Gettin My Bolivians Next Week

[kurly]

I'm getting my Bolivian Rams early next week and I am SO excited!!! :19:

[coolingeffect]

did you decide on a pair or two pairs?

[Nautiline]

I'm very excited for you! I badly want some bolivians but need to wait until my next, bigger tank. Whenever that might be. Post lots of pics when ya get them. :ssmile:

[kurly]

:lol: I still haven't decided. I am getting 6 and see what happens. Of course I know that I can't keep 6 Bolivian Rams in my tank so the extras will go to a fellow fish friend.

I spent the past two days working on my tank. Moving plants, triming plants, attaching plants to driftwood, adding rocks and making a mess of myself. It's been a long time since I have really done anything to my tank so I forgot how much work it is. I kept doing and re-doing things. Finally said I'll have to be satisfied whether I am or not because I am too tired to mess with it anymore. I just wanted to redo some things now for when the new Rams are put in my main tank in a couple of weeks.

Well, I can say that my tetras are happy that I redecorated their home because they are swimming all over the place checking everything out. I am sitting here now watching four of my glowlights swim over and under the arch in my driftwood and the others are swimming in and out of the leaves of my plants.

I must get another digital camera soon so I can take pics of everything, especially of my new rams. That is, after I get more money. I've spent quite a bit on my tank, both fish and accessories :scry:

[WhiteDevil]

i got a female yesterday, guy had 20 darn bovilians and only one was a female so I snatched her up at $2.99

Good Luck with yours they are some awesome fish, but when they get older they do have a funny looking head.

[kurly]

A funny looking head? I never paid attention to that. I'm still getting them but I think I'll have to go look at some pictures.

Thanks for popping my happy balloon WhiteDevil :11: ( just kidding) :ssmile:

[WhiteDevil]

I think anyone who has kept or keeps rams will agree the bolivians have a weird shape.

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other rams
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as you can see they have a different shaped face, almost blunt round compared to the others.
I still like,keep and breed them but they are ugly, not as ugly as blood parrots though.

[kurly]

I see what you are talking about now. Thanks for posting the pics. Funny how I never really noticed that before. I guess I was looking more at the the shape of the fins and the colors on the Bolivian moreso than the head.

I want something different in my tank anyway so I'll take em. Weird shaped head and all :1luvu:

[Nautiline]

I think it makes them look cuter, to be honest. :P More comical.

[WhiteDevil]

yep, the Mr. Bean fish face.

[kurly]

My 6 cute little Bolivian Rams just arrived safe and sound !!!!! :19:

They are in my acclimation bucket right now thumbs2:

And yes, WhiteDevil, I said "cute"....lol

[CGY_Betta_Guy]

Bolivians are awesome! You will enjoy watching them when they are lip lockin to establish dominance.

[Gisela]

Congrats and have fun with your cute "Babys"!

[kurly]

Thanks Gisela!

That's what I am hoping for CGY_Betta_Guy. Something more interesting to watch in my tank. They are in the QT tank right now. Lights out and relaxing. They have had a two day journey and I want them to rest quietly.

[kurly]

11th day of QT for my new Bolivian Rams. They are eating well and showing no signs of stress or disease. Three more days to go in the QT just to be on the safe side and then I am moving them over to my main tank! Of course I know it will be another transition for them so it will take a little time for them to get comfortable in their 2nd new home. Shouldn't take too long because they will have much more room with live plants, driftwood, and rocks.

Hoping they'll be some happy little campers... that is until they begin staking out their territory and possibly finding a mate. :fish: :fish:

[Rue]

I'm so glad they're doing well in QT! I hope they transition to the main tank well!

[kurly]

Thanks Rue! I didn't know that I could get so excited over fish like this but I have been waiting a long time to put some Bolivian Rams in my main tank and the day is FINALLY almost here!

[Rue]

Heh! I'm excited that you're excited! :shappy:

In fact - your enthusiasm is catching...I might head out to our fish auction on Sunday. I've been looking forward to finding some more CP Danios (but keep putting it on hold). I hope someone brings some, or I can find a name of someone who breeds them...I'd like to stock my almost empty 25 g with them.

[kurly]

Go For It!!!!! :hmm3grin2orange:

There may be some there and if you miss out on them then you never know when that lucky day will come around again. I take it that these fish are hard to find? I don't think I've heard of them before or know what they look like.

[Sursion]

Have you seen any fights for dominance yet?

[WhiteDevil]

Kurly, I got a new female bolivian for my male from the petsmart(yes Qt'd and stuff) and it took a few days of evading eachothers view but they finally kicked the snot out of eachother and are on their crib right now fanning the egg's.
I was surprised as he is more then twice her size but she held her ground and gave it right back to him and they took to eachother.

They are cute when they are small, wait till they get big. They look rather dopey but none the less are awesome little cichlids with tons of attitude,character and color.

Junk pic but heres my newest pair.
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[Lab_Rat]

Congrats on the new rams!

I think it's the other rams who have the dopey look, not the bolivians, but that could be because I prefer bolivians to the GBR.

[Sursion]

I wish I could find some females. The parents I bought mine from are gone (not sure where) and I can't find any Bolivian Ram dealers anywhere.

Also, does inbreeding affect the fish in anyway? When I bought mine they were just babies and they were all from the same litter. I wanted a mating pair, but afterwards I realized maybe inbreeding would be bad for the fish.

[Lab_Rat]

It's best to get genetic diversity by spawning unrelated fish. People do linebreed and inbreed, especially when trying to produce a certain trait, but at the expense of the health and hardiness of the fish. EBJDs are a great example of taking a very robust species and weakening it to the point where it's difficult to get them to live past 3-4"

[kurly]

Have you seen any fights for dominance yet?

Nope, they are in my 10 gallon QT right now. They are all hanging out together and getting along very well. But they are only a couple of months old. Not sure how old they are when they begin the battle for dominance.

[kurly]

Nice little pair you've got there WhiteDevil and even nicer that they have mated already. Looking at yours makes me realize just how little and young mine are. They are barely half the size of yours. I was having a pretty hard time finding Bolivians anywhere locally so that's why I ordered mine from a breeder on Aquabid. The petsmart near me never has Bolivian Rams.

[Sursion]

It's strange that you haven't seen the lip-locking yet. When I first got mine they were little, just under an inch. One chased the other around, then a week later I saw them do the dominance fight. Then they just went back to chasing. Have you confirmed which ones are male/female yet?

I wish I could use aquabid. Almost everything is america only :\

[WhiteDevil]

Nice little pair you've got there WhiteDevil and even nicer that they have mated already. Looking at yours makes me realize just how little and young mine are. They are barely half the size of yours. I was having a pretty hard time finding Bolivians anywhere locally so that's why I ordered mine from a breeder on Aquabid. The petsmart near me never has Bolivian Rams.
its a new fish being carried, i think its in a trial run stage but every one near me(petsmart that s) is carrying them at $4.99 each.
the smaller one in my pic is the newest female and shes grown by 1/4 since shes been here. good food will do that to a fish lol

[kurly]

It's strange that you haven't seen the lip-locking yet. When I first got mine they were little, just under an inch. One chased the other around, then a week later I saw them do the dominance fight. Then they just went back to chasing. Have you confirmed which ones are male/female yet?

I wish I could use aquabid. Almost everything is america only :\

I haven't seen any lip locking at all but then again my QT is in a room that I don't usually sit in a lot. Everytime I am in there or even peek in on them they are all hanging around each other swimming together. Still not quite sure exactly on which are male and female. But I do believe that two of them are male. I really haven't looked at them that much to determine. You would think that, that would be the first thing I did since I have been waiting to get them for so long.

I'm going to look in on them now :ssmile:

[WhiteDevil]

Young ones school together.

[kurly]

I really think that I have 2 males and 4 females. Which is the better ratio to have as far as trying to get a pair out of a group? More males than females or more females than males?

[WhiteDevil]

more females then males.

[kurly]

Young ones school together.

That makes sense. Then they grow up and all heck breaks out, huh?

[Sursion]

Pretty much.