My German Blue Ram

[Reddaggerz]

I put these in this category

because I'm not sure he belongs in any of the other categories!He's really the only

fish I have to take pics of, so there's lots of them! http://cichlid.ipbhost.com/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin.gif

http://img151.exs.cx/img151/9296/bluesy.jpg
http://img152.exs.cx/img152/7408/bluesy1.jpg
http://img151.exs.cx/img151/4602/bluesy3.jpg
http://img151.exs.cx/img151/3206/bluesy4.jpg
http://img151.exs.cx/img151/6955/blusey5.jpg
http://img148.exs.cx/img148/2078/tetra1.jpg

[JHG]

Nice fish! How many

rams do you currently have? As you can tell by the avator I use, I also like rams. Here is a

picture of my dominant male and female pair that have been spawning quite regularly for me.

Female
http://img6.imgspot.com/u/04/291/20/HPIM1113.JPG

Male
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v502/JazzyBJazzy/HPIM1201.jpg

J

[Reddaggerz]

I think I got stuck

with two males. I've been frequenting the LFS for blue rams, but no one's carrying. I got

these two from liveaquaria.com. I'd do it again, but the freight is expensive and there's

no guarantee I would get a pair of females should I request it. http://cichlid.ipbhost.com/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/wink.gif

The other fish in the fifth picture is the

other ram...he doesnt look so good most times, like he's very stressed (He gets picked on by

the bigger ram). I have seen him a few times change colors to face off with the big ram, and he

looks very good, with strong, dark and vibrant colors....but he always loses, and returns to his

pale, dominated look, I suppose. http://cichlid.ipbhost.com/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/unsure.gif

Thanks, JHG. Your rams

look great! I wonder if mine aren't a little overfed.

[JHG]

If you're looking for

pairings then why not buy about 5-7 fish and let them pair off on their own. I've done that a

number of times and it usually works out quite well. Not being able to physically see the fish

you're buying also makes it hard as you could then, depending on maturity of the fish, hand

pick your males and females.

I recently bought 3 female rams in an effort to see if my

dominant male would remain monogamus or if he would "play the field". So far he's

remained true to his mate and has warded off the other females. Have you asked any of your LFS to

order some rams in for you? No harm in asking, worst they could say is no.

Jay

[Reddaggerz]

Yeah...I have several LFS

that have me down on a list for blue rams....I have yet to get a call from them or see them in the

store. http://cichlid.ipbhost.com/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin.gif

I'll have

to try your pairing trick, and just try to sell the rest to the LFS....so they can turn around and

call me to let me know they have Blue Rams available for sale now. http://cichlid.ipbhost.com/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/blink.gif

[blueramguy]

Hey sry for getting off

topic, but i have had rams for quite some time now and they often breed. most of the time the

parents take good care defending the eggs and fanning them, and every once in a while they will eat

the infirtle eggs. But my eggs are always a lightish tan color and non of my eggs have ever

hatched. I think I heard that the eggs are supposed to be clear, and if they are I have no clue

what im doing wrong. If you can help me please respond

[DeeCee]

I'd love to try my hand

at some German Blue Rams. What can you tell me about keeping and/or breeding them?

DeeCee

[Reddaggerz]

Wow, its been a long time

since I've visited, I can't believe this topic was easy to find!

I've

come along way since then, but I still keep exlusively GBR's as far as cichlids are concerned.

I have had amazing luck keeping these so called fickle fish and I really have no advice to offer

about keeping them. All I ever do is make sure the pH is stable and somewhere close to 7.0, but I

havent tested in a while, sometimes it might be 7.4, thats ok to me, I have noticed they start to

get stressed around pH's of 7.8 and they seemed to be really happy in pH's around 6.8 or

6.6 even.

I do planted tanks for my rams, they seem to respond so much better to a

living environment, I finally had gotten a breeding pair (I had, the females killed the only male I

had), and I still got happy egglayers who continue to try in vain to have babies.

That

brings me to my last and most important point, rams are extremely territorial and once two rams

have decided to pair up, be it male and female, or in my case female and female, all other rams

will most likely be targets of abuse and you will lose fish that way. So best to try to pick out

your breeding pair and take all the others back. And clean water is always nice, they really

dislike it when you stir up the water.

I feed simple stuff, flakes, small cichlid

pellets, maybe some bloodworms every now and then. Don't know what else I can offer.

<div

class='quotetop'>QUOTE(blueramguy @ Jul 23 2006, 11:33 PM) <a href="index.php?

act=findpost&pid=1535"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'>Hey sry

for getting off topic, but i have had rams for quite some time now and they often breed. most of

the time the parents take good care defending the eggs and fanning them, and every once in a while

they will eat the infirtle eggs. But my eggs are always a lightish tan color and non of my eggs

have ever hatched. I think I heard that the eggs are supposed to be clear, and if they are I have

no clue what im doing wrong. If you can help me please respond</div><!--QuoteEEnd--

>

No no, you got it backwards. Tan eggs have been fertilized and the clear eggs have

not. Clear eggs will eventually turn white from fungus and rot. Tan eggs should hatch assuming the

parents or other tank inhabitants do not eat them first. http://cichlid.ipbhost.com/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/cool.gif