jwcarlson Posted January 27 Share Posted January 27 Test some regular tap water, dechlorinate it and test again, see if ammonia shows up. It's possible that your tap water might have some in it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BIRD0887 Posted January 27 Author Share Posted January 27 @jwcarlson I actually think now its the strips themselves bcuz the pads alrdy green before i even dip it in water...what test kits do u use? I thought about either the api master test kit or aquarium coop test strips? What would u recommend, and also what dechlorinator do u use? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony s Posted January 27 Share Posted January 27 use api master test kit, from either box store or lfs. if you were syphoning out worm chunks. it may actually still be that high 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jwcarlson Posted January 27 Share Posted January 27 I use Prime dechlorinator and ACO test strips. I have an API kit but it takes so long to test I never use it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony s Posted January 27 Share Posted January 27 yeah, I have those strips. good on basic parameters. I don't trust them on kh or gh. sera drop test seem to be the best Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BIRD0887 Posted January 28 Author Share Posted January 28 @jwcarlson Im hoping i finally got the rams tank good, they r actually swimming around and eating this morning :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BIRD0887 Posted January 29 Author Share Posted January 29 @jwcarlson So i finally think i have their tank in good shape, they had been pretty much laying on the bottom but now the one has kinda relagated the other to this skull, and they r constantly pecking at each other...is this a good sign they r both males? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anewbie Posted January 29 Share Posted January 29 3 ammonia and the fishes would be dead in less than an hour. When you do water changes try to keep temp constant; these fishes HATE fluctuation in water temp or chemistry. Also are these blue rams (wc) or german blue rams (man in-bred but more colourful). I have two set of blue rams (wc); and they are fairly flexible on water hardness but they do like it warm (80+ esp when young) and as i noted they absolutely hate sudden changes to water chemistry. Mine are like little kids (6 in the discus tank and 6 in the geo tank). I would not keep them in anything less than a 29 (for water volume); unless you are very experience at keeping their water chemistry stable. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NOLANANO Posted January 29 Share Posted January 29 On 1/29/2024 at 12:50 PM, BIRD0887 said: now the one has kinda relagated the other to this skull, and they r constantly pecking at each other...is this a good sign they r both males? They certainly could both be males but its not definite. If they were opposite sexes and either doesn't find the other to be a suitable mate, that could also lead to bickering. I can't tell for sure based on the pics provided. If you can get a pic of both flaring their dorsal fins or a pic of them colored up then I can give a pretty good educated guess. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BIRD0887 Posted January 30 Author Share Posted January 30 @NOLANANO This was ton when i fed them...i cld rly only get a good pic of the one, this is the one who is in the skull most of the time. the other ram isnt nearly as colorful as this one... @anewbie I believe at petco they were displayed as german blue rams. I have them in a 10 rn, i have bigger tanks coming but ddnt wanna dedicate a big tank to these guys. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony s Posted January 30 Share Posted January 30 Looking at them, they may actually be bolivian rams. Their central spot is not as prominent as normal. But that wouldn’t be a bad thing, they’d be more resilient than gbr’s. Big boxes get the names screwed up all the time. Our’s currently list a mixed tank of rasboras as trigonostigma rasboras. Hopefully it’s just the picture and they do wonderfully for you Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
knee Posted January 30 Share Posted January 30 On 1/29/2024 at 9:44 PM, Tony s said: Looking at them, they may actually be bolivian rams. Their central spot is not as prominent as normal. But that wouldn’t be a bad thing, they’d be more resilient than gbr’s. Big boxes get the names screwed up all the time. Our’s currently list a mixed tank of rasboras as trigonostigma rasboras. Hopefully it’s just the picture and they do wonderfully for you They’re actual GBR. They do look kinda different and they actually resemble the look of the wild caught blue rams I had before. If they are closer to wild caught then that might explain why they were able to handle the ammonia in the tank. I read somewhere before that wild caught rams are hardier. Here are some Bolivian rams for comparison Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony s Posted January 30 Share Posted January 30 Okay. Great! Guessing they’re showing coloration irl that the picture can’t show. Looking closer, I’m seeing the blue back in the middle picture that I wasn’t before. Taking tank pictures can be a such a hit or miss thing. Unless you want to shell out large amounts of money for a high end camera. I’m hoping they hang in there for you. They’re such a beautiful fish. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anewbie Posted January 30 Share Posted January 30 On 1/29/2024 at 11:26 PM, BIRD0887 said: @NOLANANO This was ton when i fed them...i cld rly only get a good pic of the one, this is the one who is in the skull most of the time. the other ram isnt nearly as colorful as this one... @anewbie I believe at petco they were displayed as german blue rams. I have them in a 10 rn, i have bigger tanks coming but ddnt wanna dedicate a big tank to these guys. You should have them with fine substrate; they will try to eat food off the bottom by shuffling the substrate through their gills - naturally they can't do this if the substrate is too large to fit in their mouth or if it will fit but too large to safely pass through the gills it can damage the gills. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NOLANANO Posted January 30 Share Posted January 30 (edited) On 1/29/2024 at 11:44 PM, Tony s said: Looking at them, they may actually be bolivian rams. Their central spot is not as prominent as normal. But that wouldn’t be a bad thing, they’d be more resilient than gbr’s. Big boxes get the names screwed up all the time. Our’s currently list a mixed tank of rasboras as trigonostigma rasboras. Hopefully it’s just the picture and they do wonderfully for you They are definitely GBRs, they are just washed out either due to being in a new environment or maybe the water parameters not being exact. They may also be washed out because they are stressing each other. When I have a group, I usually get 2 males and 3-4 females. I try to get the males to be of equal size so they can stand up to one another. I'm rambling a bit now but what I was going to say is that I always find that each male colors up and if they pair with a female, the paired females color up but any unpaired females remain washed out. This also happens to subdominant males. They remove their colors to try not to draw attention to themselves. On 1/29/2024 at 11:26 PM, BIRD0887 said: @NOLANANO This was ton when i fed them...i cld rly only get a good pic of the one, this is the one who is in the skull most of the time. the other ram isnt nearly as colorful as this one... @anewbie I believe at petco they were displayed as german blue rams. I have them in a 10 rn, i have bigger tanks coming but ddnt wanna dedicate a big tank to these guys. I can't tell for sure from these pics because the dorsals blend in with the back ground. If I had to guess, I would say you have 2 females but I definitely could be wrong. If the pic below, you can see the extended dorsal fin of my Ram, thats a good way to tell a male. Its not fool proof though as some males don't have very extended dorsals and some females do have them. But I'd say that its at 75% true that males have the extended dorsal. Also notice that the black spot is solid. There are no reflective scales in the black spot for males. Females will have reflective scales in the black spot. I have found this method of sexing GBRs to be fool proof. This is why I think you have 2 females. While they are washed out, I think I see reflective scales in their black spots. But its def hard to tell for sure when they aren't colored up. Edited January 30 by NOLANANO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jwcarlson Posted January 30 Share Posted January 30 Hard to tell, but it also looks like the black spot has the blue spangling mixed in which indicates female, yes? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NOLANANO Posted January 30 Share Posted January 30 On 1/30/2024 at 9:33 AM, jwcarlson said: Hard to tell, but it also looks like the black spot has the blue spangling mixed in which indicates female, yes? Thats what I am thinking but like you said, its hard to tell for sure when they are washed out. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BIRD0887 Posted January 31 Author Share Posted January 31 @jwcarlsonWell w all the input, i do believe i got two females so... And i knew they were sand sifters alrdy and i dnt have the right setup. I am going to get a 10 gal setup from wmart and put a sand bottowm in it and transfer these girls. I wish i wld of got a guy an girl initially, but im prly gonna take 1 back n try to get a male. How can i tell which fish is more dominant thgh, the fish who took the skull by the bubble stone or the fish out in the rest of the tank? They both kind of initiate bickering but 1 is way more colored up than the other....And i do c the spangling in i think both of them The fish in the skull is the way more colored up fish,... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jwcarlson Posted January 31 Share Posted January 31 Being more colored up and less hiding would be the more dominant fish, typically. I don't think the other is defending the skull as a spawning location, but probably just using it to hide from the other. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NOLANANO Posted January 31 Share Posted January 31 On 1/31/2024 at 10:42 AM, BIRD0887 said: @jwcarlsonWell w all the input, i do believe i got two females so... And i knew they were sand sifters alrdy and i dnt have the right setup. I am going to get a 10 gal setup from wmart and put a sand bottowm in it and transfer these girls. I wish i wld of got a guy an girl initially, but im prly gonna take 1 back n try to get a male. How can i tell which fish is more dominant thgh, the fish who took the skull by the bubble stone or the fish out in the rest of the tank? They both kind of initiate bickering but 1 is way more colored up than the other....And i do c the spangling in i think both of them The fish in the skull is the way more colored up fish,... Keep whichever you think looks better but the one in the skull is definitely the less dominant one. You may want keep the less dominate one anyway since the tank is on the small side. If you are only going to keep it in a 10G, I highly suggest only keeping a single Ram. You might get lucky and the male you get will pair with your female and all will be fine but I fear that they will look at the tank as too small and feel the need to claim the whole tank as their own. This will lead to fighting and in a 10G, there isn't much space to hide and get away. I'd try to get a 20G if you want a pair. As far as the sand sifting, they do pick at the bottom but I have never really seen them do much more than that. A gravel bottom is perfectly fine for these fish but as you said, sand is more natural. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guppysnail Posted January 31 Share Posted January 31 @NOLANANO I used to think spots were fool proof also. But my recent spawn began spawning before fully colored up. I thought I had mostly females because they all had spots in the black. As you can see in my video both male and female have spots. I was surprised. I think as they grow and get older the “spotless” area of the males becomes larger and the girls get more spots maybe. @BIRD0887 this photo I believe the top is a girl and bottom is boy based on body shape from anal fin to tail as well as anal fin length. Feed these guys well and you will see the girls belly get a pink tinge. Boys get none. @knee theirs are German blue rams and definitely not Bolivians Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
knee Posted January 31 Share Posted January 31 (edited) On 1/31/2024 at 9:19 AM, Guppysnail said: @knee theirs are German blue rams and definitely not Bolivians Yeah I know. That’s literally what I said? 🤷🏻♂️ I posted the photo of my Bolivian rams for comparison in response to the person that said they were Bolivian rams. I’ve kept both and I know the difference. Edited January 31 by knee 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NOLANANO Posted January 31 Share Posted January 31 On 1/31/2024 at 11:19 AM, Guppysnail said: @NOLANANO I used to think spots were fool proof also. But my recent spawn began spawning before fully colored up. I thought I had mostly females because they all had spots in the black. As you can see in my video both male and female have spots. I was surprised. I think as they grow and get older the “spotless” area of the males becomes larger and the girls get more spots maybe. @BIRD0887 this photo I believe the top is a girl and bottom is boy based on body shape from anal fin to tail as well as anal fin length. Bird can correct me if I'm wrong but I think those are pics of the same fish. I think he said that the other fish won't come out of the skull. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BIRD0887 Posted January 31 Author Share Posted January 31 @NOLANANO yes thats the same fish jst diff sides...but that is actually the fish that rarely comes out of the skull...this is a pic during feeding time, the only time i rly c it outside the skull. I will try and get a good shot of the fish that hangs outside the skull all day Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guppysnail Posted January 31 Share Posted January 31 On 1/31/2024 at 1:02 PM, NOLANANO said: Bird can correct me if I'm wrong but I think those are pics of the same fish. I think he said that the other fish won't come out of the skull. If that’s the case don’t take my guess at sex as a good one. The camera angles made it look different to me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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