Bolivian and German rams

[mr.bizzle]

hello everybody this is my first post to MFK.
I have a 75g tank with an aquaterra 3d amazon background with 5 bolivian rams, 4 balloon rams and 5 german rams. has any else found the german rams to be rather difficult to take care. my baln and bolivians are doing fine but i only have 1 german ram left. ph level is about 7.0-7.2. also have plenty of driftwood and hiding places for them. i also have some shrimp and 4 melini corycats and they seem to be doing fine as well. any tips or recommendations would be greatly appreciated.

 

[mr.bizzle]

1 more thing. Why cant you use carbon along with peat or the blackwater formulas?
thanks

 

[Snowflake311]

1 more thing. Why cant you use carbon along with peat or the blackwater formulas?
thanks

Carbon takes chemicals out of the water. You don't need Carbon at all.

YES it is a fact that GBR can be hard to care for they like soft water and around 80F Any cooler and they are not happy. Yet tank raised GBR should no be too picky about Ph. They are prone the illness and stress easy. Bolivian rams are hardy awesome little guys I love them and find them I have 2 males in differant tanks. I had Balloon rams and found them to be bossy they could be picking on the GBR. watch for any fights rams can be mean to eachother. My 1 balloon ram killed my other balloon ram.

 

[bbortko]

My germans have been like neons. If they last a week they'll last a year but that's about it

 

[Aquanero]

Alot of the German Rams are Asian breed and injected with harmons they look great for a while and then crash. Bolivians are great looking get a little biger and are as hardy as tanks in most cases. Find a breeder of German rams if you want good fish. They will love soft water and about 82F are happy as clams. As stated carbon will take the black out of black water it will not effect the hardness but the look will be gone. I only use carbon to remove meds other wise with weekly water changes and good maint it is totaly unnessisary.

 

[mr.bizzle]

thanks for the help guys. i think i'll steer clear of the german blue rams from now on. what about apistogrammas. are theses rather difficult too?