Aggressive Ram Cichlid

I recently purchased a pair of electric blue rams, and I set them up in a tank with the hopes that they would spawn. The problem is that the female ram is chasing the male ram around the tank constantly. The female ram happens to be a bit bigger than the male, and the male has to hide behind a rock to escape. Before the aggression started though, I decided to move a juvenile apistogramma into the tank with the rams temporarily. I watched the tank a lot and none of the rams chased the appisto at all. I am quite puzzled as to why the apistogramma is not being harmed but the male ram is. I don't have room in any of my other two tanks for the male ram so what should I do?

 

How big is the tank?

 

5 gallon

 

This tank is too small for a pair of rams. Doubly so if you out an apisto in there. The female is probably chasing the male because she is freaking out about 'her territory' being way too small.
Some people can put a breeding pair (that's a pair that is already getting along and like each other) into a well planted 10 but the usual minimum for a pair of rams is a 20 long. I'd bump that up to a 30 if you wanted to keep an apisto in there as well.

 

Yeah, way too small. I keep breeding pairs in 10 gallons. No other fish. My favorite size for a pair is a 20L. You also could have two males or two females, those are pretty tough to accurately sex.

 

I think in addition to the tank being too small, that the female is not liking sharing space with an immature male.
If she is bigger than him....that means she is much farther along since adult males are larger than adult females.
Also, are you sure they are male and female?

 

I don't have any other tanks to move the fish to, and yes I am 90% sure it is a male and female. Thanks for all the advice so far

 

Are you going to rehome the Male before he gets murdered?

 

Some aggression is species specific. I had Apistogramma cacatoides and angelfish, I had 2 die less than 24 hours. I got them replaced a week later and the male Apistogramma chased the new ones but never bothered the angels or corydoras.