three-fingers
Fish Connoisseur
Hey people. I just picked up a male and a female ram yesterday for my planted nano tank (25 litres) last night after work.
I was originally going to buy some microrasboras, but for some reason my mums decided I'm not allowed to have any fish in that tank permanently so I got the rams instead (they can go into my 50 gal when its set up during the summer holidays).
My limited knowledge of these chiclids was that they were easy to keep and got to around 3" (according to one of my old fish books).
However I have read some places on the internet that they can attain 4 inches (here), while other sources such as fish base say these guys max out at around 1.5 inches.
Also, nearly all places say they need very good water quality.
My main worry is that all of the sources say they need a 24" tank (for such a small fish
).
Right now they are sharing my planted tank with 3 amano shrimp and seem very happy, they wont eat flake food, but they eaten frozen brine shrimp and aqua one betta pellets (why not?).
So I have some questions,
1. How big do they really get to? My male is about 2" and the female is just over 1.5".
2.How good water quality do they need? The nitrates in the small tank are under 10ppm and my pH is 6.0 (thanks to ada aquasoil
). It has an external filter for a 100 litre tank so there's a really good turn over.
3.Why do so many places say they need such a big tank?
4.What's the best temperature? The pinned topic on rams says to turn the temperature down for breeding while everywhere else says to turn it up. I don't think breeding them would be a great idea at the moment, but right now the tank is at 24 degrees celcius, is this too low?
Thanks. And by the way these have been great fish to watch so far, at first the male would chase the female if he saw her (especially if it looked like she had food) but now the female is always by the males side and he doesn't chase her.
Heres a blurry pic of the male:
And here's a full tank shot (also blurry):
Update: See post #11
I was originally going to buy some microrasboras, but for some reason my mums decided I'm not allowed to have any fish in that tank permanently so I got the rams instead (they can go into my 50 gal when its set up during the summer holidays).
My limited knowledge of these chiclids was that they were easy to keep and got to around 3" (according to one of my old fish books).
However I have read some places on the internet that they can attain 4 inches (here), while other sources such as fish base say these guys max out at around 1.5 inches.
Also, nearly all places say they need very good water quality.
My main worry is that all of the sources say they need a 24" tank (for such a small fish
).Right now they are sharing my planted tank with 3 amano shrimp and seem very happy, they wont eat flake food, but they eaten frozen brine shrimp and aqua one betta pellets (why not?).
So I have some questions,
1. How big do they really get to? My male is about 2" and the female is just over 1.5".
2.How good water quality do they need? The nitrates in the small tank are under 10ppm and my pH is 6.0 (thanks to ada aquasoil
). It has an external filter for a 100 litre tank so there's a really good turn over.3.Why do so many places say they need such a big tank?
4.What's the best temperature? The pinned topic on rams says to turn the temperature down for breeding while everywhere else says to turn it up. I don't think breeding them would be a great idea at the moment, but right now the tank is at 24 degrees celcius, is this too low?
Thanks
. And by the way these have been great fish to watch so far, at first the male would chase the female if he saw her (especially if it looked like she had food) but now the female is always by the males side and he doesn't chase her. Heres a blurry pic of the male:
And here's a full tank shot (also blurry):
Update: See post #11
tryed google mate? 
, and him and the female are sitting in it, fending off any shrimp that come near, do rams do this when they breed? Or do they just like wrecking my tank? 
