So, a bolivian ram in a community setting?

[Byron]

Thank you to @Byron @AJ356 and @Ichthys for your posts in this thread. Very useful to hear about your different experiences.



It seems like my best chance for a pair is to observe them in the store tank for a while if I can.
You may have to speculate here Byron, but do you think that the outcome would be different if they had both been introduced to the tank at the same time, if they were not paired but in the same store tank?


So to recap a little bit, and please correct me if I am misunderstanding:
A pair of bolivian rams that are friendly towards each other, should be okay to keep in a 280L planted tank with some small schooling fish, an ancistrus and some corydoras?
(I only own the schooling fish so far, but I'd like to have the other three if I can.)

Read the profile on Seriously Fish. The observations are indicative of how this cichlid lives. What we are talking about here is internal behaviours, and they have very little if anything to do with how the tank is set up, barring the obvious issues. The fish are the way they are. Now, some may decide this more than others. In my view this is a wonderful cichlid as a solitary cichlid member in a community tank.

Two fish may accept each other and live in harmony. Or they may not.

 

[angiemike6]

As has been said above Bolivian Rams can be very individual, and they will either get on with each other or they won't. I have a 180L community tank which is overstocked. It has plecos, clown loaches, Boesemani Rainbowfish, Congo Tetras, Cardinal Tetras, Golden Gourami, a Yoyo loach, and Nannacara anomala (Golden Dwarf Cichlids). Specifically regarding your question it also has 5 Albino Corydoras and 2 Bolivian Rams. All the above fish get on with each other, and most are probably 8/10 years old. Due to weekly water changes and my sparse feeding regime I can't remember the last time I had any illness in the tank.

Some time back I decided to get 2 Bolivian Rams, and have no idea of their sex. As soon as they were in the tank they didn't get on with each other. One stayed on the left side of the tank and the other on the right. They would head up to each other in the centre of the tank such that if I had used a tape measure it would have been exactly half way. If one did venture in to the other half he would be chased away. After a few days one of the Rams went almost black in colour and died soon after. My aquatic centre said that this would have been due to stress, so I decided to leave just the sole remaining Ram in there on its own. I never once saw any problem with any of the other fish, and it specifically got on well with my 5 albino cory's. It just kept itself to itself.

Some later I decided to buy another Bolivian Ram, as I think they are tremendous fish. This second Ram gets on with the first one like a house on fire. There is no heading up and they are often seen swimming together in the same part of the tank. Again there is no problem with any of the other fish or the cory's.

To answer your question Bolivian Rams are fine in a community tank, and get on perfectly well with Corydoras. The question I cannot answer, and it will be answered only by trial and error, is whether if you have more than one Ram whether they will get on with each other.