ so thats not too bad.

I also had another question. My tank has a lot of MTS, I mean a LOT. Whenever I look at the gravel I see bits moving all over from the little snails under there.
Is it bad to have so many snails?
They don't really bother me but can having so many in there cause problems?

I also have a lot of algea that has popped up since getting better lighting. my plants are growing back but I added a few oto's to help clean up... but I haven't really seen a difference.
I have some algae destroyer but I don't like putting all kinds of chemicals in the water... what is a good natural way of ridding it? or should I just give the oto's some more time?

and thank you for the info!!!

 

[I Love my fishies]

Ok, definitely will do. I think I saw a master test kit for like 30$ so thats not too bad.

I also had another question. My tank has a lot of MTS, I mean a LOT. Whenever I look at the gravel I see bits moving all over from the little snails under there.
Is it bad to have so many snails?
They don't really bother me but can having so many in there cause problems?

I also have a lot of algea that has popped up since getting better lighting. my plants are growing back but I added a few oto's to help clean up... but I haven't really seen a difference.
I have some algae destroyer but I don't like putting all kinds of chemicals in the water... what is a good natural way of ridding it? or should I just give the oto's some more time?

and thank you for the info!!!

No worries

How many hours do you have your lights on for a day? you should have them on for only 8 hours a day any longer can lead to algea outbreak if you are putting them on for longer than 8 hours a day just shorten the time you have them on and algea should go away.

Bristlenose are also a handy algea eater

MTS is that Mystery snails? I had heaps!!!!! of mystery snails at one stage I ended up selling them to the LFS because they were eating most of the food before the fish could hunt around and get it, plus my snails were spoilt because they were eating frozen mysis shrimp, frozen brine shrimp, frozen blood worm and black worm and it did seem like a bit of a waist of such good food... especially when snails can live quite happily on rubbish. Now i just have 4 in my tank but I did see an egg sack somewhere so i think I may have more soon.

it is not bad to have a lot of Mystery or apple snails if you dont mind them hoovering all your food.

but if they are not mystery or apple snails i would get rid of them quick smart because once pest snails take a hold it is very very hard to get rid of them.

 

[AshleySpatula]

Oh no they aren't the mystery snails they are Malaysian trumpet snails. The long cone looking ones, they mostly live in the gravel.
they don't eat my plants so I wouldn't really say they are pest snails but they do reproduce like crazy!

I remember it started with one tiny one, less than a cm long, I had rinsed my plants in tap water but saw the little guy in the bag and felt bad so I put him in the tank

months later my tank is teeming with them... I am almost thinking that their overpopulation lead to the death of my mystery snails maybe they took all the food or something.

I will try to have the lights on less, I tend to turn them on when I wake up and turn them off when I go to bed. It sucks because I am at work about 8 hours a day, I would never get to see my lights on! can I split that 8 hours? like 4 hours before work and 4 hours after? then on my days off just have the lights on when I am home?

 

[AshleySpatula]

Ok I got my test kit today and my stats were:

ammonia- 0
nitrite- 0
nitrate- 10
PH- 7.6

Which from what I know is pretty good right?

So I went back to the fish store that I purchased the rams from and picked out what I believe is a female.
BUT he chases 'her' a lot too!!! I REALLY don't want my bully ram to kill her too!!

the only thing I had to go on was that some rams had high dorsal fins and some had shorter dorsal fins that seem to be longer in the back.
none of them had pink on their bellies

The store was also having a sale buy any fish get one fish free at equal or lesser value so I picked out an angel. The angels all had really long top and bottom fins except for one thats fins were really short in comparison and the girl said angels are ok as one or in threes but not twos.

help! any advice??

 

[mark.w.jones]

Your Rams will eventually settle if they are a MF pair they are just establishing pecking rights. You Angel I am a little worried about. How big is your tank in terms of capacity and dimension? Angels need around an 18" high tank as they get very tall as you have seen. If your tank is less than 18" he will eventually need rehousing. Being a Cichlid, Angels can also become quite aggressive and terratorial and will eat smaller fish as they reach maturity. They need careful thought before adding to tank, hopefully your set up is good for him.

 

[AshleySpatula]

My 20g is only about 15 inches high but right now the angel is literally 2.5 inches tall with fins.
I have a 29g tall that is in the process of being set up so that will be done long before he outgrows his current surroundings.

I hope that it's a m/f pair I posted pics here

of the two rams
thanks