Stocking 50g with Blue Rams

[fishyfishy]

I am setting up a 50g planted tank. PH 6.4, TH 2.5/3.5, Nitrite 0, and I am using DIY C02. I have driftwood, several rock "caves", and slate pieces in place. I have set this tank up primarily as a German Blue Ram tank. I would like to get the cichlid communities help as to how many Blue Rams to put in the tank. Where would you suggest buying these fish from as my local fish stores do not like to carry this fish because of the local water conditions. I would also like to breed these fish and have several 10 gals with the same water peramiters. What fish if any would you put with them? I have thought of putting in a pair of breeder angels( don't know how much stress this would cause others), and several corries. Please let me know your thoughts. Thanks for the feedback ahead of time and let me know if you need more info reguarding the tank. I have fallen for the Dwarf Cichlids and have already breed the pelvichromis pulcher, aka the Krib.
PS. by some of the pictures I have seen on this forum I will have to try my hand at raising several different dwarfs that I didn't even know existed.
Great site and thanks ahead of time for the input.:wink:

 

[beleg]

All i can advise is DIY CO2 is way too dangerous in soft - acidic water with low KH. Please make sure you got a KH of at least 3-4 before attempting DIY CO2 with fish.

 

[ed seeley]

I'm running DIY CO2 in one tank and pressurised CO2 in another and both have remineralised RO water with a KH of 0. I've never had any problems with adding CO2 either 24/7 or just during daylight hours. GH is 4. Killifish, dwarfs and even my cardinals have spawned under these conditions.

From what many have said and tested on APC, pH changes caused by CO2 don't seem to affect fish. The real problem seems to be rapid changes in TDS/other ions that can change the pH, i.e. the filter denitrification crashing the pH by creating acidic conditions.

 

[Cathy G]

Hi,
If you want rams to raise their own fry, you'll have to find wild ones or rams that are only a few generations from being wild. The only wild rams I've come across lately are sold by anubias design. (Google it for the url).

I wrote up how I artificially hatch, but others here do things differently. If you do a search you'll find tons of info here! As to how many... your best bet is to buy 6 or so and let them pair up. Then watch and remove extras that are getting beat up by the dominant pairs. If you set up the tank with things which block the line of site from one end to the other, you might get away with having a couple of pairs. I've found that the older these fish get when paired, the more aggressive they get. So, though they may all live together happily at first, don't count on that lasting!

They also have tons of fry. The wild ones can have 200-400... you'll need to set up all your 10g's! And you'll need to be able to find homes, especially if your local lfs doesn't deal with them. In my case I hatch them in RO, but harden the water up to get them ready for the lfs water conditions. (This can only go so far though, I won't try to get them ready to live in pH 8+ hard as a rock water).

The link to my write up is here, sorry about the ads - this isn't my real site anymore. Click at the bottom. (My tanks don't look like that anymore either - and I DON'T recommend a pair in a 10g anymore. They do best in a 20.)

Cathy
http://www.cathygeier.freeservers.com

 

[fishyfishy]

Stocking 50 gal

Thanks for the feedback. I have already read your post on raising the ram fry and found it very helpfull. Thanks for the warnings about the KH and I will look into that.
Am I reading that I should get about 6 rams to start with and seperate after they pair up? What other fish would you recommend to put in with the rams? Should I put the Rams in first or the dither fish?

Thanks again for the input.

 

[Cathy G]

Am I reading that I should get about 6 rams to start with and separate after they pair up?

Yes, watch their behavior and be prepared to intervene. For dithers - pencil fish or hatchet fish are nice. Avoid tetras, danios, rasboras or others which will have a feeding frenzy when fry are free swimming. The order you put them in won't matter, the pencil and hatchets hang at the top, the rams at the bottom. The rams will be the territorial ones, add them all together and let them settle it among themselves.

Cathy