GERMAN BLUES!

[DerekFF]

So 2 days ago i bought 6 german blue rams from the LFS i work at and heaven behold theyre laying eggs tonight!! WOOOO!!! Now i just need my discus to follow suit! And its definitly a male and a female, 1 is laying eggs and the other isnt and is very obiously a manly man lol!!! YAYAYA!!

[DerekFF]

Update....my rams are now kicking my discus butts to keep them away from their corner!!! Never thought id see a 1.5inch fish tear up a 6inch fish lol. And apparently I have 2 pairs breeding, i didnt notice the 2nd pair in another corner doing the deed too! My lucky night!

[Kenny's Discus]

Hey Derek,

I love German Blues! Was working with them years back and couldn't get enough of them...they do have quite some characters especially when in breeding modes...they'd take on the discus 20x their size LOL. Glad you're enjoying yours my friend!:)

Kenny

Hope you enjoy Derek!
http://i481.photobucket.com/albums/rr177/kennysdiscus02/Kennys%20Discus%202010/GermanBlues.jpg
http://i481.photobucket.com/albums/rr177/kennysdiscus02/Kennys%20Discus%202010/GermanBlues1.jpg
http://i481.photobucket.com/albums/rr177/kennysdiscus02/Kennys%20Discus%202010/GermanBlues2.jpg
http://i481.photobucket.com/albums/rr177/kennysdiscus02/Kennys%20Discus%202010/GermanBlues4.jpg
http://i481.photobucket.com/albums/rr177/kennysdiscus02/Kennys%20Discus%202010/GermanBlues3.jpg
http://i481.photobucket.com/albums/rr177/kennysdiscus02/Kennys%20Discus%202010/GermanBlues5.jpg
http://i481.photobucket.com/albums/rr177/kennysdiscus02/Kennys%20Discus%202010/GermanBlues7.jpg
http://i481.photobucket.com/albums/rr177/kennysdiscus02/Kennys%20Discus%202010/GermanBlues6.jpg
http://i481.photobucket.com/albums/rr177/kennysdiscus02/Kennys%20Discus%202010/GermanBlues9.jpg
http://i481.photobucket.com/albums/rr177/kennysdiscus02/Kennys%20Discus%202010/GermanBlues10.jpg
http://i481.photobucket.com/albums/rr177/kennysdiscus02/Kennys%20Discus%202010/GermanBlues8.jpg

[DerekFF]

Kenny, those fish are outta control! Were some of those wilds? Some of those fish look like little devils lol. Good to hear from you, your newest shipment is AMAZING! Ill be back to visit you again one day, im buying a house right now so moneys tight, but itll happen. Thanks for the pics!

[April]

congrats on the germans..and kenny...whatever you put your hand to..turns to gold. nice germans..maybe you better setup a tank again..and sell them .

[DerekFF]

I know right? Where did you get that breeder stock from because it borderline amazing.

[Ed13]

congrats on the germans..and kenny...whatever you put your hand to..turns to gold. nice germans..maybe you better setup a tank again..and sell them .
Remember the albino Angels? He had like thousands of them!

[DerekFF]

albino angels!?? KENNY COME BACK!! Pics pics!!!!

[korbi_doc]

:D German Blues, one of my favorite little fishes, next to Kribs, both fun & easy to enjoy....have fun with'm Derek!!

Dottie

[DerekFF]

Oh and i have a question about the eggs...are they supposed to be a dark yellow if they are fertile?

[Discus master]

So 2 days ago i bought 6 german blue rams from the LFS i work at and heaven behold theyre laying eggs tonight!! WOOOO!!! Now i just need my discus to follow suit! And its definitly a male and a female, 1 is laying eggs and the other isnt and is very obiously a manly man lol!!! YAYAYA!!

So did you put your rams into your discus tnk the second you got home with them no qt??

I have been wanting to put rams or rummy noise in with my discus but I am so nervous about introducing anything that may hurt them even after a proper qt time. I only have a spare 14 gallon is that going to be big enough to put say 7 - 10 rams or rummy nose in for 6 - 8 weeks? I do have a 30 gallon but it is a community tank rite now

and I do not know if my 55 can handle any more fish I already have 6 growing juvis in there with two Boita "Angel" loaches they only get about 3 or 4 inches long and one lonely cory cat so what do you think? and would my 3 - 3.5 inch discus snack on the rams or corrys?

[Discus master]

I menat snack on the rams or rummy's duh but I really like the look of the german rams and not even that fish place has rummy nose can't find em any where rite now and I think they look pretty cool, but I am concerned a bit about my bio load as is maxed out????

[birdog]

In my opinion 7 rams are way too many for a 14 gal, these fish are extremely territorial and might end up pairing and laying eggs right away for you and when they have eggs watch out, they become like pitbulls defending their territory, just to give you an idea, I have two pairs in my 90 gal and they can barely stay out of each others way, as we speak both pairs are doing the mating thing and are getting agressive with each other, no bloody noses but very stern warnings back and forth, really cool to watch but the discus look like they could do without the kids fighting.
As far as the rams not ending up as lunch for the discus,no way, rams can more than fend for themselves trust me, in my tank there is an unwritten agreement where rams, discus and BN plecos leave each other be(except ram on ram violence, lol), my cardinals though, get no sanctuary as I started with 16 2 or three months ago and now there is 8 left.
Hope that helps.

David

[DerekFF]

I did run my fish through a 1 day salt water QT. Not like ocean salt water, but gradually increasing the salt over 24 hours. I would like to have done it longer, but i had some emergencies that came up and i had to move them asap. One thing about GBR is that they are highly susceptible to Ich. They are a little more tempermental all the way around so if they werent cared for well in hte beginning itll show before you get them. They all are still doing great and eating very well and the discus are now doing great again now that i moved the mating pair outta my main tank. LoL they were all over on 1 side because of the ferocious parents! I think your 55 could take the rams, assuming you have good filtration, and the 14gal might be small...but depends on how big the rams are when you get them. Rummy nose are a little hard to find, but just ask your LFS to order you some, im sure they can finnagle.

[DerekFF]

In my opinion 7 rams are way too many for a 14 gal, these fish are extremely territorial and might end up pairing and laying eggs right away for you and when they have eggs watch out, they become like pitbulls defending their territory, just to give you an idea, I have two pairs in my 90 gal and they can barely stay out of each others way, as we speak both pairs are doing the mating thing and are getting agressive with each other, no bloody noses but very stern warnings back and forth, really cool to watch but the discus look like they could do without the kids fighting.
As far as the rams not ending up as lunch for the discus,no way, rams can more than fend for themselves trust me, in my tank there is an unwritten agreement where rams, discus and BN plecos leave each other be(except ram on ram violence, lol), my cardinals though, get no sanctuary as I started with 16 2 or three months ago and now there is 8 left.
Hope that helps.

David

Yeah my discus are ok with the day to day rams, but they werent to happy with their new roomate abuse lol. Cardinals are almost guranteed to disappear at some point in time or another. And again 7 rams could make it in a 14 if they are still juvies (under an inch would be safe from mating)

[birdog]

I agree, if the 14 is solely used for QT and like you said,if they are under one inch, which would mean they haven't reached breeding age, my pairs though, were only about 1 1/4" for the females and 1 1/2 for males when they started breeding.
And they grow at a fast clip too, my males are very robust and colorful and they're still young, must be all that BH they eat.

David

[DerekFF]

I agree, if the 14 is solely used for QT and like you said,if they are under one inch, which would mean they haven't reached breeding age, my pairs though, were only about 1 1/4" for the females and 1 1/2 for males when they started breeding.
And they grow at a fast clip too, my males are very robust and colorful and they're still young, must be all that BH they eat.

David

Haha, mine are on flakes and mysis right now. If they are juvies they should be ok in the 14g. And also like i said before its rather apparent right away if the fish are healthy or not. So some may bash me here, but i dont think the same QT procedure is needed for rams as it may be for discus...just IMO

[Discus master]

Haha, mine are on flakes and mysis right now. If they are juvies they should be ok in the 14g. And also like i said before its rather apparent right away if the fish are healthy or not. So some may bash me here, but i dont think the same QT procedure is needed for rams as it may be for discus...just IMO

Yeah I am talking just for QT purposes but I am so scared to add anything to my discus tank really scared their doing good now as is hate to mess with a good thing but on the other hand a little more color to act as dither fish and I really do like the rams ther so cool. I figured that a school of 6 or 7 would be enough for the rams to feel comfortable and they would fit nice into the 55 gallon but A I am worried I am maxed out for room as you know one discus per 10 gallon water and I have 6 already would that mean I can not even add a small school of cards? or rams? or rummy's? I do have one lonely cory cat and two small lohes for clean up but thats it other than that and I am way to scared to not do a proper qt of like 6 weeks before I would put them in with the discus but the 14 gallon would have to be able to hold them for that long is it possible with anything and would I have to do daily 80% water changes on the small tank?? thanks for the info a head of time thank you

[Tito]

Yeah I am talking just for QT purposes but I am so scared to add anything to my discus tank really scared their doing good now as is hate to mess with a good thing but on the other hand a little more color to act as dither fish and I really do like the rams ther so cool. I figured that a school of 6 or 7 would be enough for the rams to feel comfortable and they would fit nice into the 55 gallon but A I am worried I am maxed out for room as you know one discus per 10 gallon water and I have 6 already would that mean I can not even add a small school of cards? or rams? or rummy's? I do have one lonely cory cat and two small lohes for clean up but thats it other than that and I am way to scared to not do a proper qt of like 6 weeks before I would put them in with the discus but the 14 gallon would have to be able to hold them for that long is it possible with anything and would I have to do daily 80% water changes on the small tank?? thanks for the info a head of time thank you

You can have 100 fish in a 55 if you're using a swimming pool for a filter. Ok that's crazy but - the real deal is simple - you can never have enough filtration. The more fish the more filtration you willl need.

[Discus master]

You can have 100 fish in a 55 if you're using a swimming pool for a filter. Ok that's crazy but - the real deal is simple - you can never have enough filtration. The more fish the more filtration you willl need.

Yeah but you still need to keep in mind the fish per gallon ratio as a general guide line you know?

I have a cascade 1000 rated for a 100 allon tank a hydro V sponge filter sponge ran off air pump and a pre filter sponge on the intake to my cascade using spray bad attachment and a 12 inch air stone I am sure I go the filtration to handle it all do you think so?

[birdog]

I started with discus and fish in general not too long ago and one of my mentors stressed that it is a good idea to overfilter, now, it sounds like you have more than adequate filtration for 55 gal, depending how well the filter media is established.
So, can you add say..ten cardinals? I would say heck yeah! If you ask can you add 7 rams into what you already have? I would say think twice about it, rams are not like tetras that need to be in big groups, you could add 4 and if that resulted into 2 breeding pairs I think 55 gal would be too small for them.

Regards
David

[DerekFF]

yeah depends on if they pair up. You can try and get all males or all females, but they can be aggresive towards eachother mostly. Mine just chased discus away from the nest and then that was it. And you have some UBER filtration IMO. I think they would fit fine at about 4 rams or a bigger group of tetras. And by the way out of the 6 i bought......i now have 3 pairs lol. Talk about LUCKY!!!

[Discus master]

yeah depends on if they pair up. You can try and get all males or all females, but they can be aggresive towards eachother mostly. Mine just chased discus away from the nest and then that was it. And you have some UBER filtration IMO. I think they would fit fine at about 4 rams or a bigger group of tetras. And by the way out of the 6 i bought......i now have 3 pairs lol. Talk about LUCKY!!!

Hmm thanks for the advice I thoguht rams were more of a schooling fish like tetras so I do like how they look and all but I am looking for more peace in the tank and would hate to cause any issues witht he rams so maybe I will go with like a dozen cards and be done with it. I would love to add that number in Rummy's instead but like I said not even that fish place has them.

Whatever I get will have to go thru a proper qt period and the only tank I have empy is the 14 gallon so that will have to do untill the qt is over I will not skip qt again I use to never qt and out of 100 times only ever had one problem and it caused me to loose my first batch of discus thats all it took for me to learn my lesson. I have plenty of filtration one entire basket in my canister is ceramic rings plus theres a bio sponge in another baskett and two filter pads with a pre filter and a hydro V running as well so I think I am good to go with that

congratulation on the pairs you have I think you will be having your hands full with all those rams if I decide to go with rams maybe I should talk to you about getting me started, lol.:angel:

[Tito]

Sometimes a mountain can be made out of a molehill.

Rams will not....

Kill each other.

Kill other fish.

Rams are semi aggresive - this means they will chase at something if they are breeding but that is the extent of it.

Rams will chase each other a bit but that's about it.

A pair of rams breeding is a really sweet sight to see.

[Discus master]

Sometimes a mountain can be made out of a molehill.

Rams will not....

Kill each other.

Kill other fish.

Rams are semi aggresive - this means they will chase at something if they are breeding but that is the extent of it.

Rams will chase each other a bit but that's about it.

A pair of rams breeding is a really sweet sight to see.

so im good to go with rams i would like 4 of them just as long as there is no teritorial issues si i shuld aim for mostly females maybe one male i did read some where a pair needs about 40 gallons so I could have 2 pairs in a 55 gallon but not 4 males so I would have to consider their sexes prior to adding the rams? like I said four would be my goal at a minimum and my wife hates my discus tank likes the fish but I am sure she is jealous I pamaper those fish and she gets pamaperd as well but its like sharing me ith another woman in her eyes I think, lol

[birdog]

I really like the look my tank has with the rams,they have grown huge for me,the two males are bigger than their dad... yes I have seen the male that father my rams, one advantage of buying fish directly from the old man that breeds them.
Like Derek said, if you bought all males or all females it would be ok, the mild violence would occur when mating and/or guarding eggs.
Tito you are right in that rams are semi-aggresive, and mostly to their own species, but the father of my rams killed the mother right after a few spawns together.
Derek, yes you were lucky, but only in the fact that you got 3 males and 3 females, when I bought my rams I picked out 4 males and 4 females out of a 20 gal tank with about 100 rams in it (with the help of the very knowledgeable breeder)and the result was 4 pairs, my point is, if you buy 10 females and 10 males at about 1", the result would be ten pairs almost no doubt.


Regards
David