Bolivian Ram Journal

[nabokovfan87]

On 11/9/2023 at 5:38 PM, Chick-In-Of-TheSea said:

Now this is a terrible pic because the fish is confused/just was transported. Also I had to take it with the light out to ease stress of reflections.

The fins all say male to me, so definitely looks like it.

I said the same thing last time so.... Knock on wood.

Fingers crossed for you and it'll be exciting as always to follow along.

Sidenote.... Totally can relate to ridiculous amounts of time trying to ID the gender on some fish, especially rams in the store all washed out.  Best I got from the employee was, "yep, I got no clue, take your time." 😂

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

On 11/9/2023 at 9:07 PM, nabokovfan87 said:

The fins all say male to me, so definitely looks like it.

I said the same thing last time so.... Knock on wood.

Fingers crossed for you and it'll be exciting as always to follow along.

Sidenote.... Totally can relate to ridiculous amounts of time trying to ID the gender on some fish, especially rams in the store all washed out.  Best I got from the employee was, "yep, I got no clue, take your time." 😂

 

On 11/9/2023 at 9:07 PM, nabokovfan87 said:

Totally can relate to ridiculous amounts of time trying to ID the gender on some fish

I think the breeding tube is the key to everything with these rams. After staring at them and comparing them for so long, I’d bank on that as the method to differentiate.

Edited November 10, 2023 by Chick-In-Of-TheSea

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

Forgot to mention, the first 3 minutes in the tank, the ram sand sifted. 🙂  came out of a gravel tank so was probably excited to see sand. I usually do bare bottom qt but this was a tank that was recently vacated so that’s why the sand.

Edited November 10, 2023 by Chick-In-Of-TheSea

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

The new ram is doing well and has spent the morning sand sifting and exploring.  The community was overjoyed at the live bbs, but I forgot one important detail: Bolivian rams are completely oblivious to bbs!  They just stare at you like, ok so... are we getting food or what?  Meanwhile there is a massive fish frenzy going on above them.  🤣New rams (mine in qt tank and friend's in the heated/filtered bucket) did not understand vibra bites or Repashy community plus either. To be fair, the community plus matches the sand.  I mixed up some Soilent Green and will try that later since it will stand out.  I want to fill out their bellies; looks like fasting or wasting disease.  Fortunately the Paracleanse is already in the water for the ember tetras' treatment, and that is the correct remedy for wasting disease.  And I had run out of frozen food earlier in the week.  Will have to go get some on the way home.

The new ram is being ultra cute.  Doing the start/stop swimming.  Curious: dorsal fin up.  Content with observation: dorsal fin down.  Swim backwards by closing the tail up. Etc 😍

The quarantine kids hate white light so pictures will be a challenge.

Edited November 10, 2023 by Chick-In-Of-TheSea

[beastie]

On 11/10/2023 at 2:45 PM, Chick-In-Of-TheSea said:

Bolivian rams are completely oblivious to bbs!  They just stare at you like, ok so... are we getting food or what? 

Haha oh yeah. They may notice them, at some point, later on, but yeah, even in small tank when they are alone there - oh look, bugs are hitting my face, whatever shall I do about it

Hope your pairing works, I love their group behavior

[xXInkedPhoenixX]

Ah wonderful, I do hope you picked right! Even if you end up with 2 girls maybe it will still be a serendipitous set up (as 2 males would probably be jerks to each other, however you never know). 

I think when they are small it's near impossible to tell- which is why I put out the call to my local area when looking for Punk's girl. I had to be 100% sure I was getting a girl. And I still think fins is no way to tell if a Bolivian is male or female- it's definitely the organs hands down. So I'm crossing fingers for you!!! 

Yes, Bolivians are oblivious (ha) to BBS (I only feed frozen and they get ignored which is why the day those go in the Bolvians get the bloodworms (and inevitably their tankmates get some too). Mine also like flake food. Vibra bites I feed but the tetras/rasboras don't seem to touch them and I'm not sure the Bolivians are "in love" with them but someone eats them eventually (probably the snails). Industry is good about picking food that has fallen on the plant leaves too as she actually seems to like occupying middle in the tank. 

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

Folks I cannot get the new ram to eat any offered foods. However the ram will sand sift all day. Fortunately the tank is seeded.  But the ram will literally swim right by foods, including bloodworms. Also I KNOW it sees when Repashy falls from the surface, but still it will not try it. Any suggestions? Should I do bacter ae or Repashy powder to coat the sand?

Ram seems to have good energy and spirit and is exploring around but is too skinny.

Edited November 12, 2023 by Chick-In-Of-TheSea

[Guppysnail]

Try things like first bites and northfin fry or Kens tropical fry green .1 or .2 mm They are very nutrient dense.  The bacter ae does not provide useful nutrition to the fish. Maybe a touch but not enough to make it count. 

[nabokovfan87]

On 11/12/2023 at 3:22 AM, Chick-In-Of-TheSea said:

Also I KNOW it sees when Repashy falls from the surface, but still it will not try it. Any suggestions? Should I do bacter ae or Repashy powder to coat the sand?

Ram seems to have good energy and spirit and is exploring around but is too skinny.

I would tend to stick to pellets or granules.

Essentially try different recipes and see which one gets the fish to show interest. Then that's the one you keep working with. In the meantime of those attempts, you'd try something like frozen brine or frozen worms.

Frozen brine should be pretty good food for the ram and it's likely very easy for the fish to eat. The sand sifting might just be trying to eat little critters in the substrate and it's a behavior I tend to see a lot. Brand new substrate though, yeah, that's a bit of a concern.

For me the main 3 types of food would be Krill, bug, or omnivore.

Krill food would be like the Xtreme krill flakes and that should work.

Bug food, the go to for me is aqueon nutrinsect and it has 3 types of bugs. Another one you could add to that is the hikari discus bio gold granules, which are pretty decent from what I can tell.

For the omnivore a lot of Xtreme foods are so dense, too big, or float and it would be really hard to feed them to a ram.  I would use the smaller pellets that are designed for cichlids (usually they have a veggie one and a normal one with the veggie of course having both veggies and fish).  If the fish is chewing a lot (sand sifting) then you would try to just crush it a little and you'll get variable size chunks for the fish to pick through. 

It could just be a matter of soaking nthe food to soften it or waiting.  I would try feeding a little frozen brine shrimp once a day or something at least.

Can you make a video of the little dude after you drop food next time?

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

On 11/12/2023 at 1:42 PM, nabokovfan87 said:

you'd try something like frozen brine or frozen worms

Tried live brine. All 3 rams did not notice it. The 2 new rams did not touch frozen bloodworms. Snoopy eats them. Maybe frozen brine would be ok since it is bigger than bbs and easier to see.

On 11/12/2023 at 1:42 PM, nabokovfan87 said:

Can you make a video of the little dude after you drop food next time?

Will try, but lighting won’t be great. All he does is hide if the white light is on.

Also guys, the ram that I bought for my friend- she was picked up last night. Friend took the most adorable photo of her today:

On 11/12/2023 at 1:42 PM, nabokovfan87 said:

Xtreme krill flakes

Ram ignores

Edited November 12, 2023 by Chick-In-Of-TheSea

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

On 11/12/2023 at 1:42 PM, nabokovfan87 said:

Can you make a video of the little dude after you drop food next time

Ok I think the ram did eat some of the frozen brine shrimp!  I saw the pecks, but didn’t see any sand spitting after, so I believe it only ate the shrimp off the surface of the sand. I really tried to get different lighting but the ram went into the corner and wouldn’t move until I changed color. 😐 This guy is a tricky one. Also, good news, the tetras are now ok with white light. So that’s progress for at least some of the tank inhabitants.

This video is heavily edited. A lot of the time the ram was just hovering; taking no action.
 

Also the ram is having problems spending a lot of time with its own reflection, so I may need to apply something like construction paper to those side walls. 

The tetras are way overfed at this point! What with all the catering attempts to the ram(!)

I saw some flashing from the ram too. Not much, but here and there.

Edited November 12, 2023 by Chick-In-Of-TheSea

[nabokovfan87]

On 11/12/2023 at 2:36 PM, Chick-In-Of-TheSea said:

Ram ignores

Interesting.  Does it move around a lot in the filtration flow or drop / sit?

On 11/12/2023 at 3:21 PM, Chick-In-Of-TheSea said:

I saw some flashing from the ram too. Not much, but here and there.

Hm. definitely a bit of a puzzle.  Hopefully one bite of the brine leads to a few more.

In the video, he looks good! Active, not lethargic, and actively searching for food.  His personality seems to be a little feisty, so that's fun.

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

On 11/12/2023 at 6:36 PM, nabokovfan87 said:

Interesting.  Does it move around a lot in the filtration flow or drop / sit?

Sometimes sitting, sometimes obsessing over reflection - I did cover that wall now, and sometimes exploring. But the ram is startled very easily: wrong color light, or sees my movements.. goes and hides. Still trying to figure out what light he will tolerate.

On 11/12/2023 at 6:36 PM, nabokovfan87 said:

In the video, he looks good! Active, not lethargic, and actively searching for food.  His personality seems to be a little feisty, so that's fun.

Fair observation, based on what you’ve been shown. Full video

Edited November 13, 2023 by Chick-In-Of-TheSea

[nabokovfan87]

On 11/12/2023 at 5:05 PM, Chick-In-Of-TheSea said:

On 11/12/2023 at 3:36 PM, nabokovfan87 said:

Interesting.  Does it move around a lot in the filtration flow or drop / sit?

Sometimes sitting, sometimes obsessing over reflection - I did cover that wall now, and sometimes exploring. But the ram is startled very easily: wrong color light, or sees my movements.. goes and hides. Still trying to figure out what light he will tolerate.

Ah, I was just asking about the way the flake is when you drop it in.  Frozen brine works for a lot of bottom feeders because it acts like flake food for me and they eat that.  Apart from the taste and why they like it.  Even the corydoras go for that over the other stuff slightly easier.  When I feed it though, I have to turn off the filter for ~30 mins.

The behavior is cool.  The traits I like is that he is watching you and doing the "this is where I am going to be, please don't come in my forest" thing.  I also like to see the in-place, fanning the fins and being a bit excited.  I'm not sure how to word it, but it's that classic ram behavior of being in place, flapping the fins around, and then going down for a bite or swimming around.  In that vid at 2:36 or so, he jumps to the front of the tank trying to ward off the fish.  So fun.  Rams are fun.

Is there any chance there is vibration from noise or a door nearby this tank that opens/closes a bit?

Do you have any way of making a vertical wall on two sides (or 3)?  Not as critical right now at all, but you might get different behavior if you have that rock as a wall for him to protect a corner or something.  I don't think he'll use the cave decor because it has a roof part, but maybe you see him go in there sometimes too?

Edited November 13, 2023 by nabokovfan87

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

On 11/12/2023 at 10:44 PM, nabokovfan87 said:

Ah, I was just asking about the way the flake is when you drop it in.  Frozen brine works for a lot of bottom feeders because it acts like flake food for me and they eat that.  Apart from the taste and why they like it.  Even the corydoras go for that over the other stuff slightly easier.  When I feed it though, I have to turn off the filter for ~30 mins.

The behavior is cool.  The traits I like is that he is watching you and doing the "this is where I am going to be, please don't come in my forest" thing.  I also like to see the in-place, fanning the fins and being a bit excited.  I'm not sure how to word it, but it's that classic ram behavior of being in place, flapping the fins around, and then going down for a bite or swimming around.  In that vid at 2:36 or so, he jumps to the front of the tank trying to ward off the fish.  So fun.  Rams are fun.

Is there any chance there is vibration from noise or a door nearby this tank that opens/closes a bit?

Do you have any way of making a vertical wall on two sides (or 3)?  Not as critical right now at all, but you might get different behavior if you have that rock as a wall for him to protect a corner or something.  I don't think he'll use the cave decor because it has a roof part, but maybe you see him go in there sometimes too?

I release flakes under the surface so they are not just sitting on top. They waft around and eventually settle on the sand.

Rams are fun indeed!  Inquisitive for sure.

There is a sliding glass door not far. The tank gets light from that during the day, and we go in and out in the morning and at dinner time to feed birds. I don’t think the tank has vibrations. I think the ram is more afraid of my movements and the aquarium light.

The ram has been using the log swim through, but when he’s more scared he goes into the back corner behind the sponge filter. Last night I added a terra cotta pot with the opening facing toward the back of the tank. So he has an option for cover, away from the things happening at the front of the tank. I will keep an eye on him to see if he uses it. If not, I will try a rock.

I put construction paper on the wall he was having the most problems with reflection.

I need to fast this tank today. The tetras were soo fat yesterday from all the ram feeding attempts.

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

Small light is a little better. I can light one corner of the tank, and whoever is comfortable with it can swim under it.

Some are ok with it.

And someone is not sure.

 

A few minutes later:

”Hmm.. maybe this is ok?”

 

Edited November 13, 2023 by Chick-In-Of-TheSea

[The endler guy]

On 11/9/2023 at 9:13 PM, Chick-In-Of-TheSea said:

 

I think the breeding tube is the key to everything with these rams. After staring at them and comparing them for so long, I’d bank on that as the method to differentiate.

110% Bolivian rams are CHEESE money to sex, as long as you see the vent

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

2 pics from last night. I’m just posting them because I think they’re cute.

 

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

The new ram has been named. He is Spike!

In the cartoon, Spike is one (of 3) brothers of Snoopy’s.

Andy, Spike, and Olaf

Here’s a little clip from I Want a Dog for Christmas, Charlie Brown. Spike brings his BFF to visit Snoopy.

More than one person suggested Woodstock, but we already have a Woodstock!

Here is Snoopy and Woodstock:

Also, here’s a favorite clip of a sound effects artist, kickin it old school. ☺️

https://youtube.com/shorts/-UJQXqlVvrA?si=0x7hcZ7_hTLpXQdb

 

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

Again trying to get Spike to eat is a struggle. He did eat a small flake or two, then for some reason ignored the rest. I tried some vibra bites again but no go. He will sift sand around food but not actually taste the food. I thought, maybe he needs really soft food?

I put a Snello pellet in there. A Snello pellet will expand and then fall apart into a little pile of dust. So, he cruised past it like 8 times, but kept stopping to look at it. Each time it would be a little fluffier. Then, he tasted it. And then he would do a lap around the tank and sift sand here and there. Then return and have another taste of the Snello. And again. Progress!!!  And then a tetra came to investigate and Spike defended the food and ran the tetra off. Awesome. That’s just what Snoopy would do. Also tonight I noticed he swam mid level in the tank a few times, which is nice. He’s becoming more comfortable.

He does accept white light more now but swims more dart-y and his breathing quickens when that is on.  So I only do that briefly to check coloration and health of the fish.

Spike (right) with green Snello dust pile (left). He’s now staying closer to it.

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

Given the CHOICE of Repashy & zucchini, Snoopy chooses zucchini.

(I had to resecure the plant weight. The first time she pulled the zucchini right out and took it halfway across the tank swimming backwards) 🤣😍

Edited November 16, 2023 by Chick-In-Of-TheSea

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

On 11/14/2023 at 8:11 PM, Chick-In-Of-TheSea said:

Again trying to get Spike to eat is a struggle.

I'm very happy!  I dropped Repashy in today, and Spike went right over to it and began eating it!  Hooray!

I could not tell if he had any of the zucchini yesterday or not. I pulled out what was left at the end of the day.

[GoofyGarra]

On 11/17/2023 at 8:44 AM, Chick-In-Of-TheSea said:

I'm very happy!  I dropped Repashy in today, and Spike went right over to it and began eating it!  Hooray!

woo hoo! Improvement!

[nabokovfan87]

Heck yeah. Now we all need to know what kind it was! 😉

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

On 11/17/2023 at 12:08 PM, nabokovfan87 said:

Heck yeah. Now we all need to know what kind it was! 😉

It is Soilent Green!  Nobody but Geppetto likes community plus. Well, I suppose the embers like it. Seems they’ll eat anything.