Tazmiche

I have seen them in my monthly mag 'PKF' but have never seen them in the flesh until today. Saw Golden Rams and fell in love with them.

Any info on them would be great, tank mates? water temp/conditions? I have a tank waiting to be set up and i was thinking of trying marine but not sure now i have seen these beauties!

Barbrella

These beautiful fish are not the easiest to keep. You need softer water and high temps (78 - 82) for them. Water quality should be stable and excellent, with no ammonia or other contaminants.

Dark substrate and lots of plants, caves, hidey-holes are necessary as this is a shy fish who needs that security.

Rams are rather peaceful for cichlids and you can keep them with other peaceful fish like cherry barbs and neon or other tetras.

If conditions are right for them, they'll breed quite readily in a tank. Their colours in breeding condition are awesome!

Tazmiche

Thanks for that info, when you say soft water what exactly are we looking at? As far as i am knowledgeable we have Hard water around this part of the UK which will explain why i don't see them often. I don't know enough about water in that way. Would there be a way around hard water? i would NOT try to keep them in bad conditions. Our Tap water has a pH of around 7:8 - 8:0, lower in the tanks.

Barbrella

I think the failure of most people (including me ) to keep rams healthy is because of hard water like yours.

Rams like rather soft, and even acidic, water to mimic the conditions in the wild.

Back in the day, we used peat in the filters and Black Water Extract to soften water. Maybe someone here has a better way?

Tazmiche

i think i'll give rams a miss!!

Barbrella

If you want a small and beautiful cichlid, you might want to check out Apistogrammas!

Many of them are rainbow coloured, and are more tolerant of tank conditions.

Here's a good one to start with - Borelli.

http://folk.ntnu.no/foksen/Apistogramma/ABorelli.htm

Tazmiche

Thats a nice looking fish, thanks for that