bb1252

I have had a female blue ram for about 2 weeks now. She is nice and settled into her new home, but ive noticed and interesting behavior. She is always swimming around the bottom of the tank and picking up sand then spitting it back out. Never in the same spot (like making a hole or anything). She is in a tank by herself for now. Is this behavior normal?

mathas

It's perfectly normal. Rams pick up sand a mouthful of sand to find food, roll it around in their mouths, and spit out any non-digestible matter.

In fact, the scientific name for a blue ram is Microgeophagus ramirezi, with the genus name Microgeophagus coming from three Greek words: micro meaning small, geos meaning earth, and phagein meaning eat. In other words, "small earth-eater".

pinkfloydpuffer

Hehe, that sounds really cute

04_si

mine do it all the time too. completely normal

thanks for the greek breakdown mathas! good to know!

Sam Livingston

My bala sharks and dragon goby's also do the sand siphoning for food. Nothing at all wrong with your fish.