A couple questions about Bolivian Rams.

[FishKeepingInVA]

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.

Edited September 15, 2020 by FishKeepingInVA

[Carolina Guy]

I have 2 Bolivian Rams in a 20 Long tank with some Glowlight Tetras and a couple of Cory Cats. The B Rams snip at each other periodically, especially at feeding time, but their little skirmishes never get severe enough to do any damage at all. This tank has a lot of plants, though, and some small rock structures that interrupt the sight-lines. I have found that aggression is lowered if they have places to hang out where they can't see each other. Once, before my plants grew in, I even put a clean dark-colored coffee cup in there, temporarily, to provide even more sight-line interference, and doing that helped too.

I love these Bolivian Rams. They have a lot of personality. I don't know how many would work in a 75 gallon tank. Somebody with more experience with Rams can probably offer more advice about that.

Edited September 15, 2020 by Carolina Guy

[FishKeepingInVA]

Yea they are pretty funny when they "fight" its just a bunch of postering really. Have you been able to sex yours? I find it very difficult. 

Edited September 15, 2020 by FishKeepingInVA

[Carolina Guy]

3 hours ago, FishKeepingInVA said:

Have you been able to sex yours? I find it very difficult. 

I can't see any real difference between the two. They've spawned twice, though, but none of the eggs hatched either time. By the way, they got along great while they were fanning the eggs, which they did for several days. After the eggs were gone, however, they didn't hang out together much at all, and they went back to snipping at each other a little bit, like they'd done before.

Edited September 16, 2020 by Carolina Guy

[ccurtis]

If they are spawning they are happy. I have 5 that I house together in a 125 with a bunch of other fish.  The fighting during feeding is pretty normal. They were also square off quite a bit.  This is typical behavior and they never really hurt each other. These fish are a lot of fun. Hopefully on of your spawns will hatch and you will get more.  

[FishKeepingInVA]

On 9/16/2020 at 12:21 AM, ccurtis said:

If they are spawning they are happy. I have 5 that I house together in a 125 with a bunch of other fish.  The fighting during feeding is pretty normal. They were also square off quite a bit.  This is typical behavior and they never really hurt each other. These fish are a lot of fun. Hopefully on of your spawns will hatch and you will get more.  

Any luck sexing them? Have you had spawns in that tank with other Rams/Community fish there?

[ccurtis]

No I have not.