[devlyyn]

I just picked up another pair of Rams today, and I'm hoping I got another male and female. Sometimes it's really obvious to pick out the female such as this one:



My question is concerning this next fish:


I think it's a female because its dorsal fin looks shorter and caudal fin is less "v" shaped than the two that I'm sure are males. I'm curious what some of the more experienced of you out there think as I'm not very experienced at telling the difference.

 

[Gtdad2]

Looks male to me. Reason being there are no smaller spots in the black spot region as in the female in the first pic.

 

[Bradleyv1714]

I just had to ask as I was interested in getting rams for my tank but I read online and it says that they need low ph. Is that totally necessary? Can they live with semi-aggressive tank mates?

 

[devlyyn]

I've actually never checked the pH in any of my tanks (don't injection CO2) so i wouldn't really know about that. They are good in community aquariums but shouldn't be kept with cichlids of other species.

 

[Bradleyv1714]

I've actually never checked the pH in any of my tanks (don't injection CO2) so i wouldn't really know about that. They are good in community aquariums but shouldn't be kept with cichlids of other species.

So they aren't of the aggressive kind? Can I keep one or do I need to get more than one?

 

[kamikazi]

So they aren't of the aggressive kind? Can I keep one or do I need to get more than one?

not really, unless you have a pair and they lay eggs which being the great parents that they are means they will guard them by herding the other fish away from the area. I have angels that do this and they have yet to cause harm to the others, they just chase them away to a comfortable distance.

i keep one bolivian ram in a 29 gallon. he rules the lower parts of the tank, the angels rule the upper areas the cories and the tetras just fill in the gaps.

I had 2 males and they split the tank in half, but I rescaped and one took over and cornered the other and it died from stress. So I wouldnt recommend more than one per 29 gallons unless its a pair.

 

[kamikazi]

I'd have to say male on the second picture, but rams are tricky

 

[devlyyn]

Well, I guess I'll just have to see how this pans out. It could be interesting with 3 males and 1 female!

 

[JustJen]

I just had to ask as I was interested in getting rams for my tank but I read online and it says that they need low ph. Is that totally necessary? Can they live with semi-aggressive tank mates?

I have 2 gold rams, 2 bolivian rams, 2 balloon rams, and a blue ram split between my 2 community tanks, with a PH that runs between 8.2 and 8.4. All are beautifully colored, very active, and very healthy. I took several hours to acclimate them, and I certainly don't expect them to breed in that type of setting, but they are handling the hard alkaline water just fine.

There is very occassionally some minor squabbling amongst themselves, but never with my other fish. They'll run away from a guppy if it looks at them wrong! My balloons are both female and my bolivians both male, but in both cases, they hang with their match 90% of the time, despite having ample room to establish their own territories. I'd be hesitant to put them in a semi-aggressive tank, based on the personalities of my specific fish, but others may have different opinions.

 

[Fahnell]

male almost 99%

 

[shewolfgeo]

second looks like a male to me. First is a female for sure.

 

[nalu86]

second IS a Male.

the PH doesn't really matter, but its the GH and KH that has to be low.
I always trow in a couple of almond leaves in my tank and have already a low gh, kh and ph is around 6, and they love it, have eggs every 2-3 weeks and get them to freeswimmers but then the neon tetras and the other rams come in between.

Its better to keep 1 male on 1 female. 3 males over 1 female will fight constantly.
if you keep more than one female on 1 male, the other females will get sad and die ( I saw it happening)

 

[devlyyn]

Yep, you guys were all right. That second fish I was hoping was a female is DEFINITELY a male. I'm not sure what I'll do with the other males. I'll keep watching them and see if they seem to get too stressed out, if they do I'll have to rehouse them.