MRSkz Posted March 25, 2006 Report Share Posted March 25, 2006 I've been eyeing up the blue rams at the LFS for abit now. My only hesitation is how to tell the difference between the males and females? I've decided I'm going to go and get some today but want to make sure I have atleast one male and some fem's. I have also seen some lovely albino kribs and decided I'll have to have some of them to. However there appears to be only 1 fem (red belly) and the others (5ish) seem to be all males. Is there another way to tell if there are any more females in there? Also I wanted to know if I can pop these into a 2 foot tank w/3 cory's, 2 GBA's and (in future) 3 agasazi's. I'm looking at getting 3 rams and 3 kribs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
antwan Posted March 25, 2006 Report Share Posted March 25, 2006 seems like a lot of dwarf cichlids for a 2 foot. Kribs i find need a lot of room for breeding as they themselves can get big and they are very defensive when breeding (like most dwarves). For the sexing of rams, the female should have a nice red belly, thats the easiest way to tell them apart. You say there is one definate female and about 5 males, is the female much larger than the rest or the same size, if shes bigger she could just be more mature. If they are all the same size, and they arent too small, the males should have an arrow-like shaped tail fin. good luck to you, sounds like you have some cool fish. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MRSkz Posted March 25, 2006 Author Report Share Posted March 25, 2006 well the one I think is a fem albino krib has a pink belly, the other one's don't. Is that right? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
antwan Posted March 25, 2006 Report Share Posted March 25, 2006 yup, that would be a female alright. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ryanjury Posted March 26, 2006 Report Share Posted March 26, 2006 Pic of a female ram is next to my name otherwise I posted bigger pics of my male and female in a previous post under this section on blue rams.. Alot of the fish in the pet shops are pretty small and hard to sex, the easiest way with rams is to spot the pink belly, also my female doesn't have the extentended dorsal fin and is smaller. You could always go for the tried and true grab 6 of differing sizes and let them sort it out its expensive but you increase the odds of getting a viable pair (or even 2) then you can just sell off the extras. A 2 ft tank would be too small for (in my opinion) more than one pair of dwarfs, you may get away with 2 pairs if its well planted with heaps of hiding places but you will most likely only see the dominant fish as the others will hide and probably not be too happy, I also wouldn't recommend buying trios of ram's/kribs as the 3rd will get hassled if the other 2 pair off and to my knowledge rams and kribs aren't harem breeders like some of the apisto's.. But I could be wrong. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MRSkz Posted March 26, 2006 Author Report Share Posted March 26, 2006 So get pairs not trios then on the kribs? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ryanjury Posted March 26, 2006 Report Share Posted March 26, 2006 I would think that for the rams/kribs if you wanted to breed them you would be best to go for just pair I haven't kept kribs but I know the 3rd fish will get bullied with the rams, as for the apisto's I know some of them are harem breeders and the females will fare alot better if you have 2 of them to spread the males attention.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
antwan Posted March 26, 2006 Report Share Posted March 26, 2006 well, you can do trios until you have a pair. Once that happens you will need to separate them from the left out one. I have bred both of these, and will confirm that they are not harem breeders, so ryanjury, you were right Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tanksman Posted March 26, 2006 Report Share Posted March 26, 2006 The chances of Kribs, rams and apistos all breeding harmoniously in a 2 foot tank is virtually zero I would have thought. Your going to need breeding tanks as well - or coffins - dwarf sized. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ryanjury Posted March 26, 2006 Report Share Posted March 26, 2006 I did successfully breed cockatoo's and rams in a 3ft community tank but that was fully planted and I setup breeding areas at each end so they didn't breed next to each other.. There were some battles but nothing got hurt.. But yeah I agree with the general trend its too small for all of them maybe a 2ft each pair would be good Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MRSkz Posted March 26, 2006 Author Report Share Posted March 26, 2006 I sorta thought with the back wall nearly all done in rock caves that they'd be perfectly happy in the 2 footer, with plants as well of course. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ryanjury Posted March 26, 2006 Report Share Posted March 26, 2006 If you had alot of hiding places they may live but probably wont be happy, one of the pairs will become dominant and chase all the other fish around stressing them out and causing them to hide all the time (to me theres not much point in spending $ on fish if they are stressed and loose their colour and hide so you cant see or enjoy them) they'll also be more succeptable to disease harder to get food into etc etc. I would say 3 to 4 ft minimum for the 3 pairs and even then there would be some fights and it depends on the fish I have one male cockatoo I wouldn't stick with any other fish I want to keep cuz hes big and nasty. But all my other males are pretty sedate... Best bet would be to buy them individual tanks or buy one bigger one and divide it into 3 sections. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AMAZONIAN Posted March 26, 2006 Report Share Posted March 26, 2006 Hi All An old rule of thumb when stocking a tank was; One inch (25mm) of fish body length, to the Caudal Peduncle (not including the tail) required eight square inches (200Sq. mm) of surface area. I still stick by those figures when stocking a tank or Selling fish. So an adult Male Krib at four inches (100mm) long requires about 800Sq mm of surface area. Plus I personally dont think that your choice of mix is going to work out too well. :oops: Sorry. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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