My twenty gallon ram cichlid tank

This tank has been planed for about a year, and has been up and running for about a month. It was conceived of for the sole purpose of keeping ram cichlids (Mikrogeophagus ramirezi), healthy, thriving, and possibly breeding.

It has a large amount of plants, to keep the nitrogen, nitrate, and nitrite levels down, and also to provide security to the fish. I tried to select plants from the geographic area from which M. ramirezI came, but didn't stick too closely to that rule. I have water hyacinth, hornwort, water lettuce, and frogbit for floating plants. Rooted, I have a sword plant, dwarf hairgrass, Sagittaria subulata, ludwigia, bacopa, cabomba and a little bit of star grass. As the rooted plants get settled in, I will take out some of the large floating plants.

In addition to one pair of rams, I have one dwarf gourami, a school of white mountain minnows, and of course pond snails.

I do water changes with rainwater, and a little bit of tap water to include the necessary minerals. Substrate is silica sand under which there is a thin layer of pea gravel taken from an established tank. There are three pieces of drift wood, and a large quartz stone.

Conditions:
Temperature: 82-84 degrees Fahrenheit, about 27 degrees Celsius
pH: 6.5
Hardness is ~ 10

 

looks awesome! Are they bolivian rams or GBRs?

 

GBRs. I've only had them three days, but they decided to spawn yesterday afternoon! @@ You can see them in this picture:

 

super cool! My GBRs diddny survive the ick outbreak but now I have bolivian rams and they are awesome!

 

Ugg, yeah, that is the downside to GBRs, they are more delicate. I just love the GBRs, though, so the challenge is worth it. Good luck with the Bolivians, how long have you had them?

 

about 5 months now they are 2 males and they loooove to get in "arguments" no one gets hurt but they bicker. here is a picture of one.

 

Lol, what a cute little picture!

 

lol yea they chase eachother in circles around the ester island head all the time. Good fun. They are in a 56 gallon tank with

1 marble angel
10 cardinal tetras
1 sailfin leopard pleco
5 cherry barbs
5 cory cats (3 julI coys, a panda, and an albino)

 

Very neat photos, I am intrigued by these guys. Good luck with them!

Val:;sman

 

Thanks voiceless-kat. I've been fascinated with these guys for years, and have been reading all that I can find about them for the same amount of time

Wolfgang, I wish I had a 50 gallon to give these guys! Maybe next year, eh? Right now it's only a 20 gallon, but I'm happy with it.

 

MTs WILL! kick in. I started almost a year ago and I have aquired 9 tanks

2- 1 gallon
2- 2.5 gallon
3- 10 gallon
1- 24 gallon Reef tank
1- 56 gallon

 

Hehe, oh I know. I've been keeping fish since I was 8....but right now I'm in college which is quite effective in keeping my tank numbers down.

 

Me too I guess that's the upside of community collage

 

Lovely Rams, both of you. One of these days. My only problem in keeping them, I can tell is being able to keep the temperature up over a consistent time. More power to you.

 

I jsut use a visitherm stealth heater it keeps the temp at 80 constantly.

 

That is one very beautiful GBR!

about 5 months now they are 2 males and they loooove to get in "arguments" no one gets hurt but they bicker. here is a picture of one.

 

actuallly that is a bolivian ram

 

lol.. true, duh - I should know that. There's a 'slight' difference there. maybe I should go to bed one of these days.

actuallly that is a bolivian ram