German Blue Rams

[fjf888]

I purchased about a week ago a great pair incredibly healthy Florida raised pair of German blue rams (got suckered in could not pass up). They are currently in my 72G planted tank with CO2 and regular dosing. Has anyone here kept these in a planted tank? Any advice about their tolerance to CO2. It appeared to me that this fish is less tolerant than my angels and diamond tetras. They seemed to gasp a bit the next day (this could just be because they had not been exposed to CO2 before), so I added a little more ripple to the surface and turned down the CO2 very slightly. This definitely helped, I am slowly trying to crank up the CO2 again as I have had no algae to speak of in the past 3.5 weeks since setting up this tank, and everything seems to be progressing well. At the same time. I don't want to kill my fish.

Thanks in advance

 

[fjf888]

Anybody? No one has kept GBRs in a planted tank?

 

[shoggoth43]

I have a couple in mine. They definitely breathe faster than the discus and more so than the angels.

Overall they seem more likely to succumb to other issues given my past experience with them but are just so personable. I've heard Bolivian Rams are much hardier, but not nearly so pretty.

-
S

 

[Htomassini]

In my experience they are more o2 sensitive. I bought seven and I had them in a 76f nano planted with co2 and high light. 7-8ppm o2. Then I moved them to my discus tank 90g 84f 6ppm o2 and one female kept at the top all the time. With 2 others sometimes hanging at the top. One night after feeding we forgot to turn back on the the filters and airstone lost: 3 rams 3 roselike sharks 3 bosemani rainbows and several cardinals rummies. The two pairs of rams that did survive are doing quite well and must be more resilient to low co2.

Check your o2 levels. I moved the to new tank and they are spawning and very happy even though it's at 84 with lots of co2 but the o2 is between 8-9 ppm.

They definitely need the higher o2

 

[trd1]

I had about 6 GBRs in my planted 100g non co2 tank. They are very beautiful fish. However after about 4-6 months they all progressively died. I have 2 Bolivian Rams, which seem very healthy & are very colorful with the reds & oranges. From my experience, they seem to be a lot hardier than the GBRs.

 

[fjf888]

Thanks everyone.

One of the 3 I had died, but the other two M/F seem to be doing just fine. I have Wet/Dry which I have to concern myself with not driving off too much CO2, that should help with the O2, but I have never actually measured O2 in the water. I was always under the impression that like CO2 its difficult to measure accurately. I know Rams like heat, so I am not surprised they did better in the 84f water. I keep the temp at 82.

 

[trd1]

I have the bolivians in a community running 26-27`C, they have been thriving so far.