Hi everyone!
These two are my Bolivian Rams. They live in a, heavily planted, 75 gallon tank with 2 bristlenose plecos, 20 rummynose tetras, 10 pristella tetras, and 6 platys. I originally bought 4 of them from a Petsmart because they looked so beat up I wanted to try and revitalize them. I'm glad I did because they are awesome fish! Unfortunately, during the process of deworming them I lost 2 to camallanus red worms (since treated with levamisole).
Now I have the problem of the one on the bottom bullying the one on the top. They sometimes patrol the tank together but the one on the bottom gets very territorial with his food. I would like to have more Bolivian Rams in this tank anyways but i'm not sure how to go about adding more. This one of the bottom is obviously the tank boss so I'm worried he will fight a lot more if he doesn't have his 3 foot of space like he does now.
So how many more Bolivian Rams would you add to the tank? Should I remove the alpha male before adding the new rams then bring him back after they are acclimated, or should I just add the new rams after their quarantine and monitor? It's a standard 75 gallon tank with tons and tons of plant cover/wood/huts so I think there is plenty of territory for them to divide up. Also, are there any ram experts that can sex the one on the left?
Thanks for any help! Feel free to ask questions and i'll be happy to answer them.