snakestorm526

I was thinking of stocking my 100 gallon with balloon, electric blue, german blue, and german gold rams. How many would I be able to get? And what kind of ratio would I need to work with? If I only kept rams, would there be a lot of aggression? I've never had more than 3 rams at a time.

Tony G.

hmm i would think you would only be able to keep a pair of each, and make sure you have LOTs and LOTS of hiding spots (caves and plants etc.) to break their sight and lower the agression problems between them

mathas

Since rams spend most of their time on the bottom of the tank, you're going to be constrained more by footprint (length x width) than by overall volume.

My best guess without knowing the dimensions of the tank in question is that two trios(M/F/F) would probably be about it. Providing plenty of territory dividers and hiding spaces might allow you to stretch that a little, but not by too much.

Fish Addict

Do you have your tank already? If so, what's the footprint like? I'd imagine if there was a lot of space you could keep a fair amount.

Fish Addict

Oh, looks like mathas posted at the same time, that's pretty much what I was thinking.

snakestorm526

The footprint of my tank is 18 1/2" x 48 1/2"... I didn't realize that rams were mainly bottom dwellers.... The rams I had before would swim at all levels of my tank

alicem

I'd get 6 bolivian rams and not mix in the others. From what I've read, they are the most tollerant of each other.
I believe they do swim all over the tank, at least my GBRs do.
You could still get some praecox rainbows (or something else) if you want/need more fish of a different shape.
Give them a bunch of plants, driftwood and low rock structures to explore and claim.
alicem

MissMTS

I would recommend bolivians as well. They are wonderful to observe in groups. If you got pairs of a bunch of different variants of Rams, there would be no guarantee that they would pair with their same color variant. Rainbows would be great schooling fish, so would cardinal or rummynose tetras. You could do a pair or two of angels in that tanks as well

Amanda

Wow....good luck with the Rams!

snakestorm526

I was thinking about maybe getting a couple of pairs or trios of rams and a large school of either neon or cardinal tetras. And of course a clean up crew. Bolivians were the one type that I was leaning away from.

MissMTS

Just a question,

If you are in Southern California, your water probably has a high pH like mine does. Are you planning on using RO water for the tank? If not, rams, besides bolivians (which tolerate a higher pH), will not thive in your water. German blue rams and the other varieties you named prefer a pH of 6.5.

snakestorm526

My pH usually stays around 7.0... I've haven't had a problem keeping GBRs or Balloon rams... What can I do to lower the pH of my water?

Neji

Snakestorm.

It's best to get a bunch of plants such as Anacharis, Amazon Swords, Crypts, Corkscrew Vals, and some more Amazon Swords I have kept RAMS before. They do lip lock because they are fighting, but that is only during feeding time. Other than that my rams don't do anything to each other. Rams are completely friendly so I was able to put in really nice gentle docile fishes such as Neon Tetras, and Cardinals Tetras Also other varieties of fishes too a long time ago.

But over time, my rams got old and then they passed away into Fish Heaven