bb1252

Everytime I go to walmart I see this cute little blue ram in the tank. Despite my better judgement, I walked out with my first ever walmart fish. (please refrain from scolding me) It is in a quarantine tank for now. Anyways her colors are very dull except for a little pink on the belly. With good care and diet should her colors brighten up, or is it unlikely considering the quality of fish from walmart?

Butterfly

Her colors will brighten up some after she acclimates to new surroundings more. She also needs plenty of hiding/sleeping place to feel comfortable. My male is always brilliant, my female only gets exceptionally bright when getting ready to spawn.
Carol

dking271

I agree her colors will get brighter, once the stress subsides. I have had both shy and bold Rams, and the colors were always brighter on the bold ones. My males seem to always be brightly colored, and my one breeding female is also gorgeous. I have had other fish that were nervous wrecks, and would only get color when placed in a tank loaded with dither fish. I added another male to the house yesterday, and his colors are just starting to pop today. Sometimes it just takes a little time. Best of luck, and who cares if your Ram came from Walmart. IMO, if it can survive the tanks at Walmart, then it is probably pretty hardy stock.

DK

freshwaterguy

i have had my first GBRs for over a month now, they were very skittish whenever I went near tank at first but now are much happier after I introduced 10 cardinal tetra as dither fish. They spend nearly all of there time now out in open water and 3 of the 4 show some amazing color! I just love my GBRs.

One thing to note is weekly W/C are recommended they will not do well with nitrates of 20>, lots of hiding places as pointed out are required to make them feel secure.

What main size tank do you have?and are you considering getting more GBRs as with a male and females you will really see there great behaviour also and more likelihood for colorful displays.

If introducing GBRs to a community set up beware that they may refuse to compete for flakes, I started mine off on brine shrimp and now feed flakes also.

See http://www.aquaticcommunity.com/cich...manblueram.php for sexing images and more info on these little guys - hope this helps.

Good luck