German rams color

1095 Views 4 Replies 4 Participants Last post by Ras, May 22, 2014

monster mac

Discussion Starter · May 20, 2014

So i have learned that i've been feeding my Cichlid tank to much and need to cut back to once a day, so i figured i would do the same for all the tanks. When i got home ready to feed them in the afternoon i noticed my mated pair of Rams had horrible color. As soon as i fed them they colored up. They are not starving by any means. Do i need to feed these guys twice a day or are they just being brats? Also since removing they odd male out my male ram's colors don't seem to pop like they used to, is this normal? thanks in advance.

P.S. feeding them New Life Spectrum Optimum.

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KhanQueso

· #2 · May 20, 2014

Rams and most other cichlids are pigs. I don't usually have trouble with coloring and feeding, but I would not be surprised if they are being brats.

Also, by removing that odd male you have removed an intruder into the pair's space. One of the major reasons rams color up is to intimidate other intruding rams. They won't display their aggressive, stronger colors often because they have no need to do so now.

Something you might try is putting a mirror near the front glass of your tank to trick the rams into thinking there is another pair to fight. I have not tried it on rams, but I do know it is effective for kribensis.

Also, try feeding live or frozen foods as a treat on occasion, mixing up their diet is good for health and may make them happier and more colorful as well. Even if oranges are your all-time favorite fruit, eating them 24/7 will make you bored of them.

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wicca27

· #3 · May 20, 2014

i would say the lack of color is more because you removed the odd male so there is no need to display all the time now. better health wise for the fish but you dont see the great color like spawning time

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monster mac

Discussion Starter · #4 · May 21, 2014

KhanQueso said:
Rams and most other cichlids are pigs. I don't usually have trouble with coloring and feeding, but I would not be surprised if they are being brats.

Also, by removing that odd male you have removed an intruder into the pair's space. One of the major reasons rams color up is to intimidate other intruding rams. They won't display their aggressive, stronger colors often because they have no need to do so now.

Something you might try is putting a mirror near the front glass of your tank to trick the rams into thinking there is another pair to fight. I have not tried it on rams, but I do know it is effective for kribensis.

Also, try feeding live or frozen foods as a treat on occasion, mixing up their diet is good for health and may make them happier and more colorful as well. Even if oranges are your all-time favorite fruit, eating them 24/7 will make you bored of them.

I probably wont do the whole mirror trick but will probably start feeding them some frozen blood worms again. Thanks

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Ras

· #5 · May 22, 2014

id stick to once a day feeding, my rams are weird about food aswell and when I used to feed at random times they would pace the glass
for example if i fed in the moring one day then afternoon the next day then morning again then night, or some other odd pattern like that. the fish didnt know when to expect food so they would do weird things the instant they saw me cuz they started to think of food when they saw me moving. like go pale or pace the glass aggressively
I started only feeding once a day in the morning right when the lights turn on and now they only anticipate food for the first 20 mins after the light coming on and the rest of the day I can observe them acting naturally, still they like to interact at the front glass for a few seconds but t doesnt last long like food begging does

other than that I assume most fish like other animals need time to work off the food they eat before you give them more to keep them at top health
most experienced hobbyist's have one day every week where they feed the fish either strictly mushed peas or nothing . I think its to give the fish time to digest any food that might be left over because its usually referred to as "fasting", but im not exactly sure

one group of fish Ik of that likes to be fed twice a day in very small amounts is micro fish, like ember tetra or CPD's. and these fish can be fed pieces of food just bigger than the size of powder granules to make sure that only they are eating during the second feeding and not you other fish

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