# Bovilian Ram Set Up.



## lee2009 (Apr 5, 2009)

I'm running a 10 Gallon tank with 5 Bovilian Rams in it. The tank has a number of "live" plants in it, with a fine gravel as subtrate, I also have 4 terrocotta pots in there which they seem to make very good use of. (I'm also planning to get more plants in there as soon as I can get a lift to the LFS)

After reading even more about rams, I'm starting to wonder if the gravel is the wrong choice my little crew?

I've also noticed that they are at times a little quarrelsome with one and other, especially when they get fed.. I'm asuming that this is normal behavior as they are Cichlids after all, but I will happily stand corrected.

Due to some confusion and mistakes on the LFS behalf, they still owe me two more Bovilian Rams, however my thoughts are that I'm pushing it with 5 Rams in the 10 G tank and perhaps I ought not to take the another 2 that I'm owed and stick to 5.


----------



## Hubbynz (May 10, 2008)

Sorry to say but you are pushing it with one or two rams in a 10 gallon let alone five. A pair or trio of Bovilian will be comfortable in a 20 gallon. Five let alone seven Bovilian's is far to high a stocking level for such a tank and will most likely result in their deaths due to high ammonia levels.

You need a much larger tank.


----------



## lee2009 (Apr 5, 2009)

Hubbynz said:


> Sorry to say but you are pushing it with one or two rams in a 10 gallon let alone five. A pair or trio of Bovilian will be comfortable in a 20 gallon. Five let alone seven Bovilian's is far to high a stocking level for such a tank and will most likely result in their deaths due to high ammonia levels.
> 
> 16 Gallon/60 litre
> 4 Blue Ram
> ...


I suspected that it may be a a little bit small, due to the quarreling that is going on in the tank, therefor upgrade to a 20 Gallon tank is not an issue at all, infact I have a 30 Gallon cycling downstairs that I planned to do something else in, but if absolutley nessacary I could go with the rams in there.

I have to ask out of curiosity how long you have had that 16 Gallon tank of yours running and how succesfull you have been with it, as IMHO it's not much more heavily stocked than my 10 Gallon tank if you consider that you have 12 Neons, Panda 4 Cory's and 4 Blue Rams (which I believe are more fussy about thier water perimiters than bovilian rams.)


----------



## DeadFishFloating (Oct 9, 2007)

G'day *lee2009*,

I was hopping Ed, Blair and Ruurd would have posted today, but I understand they are all rather busy with thier own projects, fishy and non fishy. Those three guys are defo the Bolivian ram guys to talk to here.

I do agree with *Hubbynz* that a 10 gallon is way to small for a group of 5 adult bolivian rams. I wouldn't even consider keeping just a pair of Bolivian rams in a 10 gallon tank.

You will definately need to upgrade, but a 20 gallon is not a significant enough upgrade for a group of 5 Bolivian rams. Consider a 30"x15"x15" 29 gallon tank for a group of 5 Bolivian rams and a standard 55 gallon tank for a group of 7 Bolivian rams.

As for your initial question in regards to substrate, they are mini eartheaters, so a sand substrate is best for them.


----------



## DeadFishFloating (Oct 9, 2007)

lee2009 said:


> Hubbynz said:
> 
> 
> > Sorry to say but you are pushing it with one or two rams in a 10 gallon let alone five. A pair or trio of Bovilian will be comfortable in a 20 gallon. Five let alone seven Bovilian's is far to high a stocking level for such a tank and will most likely result in their deaths due to high ammonia levels.
> ...


Oh and Blue rams are significantly smaller than Bolivian rams, and *Hubbynz* only has 3 Bolivian rams, (and 1 keyhole) in his 20 gallon tank.


----------



## lee2009 (Apr 5, 2009)

DeadFishFloating said:


> Oh and Blue rams are significantly smaller than Bolivian rams, and *Hubbynz* only has 3 Bolivian rams, (and 1 keyhole) in his 20 gallon tank.


Ok.. my mistake, I stand corrected, please don't get mad at me, I'm not being obnoxious or anything, I just felt I needed to ask the question.

I've had these Rams now for about 4 days now, and the more attention that I pay to these little guys, the more addicted I'm becoming to them and the more I feel that Dwarf Cichlids are the right thing for me.

Downstairs I have a a fluval 125 (30 gallon tank cycling with sand as substrate. originally I was going to make it a Tanganyika set-up for sand dwellers, however after reading what has been said in this post, it would seem that this fluval 125 (30 Gallon) tank would be the perfect place for those 5 Bolivian Rams.


----------



## Hubbynz (May 10, 2008)

lee2009 said:


> Hubbynz said:
> 
> 
> > Sorry to say but you are pushing it with one or two rams in a 10 gallon let alone five. A pair or trio of Bovilian will be comfortable in a 20 gallon. Five let alone seven Bovilian's is far to high a stocking level for such a tank and will most likely result in their deaths due to high ammonia levels.
> ...


Hi Lee

Yes my tank on appearance does look a little over stocked however, the blue rams are barely 2cm at the moment with one male and three females (I was planning only to have 3 blue rams in there but never got round to removing one female). The tank is also extremely heavily planted and that factor combined with weekly water changes of around 1/3 has kept the tank in great condition. Also the neons have whittled there way down to around 9. The plants tank care of alot of the waste thus taking oressure off the tank while the rest of the fish are mainly clean up crew.


----------



## Hubbynz (May 10, 2008)

Oh and my tank has been set up for nearly a year without any major issues.


----------



## lee2009 (Apr 5, 2009)

Hubbynz said:


> Oh and my tank has been set up for nearly a year without any major issues.


Heyup Hubbynz, sounds like a great tank to me, and it's fantastic that it is all working out, I was going to add a little cleaning crew of cory's, but I think it has to be said that my Bolivian Rams need to be moved into bigger facilities first before I do that.

Just to check that I am not mistaken, the name the LFS give the Rams that I have are "Royal Rams", but having looked at dozens of photographs of Bolivian Rams, I'm 99% sure that the LFS are using a differnet name for the same fish.

Below is a photograph I took of one of my rams to be sure that I am right in saying that they are Bolivian Rams.










I've was down to the LFS last night to collect the two Bolivian Rams that they owe me, but instead I asked if they'd give me some more plants instead... they agreed so hopefully the extra plants are going to help to break the line of sight and prevent some of the quarreling. (but I can't help think that some of that quarreling is normal within a group of Bolivan Rams.) - having said that it does seem that the 10G tank is still too small.

I was going to move the Rams into the 30 Gallon Fluval tank, but it I just can't help but think that it is such a big tank for just 5 Rams, so instead I'm working on eventually getting the 5 Rams split between two 20 Gallon tanks, which should be more suitable for them than the 10G tank.

Any thoughts, hints and tips would be greatly appreciated.


----------



## Hubbynz (May 10, 2008)

Hey mate you have a Blue Ram there or Mikrogeophagus ramirezi http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ram_cichlid not a Bolivain Ram or Mikrogeophagus altispinosus http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mikrogeophagus_altispinosa.

Blue Rams are much smaller than Bolivains and you could possibly get away with 5 in a 20 gallon along with clean up crew etc.

Do as much research on them as you can on the net they are very stunning and spunky fish. :thumb:


----------



## Hubbynz (May 10, 2008)

Here is an idea of my tank for your after the ambulia canopy had a massive trim......as you can seen the Blue Rams are still very small


----------



## lee2009 (Apr 5, 2009)

Hubbynz said:


> Hey mate you have a Blue Ram there or Mikrogeophagus ramirezi http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ram_cichlid not a Bolivain Ram or Mikrogeophagus altispinosus http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mikrogeophagus_altispinosa.
> 
> Do as much research on them as you can on the net they are very stunning and spunky fish. :thumb:


I think I have both :-? and I think I have 2 Blue Rams and 3 Bolivian Rams - they were all labled as the same in the LFS :x


----------



## Hubbynz (May 10, 2008)

Hi Lee looks like you are right the top one is a Bolivain and the bottom one is a blue ram.

:-(


----------

