Ram Cichlids

[stevey87]

I have several ram cichlids and I'm not sure how to feed them. I heard they're mid/bottom swimmers and they rarely go to the top. When I put the flakes in, the harlequins and my dwarf gouramis go crazy at it and the cory cats eat whatever is left on floor. The cardinal tetras seem to bite and then spit them back out and the rams don't get a chance to eat anything. How can I feed them? Cardinals and rams.

 

[minxfishy]

What rams do you have? How many? How long have they been in the tank.

IME rams are not hard to feed and once used to their surroundings will know you and when its time for dinner, they come up easily to the top to feed, try cichlid pellets (small), frozen and live foods, blood worm, brine shrimp, prawn.

 

[stevey87]

I have two gold rams and I want to get a couple of colorful bolivian rams (named ruby clown cichlid in this LFS, is it correct). I just got them yesterday.

I heard rams can be very shy but they don't seem to be. They swim around freely picking substrate and they're the most interesting.

 

[minxfishy]

Never heard them called that (bolivian rams that is) whereabouts are you from?

What size tank do you have?

Rams arent shy, least mine never were, sensitive to water conditions, so make sure your water is pristine and you do regular weekly water changes and keep the nitrAtes as low to 20ppm or below.

 

[stevey87]

My nitrate readings are always 0. I'm starting to wonder if my test kits are wrong. The test kits are by Hagen and I thought they were reliable. These cichlids swim like the saltwater aquarium fish varieties.

 

[Cazangel]

Never heard them called that (bolivian rams that is) whereabouts are you from?

What size tank do you have?

Rams arent shy, least mine never were, sensitive to water conditions, so make sure your water is pristine and you do regular weekly water changes and keep the nitrAtes as low to 20ppm or below.

I find some of my Rainbow Rams are shy but others aren't I think it's to do with territory and whose largest. I tend to feed mine tablet food some you can stick on the sides of the tanks which is great for community feeding and also seperates really well in case you have other crustacians like shrimp.

 

[fifefish]

try use some crushed tetra prima

 

[Davo86]

I want to get a couple of colorful bolivian rams (named ruby clown cichlid in this LFS, is it correct).

what size tank do you have?

 

[flippajh]

I have two Bolivian Rams, in my community tank, have had them for about 3 weeks now, and they come right up to the front and then the surface when I'm ready to feed them, I've been feeding all the fish a mixture of flake and tetra prime above, once a week treat of frozen brine shrimp and every once in a while a few squished peas! They've even been having a pop at the algae wafers for the corys. They are great little fish, full of character.

 

[Gilli]

The better and varied diet you feed them the better the colours will be. I feed mine a good quality flake, algea wafers, frozen bloodworms, glassworms, shrimp brine and daphnia, shredded defrosted prawns, small flakes of tinned tuna (when I have a sandwich) mushed up peas, squished snails are a real favourite - infact anything and everything they will take willingly!

My pair of blue rams in my avatar are very tame and will feed from my hand. If you are having problems with the flake food put a little tank water in an egg cup add the flake swill it round and pour into the tank and it will sink - that way everyone gets their fair share!

 

[ChilliPepper]

I drop a few sinking Tetra Tabimin (complete food for bottom feeders) or Hikari Algae Wafers in for my Cichlids, along with some Hikari Micro Pellets or the like for my Tetras. They LOVE these.