Dean

I have noticed my two GBR's (one more then the other) half heartily chase after some Cardinals but didn't put much effort in to it. A few days later I saw both of them eating away at the carcass of one of the Cardinals. Do you think that they killed it or are just feasting on one that died of natural causes and not from stress or a vicious attack? Then yesterday after feeding, one of the GBR's was getting in to it with my powder blue Gouramis. It was Ramming the side of the Gouramis. Was that just a brief battle for food scraps or more aggression from the GBR that I should be worried about? Are these incidences just coincidence or are these guys’ just aggressive fish. The evidence is beginning to mount for the latter.

platy ben

Could you get some pics of your rams and are they guarding a certain area?
They could be defending a possible breeding territory.

Dean

the fight with the Gouramis was by a cave but both GBR's are males so I don't know if that makes a difference. The cave is used by all of the fish though and I have not noticed a turf war between two different species before.

Dean

Anyone else have any imput?

SammyJ

It sounds like your rams are normal rams, or mine are also odd. From my experience Rams hate cardinal tetras. My 5 cardinals lasted about a day. I put them in and left for the night, the next day when I got home 5 dead cardinals. My rams will also set up "camps" wherever the sinker pellets land. They don't do any real harm to the armored cory cats that try to sneak in for a bit but those rams will guard that food spot until its gone.

If you have a female ram and she is in a breeding mood, I have heard they can get quite nasty. Not sure but due to just hearing that I bought 2 males of different ram species.

wot_fan

I have a pair of GBRs in my community tank. The male GBR is the most dominate fish in the tank and exhibits behavior like you describe. He has never hurt or killed any of neons or my Powder Blue Gouramis. He did kill another male shortly after spawning though. In short, I think you are fine. If you decide to add a female GBR, I would lose one of the males though.

Dean

One more Cardninal is MIA. Down to 7. Shoot darn it! Both GBR's are males. would adding some females help settle them down or cause more issues?

wot_fan

Mine have never shown any interest in my neons except when they get in the way at feeding time . It's strange that they go after cardinals. Are they getting enough food?

If you put a couple of females in the tank it is possible that there attention will be redirected to the females. Your 55 gallon is big enough to handle 2 pairs. It is a pretty fair bet that at least one pair will spawn. They get pretty aggressive at that time. Just wanted to give you a heads up. Please keep us updated. Good luck.

Dean

Thanks a lot for all the input

Steve420

I agree with wot_fan. I keep Neons and GBRs together. My GBRs never bother with my Neons.
The only time I've seen aggression out of my GBRs was when they were spawning and defending their territory. But even then, they seemed more concerned about my corys than my neons.

I would think adding a couple of females to this mix would calm them down some. Personally, I'd stick with a 1m to 1f ratio...