Passive Cichlids

[Denorios]

I had heard somewhere that dwarf cichlids tend to be less aggressive than other kinds. Is this true? I'd love to have a cichlid or two, but I like keeping a community tank and obviously you can't throw most cichlids into a community tank and expect good things.

[Nautilus29]

dwarf cichlids are definatly less aggressive. I know keyholes, male kribs and rams should be a good choice. Female kribs tend to be more aggressive than males but there still not as bad as the bigger cichlids.

[Denorios]

rams should be a good choice.

I've heard Rams are hard to care for, very sensitive to water conditions, not healthy. Is that true? They are really cool looking though, thanks for the suggestion

[KneeKickLou]

I just got 4 Bolivian Rams the other day and the owner of the LFS said they are very hardy, I guess the Germans and other are more sensitive. My rams are very cool they are sicking mostly to the bottom of the tank for now (still getting used to thier new home) but boy are they funnny little guys. I love there dorsal fin it looks like a mohawk. When they are swimming its the funniest thing ive never seen a fish do this before but they will get going a little bit and then just stop DEAD and i mean dead they are just floating there in the water it really is something too see. I hope I you will look into these wonderful little fishes. Good luck with whatever you go with.

[Denorios]

have the bolivian rams gotten on well with the other fish in your tank?

[jeffs99dime]

just remember, all cichlids are always able to show aggression. this is very important! my advice would be to monitor them more than a regular community fish.

[KneeKickLou]

have the bolivian rams gotten on well with the other fish in your tank?
Yeah so far there hasnt been the smallest sign of aggression with anyone. As of right now my tank is very peaceful the danios chase each other around the cory just swim around on the bottom minding there own business the angels and the grouraims will just swim around the open middle sections, and the rams are still poking around seeing whats up. No nipping or fighting of anykind. I will be sure to keep an eye on them thanks for advice Jeff

[jeffs99dime]

hope it works out for ya!

[AuroraAustralis]

It depends on the individual fish & the dwarf species also to a certain extent. Dwarf cichlids are on a whole definately way less aggressive though. They make good community fish with exception of times when they are breeding, then they will show the typical cichlid ferocity in guarding their young. I have a pair of rams that get on fine with everyone but each other until a few days before breeding at which time they chase everyone else but each other away from their chosen spawning site lol When there is just one or the other in the tank however they almost never chase anyone.
As for rams being hard to keep or overly sensitive, IME that isn't the case really.. if they are healthy. The trouble lies with finding good healthy stock (read: local bred, not asian imports) I have had imported rams and they were both unhealthy (disease carrying), infertile fish but they also couldn't hold a candle to the beauty of the local bred or wild caught fish. I would recommend the dwarf cichlids for a community tank but would advise against getting more than 1 dwarf or 1 pair (M&F of the same species) if you are wanting to keep aggression to a minimum in your tank :o)

[Nautilus29]

german blue rams are usually more sensative to water conditions. One of my favorite fish is the kribensis check into them.

[jeffs99dime]

german blue rams are usually more sensative to water conditions. One of my favorite fish is the kribensis check into them.

yes, they are more sensitive

[AuroraAustralis]

Of course compared to danios and the like they are sensitive. You certainly wouldn't cycle a tank with Rams (but then I wouldn't cycle a tank with any dwarf either lol). Rams are very very sensitive to ammonia & nitrite but IME cope quite well with changes in Ph, Kh etc. I move my rams between tanks with different Ph etc quite alot when breeding aggression gets out of hand. They cope fine with both the stress of being moved and the changes in water parameters and will even breed within a day or so of being moved. Admittedly they aren't huge differences in Ph (6.8 to 7ish) most of the time, but they are different... I only ever had trouble with that one imported lot of rams being what I would consider to be overly sensitive (just about everything stressed those fish) and IME I always found the local bred ones I keep now to be fairly resiliant as long as your water has NO ammonia or nitrites, which if not cycling the tank and you're doing water changes often enough etc, it shouldn't anyway. Just my experience with them so far.. then again, maybe I have just been extremely lucky to get good healthy and hardy rams lol :ezpi_wink1:

[Drumachine09]

Yellow labs (electric yellow cichlids) and blue scolofis (poweder blue cichlids) are very passive compared to other cichlids.

[DemonShark]

German Blue Rams I consider are easy to keep and they thrive and hardy

[Nautilus29]

I just got 4 german blue rams, very beautiful fish. but i wouldnt consider them hardy. just from the stress of being taken home from the fish store one of them lost all of its color! It was completely white, no black spot or line. after I woke up this morning they all looked really nice with a blue color that wasnt there the night before.

[kimmers318]

I too found german blue rams hard to keep and not quite as healthy. I also had the misfortune to end up with an extremely aggressive male who wouldn't accept tankmates EXCEPT the kribs. My bolivian ram on the other hand is as passive as can be, and happily lives with various tetras, cories etc without any issues.

[willisrad]

Yellow labs are typically peaceful???

I think that they are beautiful! I've just always stayed away from them since they were in the cichlid family.

Do they need to be in small groups, or are they fine individually?

[Abbeys_Mom]

They are African and I would not mix them with a tropical community tank.

[Lady Hobbs]

I agree with Jeff. Some cichlids are less aggressive than others but cichlids just the same. You could have one that would end up mean as heck and 5 others that are peaceful. There's always the one exception that can disrupt your tank.