What Do You Think?

[BETTY BOO]

dont want live plants.i prefer fake.

Any particular reason?

There's *someone* on here who has some lovely fake plants that look almost real… I'll let you know who it is when I remember in case you want to find out which brand they are.

no real reason i just prefer the look of fake thats all

 

[soybean]

dont want live plants.i prefer fake.

Any particular reason?

There's *someone* on here who has some lovely fake plants that look almost real… I'll let you know who it is when I remember in case you want to find out which brand they are.

Can you let me know too please Kat!

I often find myself thinking about ripping out the live ones and spending a bit more on decent silk ones that don't need feeding, pruning etc...

 

[fidjet2]

love your tank much better with black

 

[BETTY BOO]

love your tank much better with black

thanks it looks much better in real life than in the pic

 

[BETTY BOO]

well yesterday i decided to get another bolivian ram and a few more harlequins.so far so good with the ram.when i picked it he was bright and very colourful.now hes in my tank hes gone very dark.is this due to stress?? how long will it take to go back to his normal colour??.hes not as dark as he was lastnight tho.well they have both been following each other alot.no aggression yet. not sure what sex it is tho.fingerscrossed.

another thing.i have 2 honey gourami.1 male and 1 female.i was very worried about adding the male but he is so funny.he keeps swimming back and forth the front of the tank lol.this isnt something to worry about tho is it??

 

[KittyKat]

well yesterday i decided to get another bolivian ram and a few more harlequins. […] well they have both been following each other alot.no aggression yet.not sure what sex it is tho.fingerscrossed.

Why did you not sex it before buying? I strongly recommend you find out how to sex them and take it back if you have two males because your tank does not look big enough for two males. (What are the dimensions anyway?)

so far so good with the ram.when i picked it he was bright and very colourful.now hes in my tank hes gone very dark.is this due to stress?? how long will it take to go back to his normal colour??.hes not as dark as he was lastnight tho.

Most likely it is due to stress, but fish will also be darker over dark gravel than the Dorset pea gravel that is normally used in LFS (for example, keyholes are very pale over white substrate, show their "natural" pattern over neutral sand/gravel, but their base colour is dark grey over black substrate). Basically, fish do change colour to blend in more with their environment.

another thing.i have 2 honey gourami.1 male and 1 female.i was very worried about adding the male but he is so funny.he keeps swimming back and forth the front of the tank lol.this isnt something to worry about tho is it??

Not as such, but it might be a good idea to get a few more females to keep him busy.

 

[magpie]

For scaping, I'd add a nice black background to your tank, and I think the bolivians would be happier and maybe less chasing with more scaping going on, and more hiding places. Maybe also consider some floating plants, even if they're fake ones.

 

[BETTY BOO]

the dimentions are 80 x 35 x 45 cm.from what i have seen i have a male and female but im not 100% sure.heres a video so hopefully you could help sex them for me.i cant take a good pic as they wont stay still for long enough..anyway they have been fine all day.swimming together etc but i just fed them and my original ram which i believe is the female was chasing the other quite aggressively and pecking at him.is this normal behaviour??.

http/www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQ-NMkBNgno

 

[soybean]

The second one seen in the vid is a female, and I'm undecided about the first one, it could be a young male. My male has much longer fins,but he's probably a lot older than that fish.

Head butting, lip locking, chasing, all perfectly normal behaviour now that you've added another ram.

You might want to consider adding a few more hidey holes and caves, artificial if you like, something like flower pots or coconut caves. This gives them the opportunity to hide if need be, and is more of a natural environment for them. Your tank is looking nice but there is very little cover.

 

[moochy13]

i agree, you need something the rams can get in or under - i cant see anything in your tank offering them a good enough hiding spot.

 

[BETTY BOO]

well i decided to get rid of the bully and keep the new one.things were going from bad to worse.she would not leave him alone last night. this morning she started going for my other fish.well i have decided to just keep one now.i gave her to a friend of mine so she has not gone back to the shop.peace is back in the tank now.bit of an all round sad morning for me.not only did i have to get rid of 1 of my rams i have had to put 1 of my rasboras to sleep using the clove oil/vodka method.it has broke my heart doing it.i feel really upset when i done the gravel change 2 of my rasboras didnt look too good.well i lost one 2 days ago and the other was going down hill.today he couldnt swim and was gasping for air so i though the best thing to do is put him to sleep the best and peaceful way i could. rip little fella

 

[kkcrd11]

Sorry for your loss

 

[The Taffy Apple]

I would also put your heater at an angle. Having it verticle can (and does, in my experience) simply allow the heat given off to rise upto the in-built thermometer, telling it the water is at the relevant temperature, therefore switching it off before your tank gets to the desired temp.
Hope this helps.

Terry.

 

[BETTY BOO]

well going by my thermometer my temp is always fine so surely that means how i have it is fine?? if this does mean nothing then i will reposition it

im only going by the manual

 

[meguro]

looking at ur video u had a male and female ram, the 1st ram shown in the video is male and the 2nd female. another option u had instead of re-homing ur female ram was to take out the rams into separate bags, rearrange the entire tank and introduce the male first, then add the female. this would help to eliminate established terrorities and hopefully put the two rams on equal footing

another thing i'd check especially with the recent problems with the rasbora would be ur ammonia and nitrite levels as these can spike after swapping substrates

also im not a fan of fake plants. if u ever decided to get real plants things like java fern, anubias, water wisteria, amazon swords and water sprite are all fairly easy plants