Electric Blue Rams

[Aquanoob]

Hi Luc, the one you mentioned is Golden Classic at blk 822, I got mine my blk 481 Superstar Aquarium. If you are going there, just said that you were introduce by someone who everytime asked about GBR and only buy GBR from him.
I used to buy ram frim JZX before, but that was last year, since then, they did not bring in any more ram.

[crabby:)]

Thanks for the great replys,oh by the way if any of you guys are findind balllon rams why not give qian hu a try i have seen lots of them thereoh and 1 question,is it normal for them to fight as they keep on chasing each other especially the male

[chansl]

Go to superstar aquarium .. The boss is my friend, he always like to bring in rams .. I think he just bought in some new batch recently, i was there helping him to upload the fishes (free labor) from the supplier. haha

[stormhawk]

Rams are territorial as with every other cichlid, and will chase each other to create a pecking order in the tank. The strongest gets to feed first, followed by the rest.

[crabby:)]

Do you guys have any tips to advise me with taking care of balloon rams?thanks

[PKB]

Go to superstar aquarium .. The boss is my friend, he always like to bring in rams .. I think he just bought in some new batch recently, i was there helping him to upload the fishes (free labor) from the supplier. haha

The boss is a very nice person. Really take care of the fishes as well. His fishes are usually healthy.

[Aquanoob]

Yes, the boss Jacky is a nice young chap and his fish are house in clean and clear tanks, which is what I like. I don't mind paying a bit higher to get a healthy fish. As in my case, the German Blue Ram bought from him spawned with 4 days.
Anyway, I went down to C328 today and there many type of Rams to choose from the 2 tanks beside the cashier: Electric Blue Ram (Balloon and Normal), a few pieces of Gold Ram and of course German Blue Ram (Normal and Balloon also). But there are also floating and sunken dead fish that I think have been dead for days. The Pleco, don't know what L-number, are having good meal over the dead bodies. There are a few nice coloured Ram but you really need to take the risk buying them.

[chansl]

Ya .. The boss Jacky even allow me to trade in those things i do not want for new things and a little add on .. Got my sulawesi tank with with nice LED tanks with my trade of one nano tank and one betta tank .. Nice guy ... He is selling his crs sss at only 8 dollar and cardinal at 4 dollar .. I thought it was pretty cheap .. So ordered from him and will see if the quality is good .. Will feedback to share =)

[stormhawk]

If you get Rams from any LFS, even respectable ones, please quarantine them. Some come with gill flukes infestations.

[Luc Tango]

Lol, this is getting out of topic. thanks bros for the heads up on Tampines 481 LFS. (I seldom travel to that part of Tampines as I live in the other side of it, 800+)

apologies Stormhawk for the short discussion.

[stormhawk]

No worries, all part of sharing info. At least now people know this Jacky at the Tampines LFS is a nice guy to go to for Rams for the easterners.

[stormhawk]

The $2 Rams I bought have since blossomed into very nice GBR males:





Sorry for blurry photos, not easy to focus on this particular male.. he keeps moving all over the place chasing the other males. Found some females at C328 but they were very young, and the tank was not looking very good so I didn't get those.

[stormhawk]

Got another photo, this time of the other male:



I love his ventral fins, same length as the other male. Probably the best photo I took so far of any Rams that I ever had.

[stormhawk]

Some updates on the Rams:





Bought 3 GBR and 1 EBR female for my 4 male Rams in the tank last weekend after the GC killie event at C328.
The male and female in the pics spawned about 2 days ago but the eggs disappeared, probably eaten by them or the Corydoras in my tank.
Other male GBR seems to have paired up with the EBR female but I can't find the eggs even though they are guarding a particular area of the tank.

[stormhawk]

Finally, another spawn:



Eggs look viable. I hope they'll hatch successfully this time.

[stormhawk]

Day 2:

Eggs showing development. I can see the embryos forming within.

[vannel]

Ooo.. Nice. My GBRs in my office tank spawned last week and the fry are now in day 2 of the free swimming stage. Removed all other tank inhabitants except the male and the female ram. Should I also remove the 2 parents? They are still docile and have been keeping their fry close by sucking them into their mouths, then spitting them out nearer to the rest of the fry.

[stormhawk]

Leave them with the parents and some dither fish so that they got something to chase. Once the fry get a little bigger you can remove the parents.

[stormhawk]

Eggs finally hatched out after less than 36 hours post spawning, the parents moved them from their original pit to a nursery pit, freshly dug while I was asleep.



Not sure if you guys can make out the fry. They're right on the Sudo Sand surrounded by pieces of GEX soil.



Took another pic with flash, should be easier to see them.



The proud father guarding his brood. He wasn't too happy when I came close with my camera. Pardon the dirty glass, got some spot algae in that area.
Different female spawned with him. This time the guarding female was a much better parent than the original female that first spawned with the alpha male.



Video showing the motion of the fry in wriggler stage. Going to try and document their progress if all goes well.
The fry should be free swimming within the next 2 days or so. Not many fry seen but I'm happy.

On a side note, one of my Blue Apple Snails went over the eggs while they were still developing. I was expecting the snail to devour the eggs but it didn't!
It just crawled over the eggs grazing on the grains of GEX soil and left the eggs alone.

[Navanod]

Congratulations Storm!
You sure am happy that day at C328!

My wifey really liked the pair of balloon golden rams we had 4 years ago. I got suckered into getting them from a LFS at China town where the auntie told me that they're shrimp safe (I was a newbie then). Sadly, they ate my shrimps so I moved them to my office tank. They died a year later and I didn't dared to try keeping rams ever since.
I had since realized that I got a really mutated strain and I find the elongated GBR more appealing now. Am definitely going to feature them in a nice planted tank one day when I get my own place but for now, I can only drool at yours.
I wonder if they can be kept in a partition on my shrimp rack? Haha!

On a related note, you may be interested in something I came across while reading up on shrimps

Its on Page 14-16
http://edition.pagesuite-professional.co.uk/reef_to_rainforest.aspx?eid=3b302677-b27e-4e79-8661-ca7c76c0f8

Ignore the smiley. The link still works