nabokovfan87 Posted July 8, 2022 Share Posted July 8, 2022 Where does she usually hang out in the tank? Mine was usually left side hidden by some plants when it wasn't food time. Feed the tetras somewhere else, then I would go over to her area and target feed her. The tetras might eventually sniff out the food, but they shouldn't have to.... how'd you put it... "buy her time". Hopefully it's something like having a spot, a cover, a cave, a plant, anything that she likes to guard gives her a spot and then you can feed her and she will know it'll be there and she doesn't have to stress to try to feed with the other fish going bonkers around her. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chick-In-Of-TheSea Posted July 8, 2022 Author Share Posted July 8, 2022 On 7/7/2022 at 8:14 PM, nabokovfan87 said: Where does she usually hang out in the tank? She’s usually right out in front. She likes to greet me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nabokovfan87 Posted July 8, 2022 Share Posted July 8, 2022 On 7/7/2022 at 5:10 PM, Chick-In-Of-TheSea said: She even had her fin up while she chewed. Too adorable. She enjoyed that! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chick-In-Of-TheSea Posted July 8, 2022 Author Share Posted July 8, 2022 I tried to put food in the flower pot cave once but she didn’t seem to understand and just looked at me. I will have to try some different strategies. In the smaller pellet video she is showing some more gold. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nabokovfan87 Posted July 8, 2022 Share Posted July 8, 2022 On 7/7/2022 at 5:16 PM, Chick-In-Of-TheSea said: I tried to put food in the flower pot cave once but she didn’t seem to understand and just looked at me. I will have to try some different strategies. Have you seen Dean's setup for his? Take a little baggy or something and crush up a good amount of food from those bigger pellets for a few days. Try to feed the tank normally with the smaller bits and see how they do. She's a really active ram, which is awesome. I had plants, but later on I ended up having an actual flower pot. The fish REALLY didn't understand it because it was closed on one side. Some of the fish kept trying to go through the little hole on the bottom. I've seen some people break pieces in half so they can make it look like debris on the bottom. I would use a flat sided pot and just bury it in the substrate so it looked like an archway. They tend to feel secure with a wall / something on their backside so they can't get confronted from behind and they protect the front. That's what Deans setup looks like too! On 7/7/2022 at 5:16 PM, Chick-In-Of-TheSea said: In the smaller pellet video she is showing some more gold. Very cool. She'll color up. There's a lot of color on those fish. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chick-In-Of-TheSea Posted July 8, 2022 Author Share Posted July 8, 2022 On 7/7/2022 at 8:21 PM, nabokovfan87 said: The fish REALLY didn't understand it because it was closed on one side Oh! I have a swim through one I made! It’s in the back. Also I have this log thing. I saw her swim through it before but usually she’s out in the open. Check this out. This is how I made the pot; I followed the girl on this video. Easy! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nabokovfan87 Posted July 8, 2022 Share Posted July 8, 2022 See if you can direct her there and feed her. 🙂 Maybe she'll learn she's safe there! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chick-In-Of-TheSea Posted July 8, 2022 Author Share Posted July 8, 2022 (edited) Maybe I can stick the turkey baster tip into the side of the log, and she can swim in the front. I think the tetras are too dumb to figure that out, and they don’t go in caves. She doesn’t shy away from the baster or aquascaping tools. Edited July 8, 2022 by Chick-In-Of-TheSea Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nabokovfan87 Posted July 8, 2022 Share Posted July 8, 2022 On 7/7/2022 at 5:30 PM, Chick-In-Of-TheSea said: Maybe I can stick the turkey baster tip into the side of the log, and she can swim in the front. I think the tetras are too dumb to figure that out, and they don’t go in caves. The spot with the wood / pot, you can direct her to the pot and then put the food in the corner. Then she'll know! Lol. just make sure you tell her it's your little secret and not to let the tetra bullies know. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nabokovfan87 Posted July 8, 2022 Share Posted July 8, 2022 I will credit @Bev Cwith the idea. Get a pepper grinder too! It'll crush the pellets for you and hopefully work well for the situation. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chick-In-Of-TheSea Posted July 8, 2022 Author Share Posted July 8, 2022 That’s clever @Bev C! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chick-In-Of-TheSea Posted July 9, 2022 Author Share Posted July 9, 2022 Happy after live brine shrimp! @nabokovfan87 @xXInkedPhoenixX 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nabokovfan87 Posted July 9, 2022 Share Posted July 9, 2022 Looks very active. "I'ma find more!" 😂 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chick-In-Of-TheSea Posted July 14, 2022 Author Share Posted July 14, 2022 (edited) Look at this beauty @nabokovfan87 @Gwallace what do you feed your Bolivian ram to get such wonderful color? Edited July 14, 2022 by Chick-In-Of-TheSea Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gwallace Posted July 14, 2022 Share Posted July 14, 2022 On 7/14/2022 at 9:22 AM, Chick-In-Of-TheSea said: Look at this beauty @Gwallace what do you feed your Bolivian ram to get such wonderful color? Your gonna laugh! I typically keep big Cichlids. The big boys generally get whole Krill and Massivore. When I set up the desk tank with the Bolivian I decided to just feed him the same thing. So he gets small crumbles of whole Krill and pieces of a Massivore pellet. He eats a Massivore pellet over the course of 2 days and seems to love them. Thank you noticing the little guy. He has quite the attitude for a little fella. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chick-In-Of-TheSea Posted July 14, 2022 Author Share Posted July 14, 2022 On 7/14/2022 at 10:36 AM, Gwallace said: Thank you noticing the little guy. He has quite the attitude for a little fella. Earlier in this thread we were discussing the cute personality that the Bolivian ram has. We love them! 😍 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gwallace Posted July 14, 2022 Share Posted July 14, 2022 On 7/14/2022 at 9:38 AM, Chick-In-Of-TheSea said: Earlier in this thread we were discussing the cute personality that the Bolivian ram has. We love them! 😍 I definitely like mine. When he get's a little bigger i'm going to give him a bigger tank and a girfriend. I have an 40 breeder that will be perfect for them. Hered a better pic... 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nabokovfan87 Posted July 14, 2022 Share Posted July 14, 2022 Such a beautiful ram! Nice tank too, awesome little scape for him that reminds me of my old tank. On 7/14/2022 at 7:36 AM, Gwallace said: Your gonna laugh! I typically keep big Cichlids. The big boys generally get whole Krill and Massivore. When I set up the desk tank with the Bolivian I decided to just feed him the same thing. So he gets small crumbles of whole Krill and pieces of a Massivore pellet. He eats a Massivore pellet over the course of 2 days and seems to love them. Thank you noticing the little guy. He has quite the attitude for a little fella. Well now we're just going to have to request a video 😂 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chick-In-Of-TheSea Posted July 15, 2022 Author Share Posted July 15, 2022 (edited) Color poppin’ on the ram today after I target fed her the crushed sinking pellets. She liked searching for them. When she spotted one her fin would stand up and she would do a little charge at it. The size was perfect for her to swallow, and some she chewed up. After she ate the gold on her belly became really vibrant. She ate some frozen brine shrimp too. Edited July 15, 2022 by Chick-In-Of-TheSea 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nabokovfan87 Posted July 16, 2022 Share Posted July 16, 2022 That's great! You can see the blues and reds starting to color in really well. The yellow is an awesome sign. Very exciting update and I'm thankful she's enjoying the easier time eating. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chick-In-Of-TheSea Posted July 17, 2022 Author Share Posted July 17, 2022 She found a little spot to defend by a swim through pot. But the tetras were relentless, returning again and again to take her food. I fed them multiple times at the surface to keep them away but it didn’t work. She spent like 30 minutes chasing everybody out of her spot. Her charges are getting faster and more aggressive. She is losing her patience. She’s going to go out to the 10 gal once I can get the snails moved out. Right now they are producing quite the bioload and I’m already water changing twice a day. Aquarium club auction occurs in 3 weeks, and I plan to take the snails to that for sale. I wonder if she’d do ok with a few threadfins? I really would like a few for the 10 gal. They are very interesting fish. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chick-In-Of-TheSea Posted July 19, 2022 Author Share Posted July 19, 2022 (edited) @nabokovfan87 I think I found a trick to train her to eat at the cave. Tonight is the first time I’ve tried it but it seemed to work very well. I fed the tetras some flakes. A few flakes fell and the ram, who now comes up to midlevel, ate them. She continued to look for flakes but after I fed those, I put sinking food at her cave with the turkey baster, and she didn’t notice it. So I took a flashlight and shined it into the side of the tank to illuminate the cave entrance. Bolivian rams are curious fish. She went over to see what the light was all about, and then she found the sinking food that was there. The tetras are too dumb to care about the light, and continued to look for flakes. Edited July 19, 2022 by Chick-In-Of-TheSea 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nabokovfan87 Posted July 19, 2022 Share Posted July 19, 2022 On 7/18/2022 at 5:20 PM, Chick-In-Of-TheSea said: She continued to look for flakes but after I fed those, I put sinking food at her cave with the turkey baster, and she didn’t notice it. So I took a flashlight and shined it into the side of the tank to illuminate the cave entrance. Bolivian rams are curious fish. She went over to see what the light was all about, and then she found the sinking food that was there. That's awesome. Nice little trick! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chick-In-Of-TheSea Posted July 19, 2022 Author Share Posted July 19, 2022 I was able to replicate the process and got the same result with the flashlight. But she went to that area anyway. I think she remembered from yesterday what to do. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chick-In-Of-TheSea Posted July 20, 2022 Author Share Posted July 20, 2022 @nabokovfan87 my snail picture got photobombed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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