breeding pair of rams (german blue or bolivian) in a 10 gallon?

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Prometheus

Prometheus

Candiru
MFK Member
Jun 9, 2008
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im about to have my community fish moved to a 20 long and will leave me with a 10 gallon to play with. im figuring out what my options are. can i keep a breeding pair of either german blue rams or bolivian rams (sorry i dont know the latin names, fill me in on that please) in it?

and if thats feasible, can someone tell me about how to set up the tank? iv been trying to find info everywhere on it but i keep coming up with contradicting stories. and i can save you some time, if blue rams are as sensitive as iv heard - if im gona need an RO filter or other excessive equipment- and bolivians are the opposite of that being quite easy to keep (rather hardy), then just tell me about bolivians. im willing to buy standard equipment but nothing to terribly expensive since, while ill take this very seriously, i dont want to break the bank trying to do so.

if there are any other cichlids that can breed in a 10 gallon please atleast mention them too so i can research them as well. :)
 
Apistogramas are the way to go in small tanks. If you're going to do rams set it up with sand, some leaf litter (indian almond leaves) and a coconut shell or two for them to hide/breed in. The leaves will lower your pH and then maybe you won't need to use RO water. Rams do good in mid 6 but anything between 6-7 should be good enough to breed them in. You might even want to add a hardy plant or two. Just get a decent light, and the soft water should keep your plant healthy.
 
yep everything camp said. some people will tell you thats too small others won't. thats the way the internet goes. appisto's are perfect for a small pretty cichlid thats easy to breed if you want to try something new you could also do lake tangynikan shell dwellers
 
Bolivian rams would get too large for a 10 ... upwards of 4+ inches.

A pair of colombian/german blue rams could work, but you'll need lots of sight breaks and be very careful of the water conditions. These are very nitrate sensitive fish (the colombian rams).

Bolivian = Microgeophagus altispinosus
Colombian aka German blue = Microgeophagus ramirezi
 
GBRs, ok so tank set up could be: sand, 3 pieces of bogwood with java moss, some flat rocks (would slate from a lfs work?), HOB filter with sponge over intake, duckweed, maybe some other plants like moneywort and val spirals, and a heater to keep it at... what? 82F? glass lid and lighting. does this sound like it would work?

i would love to get some indian almond leaf but i cant find it anywhere. iv looked all over for my bettas and the closest thing i found was an extract solution. thats why i said "3 pieces of bogwood", hopefully all that tannis will be enough. do you think it will?

appistos, i just looked them up. there seems to be a number of different types of them. will any species do or should i look for certain ones if i go that route. though i should mention right now i am more interested in GBRs :) already yall have helped me so much, thank you.
 
If doing the rams, you'd want the heat at 84-86 or so ... so be carefull picking plants to match. For apistos, in a ten I'd pic a smaller one like borelli ...
 
what do you mean with the plants? are some plants not able to live at such higher temperatures? what plants would be best? and did i get everything else right with that setup?
 
Everything sounds good to me prometheus, just look up all the apistos on cichlidae or whichever site you prefer and find what you like. I personally prefer rams I just don't feel like playing with my pH which is 8-8.2. For the leaves go with ebay. You can get a ton of them for dirt cheap. http://shop.ebay.com/?_from=R40&_tr...ndian+almond+leaves&_sacat=See-All-Categories

I forgot about driftwood, but that will clearly help the pH too. Just be sure it's nice and clean before you put it in the tank.
 
Wow! So much good information in this thread!

I agree that the GBRs would be a good choice. Sometimes you can get them from a source that has tank bred them for many generations, and they are much hardier than they generally used to be.

Cardinals and Rummy Noses make good tankmates as they can handle the high temps well.

I think the secret with the water parameters is to encourage softening (driftwood, peat in the filter, etc.) and just keep your water changes in the 10% range max (just a little more frequent with small changes than infrequent big changes). That way you can use tap water unless yours is really hard and alkaline.
 
ok, lastly i have a few question about basic ram care so i can properly take care of my little beauties :)

1. what to feed and how often?
2. what to feed fry and how often?
2a. iv read they should be feed brine shrimp, should i have a brine shimp breeding tank?
3. should i have a second tank ready to move the fry into? at what age should i move them?
4. inbreeding, is it bad to keep the fry and turn around and breed them in a different tank?
5. pH, could i not just use a pH solution from a lfs? is that bad?
 
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