I have 12 new Rams and they all look OK. I made the hour long trip to the UPS depot in town, and they are floating.
The bag temp was down to 72... could be worse considering its a cold day. There were heat packs and 1/2" Styrofoam.
If I can get some decent pics, I'll post them later. They are much smaller than I expected.
Quote from: wallace on November 22, 2016, 04:51:03 PM
I have 12 new Rams and they all look OK. I made the hour long trip to the UPS depot in town, and they are floating.
The bag temp was down to 72... could be worse considering its a cold day. There were heat packs and 1/2" Styrofoam.
If I can get some decent pics, I'll post them later. They are much smaller than I expected.
...good...they made it safely... ;D looking forward to the pics.. |^|
Sorry that they're smaller than advertised. You can take care of them. You've done it before, They'll grow.
They aren't much shorter than advertized, just skinny. I need to fatten them up. They might be stunted some, but that's okay... to paraphrase one of my favorite movie lines, "Its the genes what do the breedin' Charlie, the fish aint got nothin' to do wid it."
They should color up some more after today.
They were already fighting in the shipping bags... spunky little devils.
...wow....those are very nice.... |^|
Started them right away on BBS... they aren't too big for it. I put salt water in the BBS hatchery tank, I'll go ahead and grow out some shrimp in there. It seems like it takes forever for the shrimp to get any size to them, but its no trouble so why not.
A couple of them looked pretty bad on arrival, wasn't sure theyd make it, but they are all looking much better now. Eat like pigs. The shrimp are just the right size now, and they get worms and a little flake too. The sun hit the tank this morning, tried to get a picture and they all hid behind the filter. Tonight they were chasing shrimp and didn't care.
...now those are nice.... |^|
After 7 weeks I haven't seen much growth, maybe none at all. Haven't seen any pairing so they probably need to mature some.
I dropped the TDS to 20 and the pH to 5.9 to see if they do anything. I might need to shroud the tank, I walk thru here 20-30 times a day and they zip lightning fast into the back corner every time. They don't mind me doing things above the water, but anything to the side causes a freakout. They are just as nervous now about movement as the first day in the tank.
I don't no nothin' about wild fish. You may want to PM Pat. How are you lowering your pH? I hope it's not with chemicals. Try putting a piece of cardboard on the front and one side of their tank. It'll give them a safe place until they get used to your routine.
The wild rams probably take longer than wild discus to get used to me. They really like new water coming in, maybe I'll put a HOB on the tank for some current.
I'm using RO so a little bit of peat is all it takes. These guys don't necessarily come from blackwater with really low pH. I think the TDS is more important.
I think Pat got some wild rams last year and during QT they showed with Lymphocystis (sp?) and had to be culled.
You know more that I do. Although Pat had to cull her's she knows wild fish and is an honest adviser. Good to hear that you're not using chemicals to lower pH. I figured you knew better...Have you tried the tea in their tank? It would be a good thing to try in this case.
Yep, I've been giving them rooibos off and on, I forget some days. I don't know their age, so it might be a matter of waiting... if they don't show signs of pairing after some more waiting I'll ask Pat for some ideas.
What are you feeding them?
Quote from: wallace on January 16, 2017, 08:40:54 PM
Yep, I've been giving them rooibos off and on, I forget some days. I don't know their age, so it might be a matter of waiting... if they don't show signs of pairing after some more waiting I'll ask Pat for some ideas.
..... huh
Quote from: Rjb3 on January 17, 2017, 05:56:38 AM
What are you feeding them?
They eat anything, only not from the surface, they live on the bottom 6 inches of the tank. For the first 3 weeks they had mostly live brine shrimp of various sizes. Now they get FDBW, beefheart, frozen blood worms, frozen BS, and Hans cobalt flake. The flake needs to be crushed to a small enough size and released into the water so it isn't floating. I'm thinking they could use a little more vegetable matter and have some spinach FDBW that I forgot about.
If you can suggest something, I'll try it. In the spring they will be getting mosquito larvae, they should get some live food.
Quote from: Mugwump on January 17, 2017, 06:14:43 AM
Quote from: wallace on January 16, 2017, 08:40:54 PM
Yep, I've been giving them rooibos off and on, I forget some days. I don't know their age, so it might be a matter of waiting... if they don't show signs of pairing after some more waiting I'll ask Pat for some ideas.
..... huh
Rooibos tea. It colors the water with tannins.
Quote from: wallace on January 17, 2017, 11:46:48 AM
Quote from: Mugwump on January 17, 2017, 06:14:43 AM
Quote from: wallace on January 16, 2017, 08:40:54 PM
Yep, I've been giving them rooibos off and on, I forget some days. I don't know their age, so it might be a matter of waiting... if they don't show signs of pairing after some more waiting I'll ask Pat for some ideas.
..... huh
Rooibos tea. It colors the water with tannins.
..on/off because of water changes then....got it.. |^|
Quote from: wallace on January 17, 2017, 11:45:18 AM
Quote from: Rjb3 on January 17, 2017, 05:56:38 AM
What are you feeding them?
They eat anything, only not from the surface, they live on the bottom 6 inches of the tank. For the first 3 weeks they had mostly live brine shrimp of various sizes. Now they get FDBW, beefheart, frozen blood worms, frozen BS, and Hans cobalt flake. The flake needs to be crushed to a small enough size and released into the water so it isn't floating. I'm thinking they could use a little more vegetable matter and have some spinach FDBW that I forgot about.
If you can suggest something, I'll try it. In the spring they will be getting mosquito larvae, they should get some live food.
I was just curious. We raised Bolivian Rams for years.
I tried two months with Rooibos and keeping the pH around 5.3, and still no action. I'm convinced now that I managed to get all males. One interesting thing, their colors are different in these conditions - more orange. I'm going to get a dozen more, maybe there will be a female in the new batch.