My German Blue Ram is Hiding

[Whitney]

Hi everyone,

On Thursday I got three yoyo loaches. My Blue Ram seemed pretty stressed at first at the new arrivals, but yesterday he seemed to have gotten over it and was swimming around in the open and coming over to me at the glass as he usually does. Last night he went into a corner of the tank (one of his cave areas) and wouldn't come out. I thought it might just be that he was tired. However, this morning he's still there. He wouldn't come out for breakfast...he won't come over to me at the front of the tank (he usually follows me around like a puppy). His dorsal fin is clamped as well.

I checked the water and all my ammonia, nitrite and nitrate levels are ammonia 0, nitrite 0, and nitrate 5.0.....the tank's temp is 81.2 degrees.

Is he just upset about all the new movement in the tank or is this a bigger problem? I haven't noticed the loaches being aggressive, but I also didn't watch what they do all night long.

How long should I let this go before taking the loaches back to the fish store? I don't want my ram to be unhappy or scared.

I have a couple of pictures included of my ram hiding. Let me know what you all think I should do.

[jman]

there is a big chance that moving around the tank causes the blue ram to want to fight. Noticingthat his fin was clipped probably means that he was trying to find a area to retreat to but someone probably 'shocked' him out of it. Once a pets like these are shook they begin to remember and not try to overcome anything else.

(some dont because the bigger they get the more they feel thay dont have to worry about someone overpowering them)

[kimmers318]

If I am remembering correctly from when I was doing some research into loaches looking for a community friendly snail loach yo-yo's may have been one of the ones that have a tendency to be more harassing of other fish. Alot of the time, they are fine, but I believe I have seen several incidences of people commenting that their yo-yo's picked on others. I would suggest doing some researches on yo-yo's in general (hopefully I am mistaken) and maybe even check out threads and post a ? at a loach specialty forum. Not to make it sound like we want to send you away, but sometimes a specialty forum gives you more access to people with more experience pertaining to that species. Loaches. com comes to mind, and although it is not my favorite (this one IS!) there is quite a bit of good information there and they have some nice species profiles.

[Whitney]

Thanks for your comments. Unfortunately, my blue ram didn't make it. I don't kjnow if it was caused by the loaches or not. I brought two of the loaches back to the fish store (it would ahve been all three, but I couldn't get to the third one) and now I'm deciding what to do.

[jman]

i agree w/ kimmers but sorry it didn't make it

[kimmers318]

So sorry you lost your ram. Did you ever do any research on the yo-yo's? It is sad that you may have taken them back if you liked them since you lost the ram, unless of course you had other fish they may also harass or wish to replace the ram with another. I would suggest trying your hardest to return the remaining yo-yo though, it probably isn't a good idea to only have 1. Most loaches prefer the company of others and like barbs may be even more prone to harass if that is their nature if they don't have buddies to keep them busy! Chalk it all up to experience and learning...next time do some research before a purchase and you may avoid this type of thing. You may still end up with devil fish that don't follow the "prescribed" personality description....but you increase your chances of getting what you want!

[Whitney]

I did do research- but I got somewhat contradicting information on the subject and decided to ultimately go with what the pet store girl said.

I agree that the last one needs to come out....I'll do that in the next few days. He's still little enough that no one is in immediate harm.

Today I got two new blue rams. We'll see how it works out.

Do you guys think that once I bring the loach back I'll need to get another set of scavenger/bottom feeders to take over that job? I was thinking about corys (though I've been told that they can sometimes get harrassed by rams). One of the local pet stores also carries freshwater gobies, which were pretty interesting, but I know nothing about them.

[kimmers318]

Well, technically, adding a "cleaner" fish doesn't really change any of the cleanliness of your tank. If there is leftover food for a fish to have to clean up, you are overfeeding. And a "cleaner" fish makes it's own waste, which adds to bioload just as having extra food laying around will. Bottom feeders are great fish in their own right :)
That said, yes, rams probably will bother any peaceful fish hanging around the bottom with them, they can be territorial. I did have pretty good luck with my bristlenose pleco when I had a mean ram. Demon tried to harass Fugly, but bristlenoses just swim away and ignore fish, and they don't seem to ever get hurt! They are great algae eaters.

[Juannie]

I've had Bolvarian rams in with kribensis, bala shark, gouramis, tetras, cory's all in the same tank (currently) and as long as I've had enough hiding places they seem to be ok. I've lost my rams but when i had them they were fine, I guess it also depends on the fishes nature, whether they've all been bought at the same time etc etc, it's a trial and error thing (so I've found) esp after being told the wrong info from fish shops.

GOOD LUCK!!