# Balloon rams mix



## discusdan (25 Mar 2013)

Hey guys

I'm thinking of getting some balloon rams, probably looking at getting 3 balloon rams, 1 male and 2 female and if its ok to mix them with some electric blue balloon rams getting 3 of them as well, again 1 male and 2 females.

Has any one ever kept both breeds together? I assume it should be all fine.

With 2 males and 4 females I was hoping this would reduce the chances of the males fighting?

any input is much appreciated.

cheers.


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## Ed Seeley (26 Mar 2013)

what size tank is it? While these are deformed, line bred  they are still cichlids and need a decent amount of space, around 2ft per pair plus room for spares if both pairs breed at the same time.


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## dw1305 (26 Mar 2013)

Hi all,


discusdan said:


> any input is much appreciated.


Just don't do it. They were my first cichlid "love", but Rams are quite difficult fish in most conditions and going for deformed genetically weakened ones is probably a recipe for disaster. In fact I'd try and avoid all balloon fish, and ideally all cichlids bred in SE Asia as well.

If you want to succeed with Rams one of the "secrets" is to get healthy stock from a UK hobbiest/breeder.

Have a look here: <Dwarf Cichlid Aquarium Care> <Mikrogeophagusramirezi The Ram Cichlid> & <BreedingRam CichlidsMikrogeophagus ramirezi>

cheers Darrel


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## BigTom (26 Mar 2013)

Afraid I'm with Darrell on this one. Just no reason to buy deformed fish like this when hobby bred wild types are available, better looking and likely to be easier to keep.


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## discusdan (26 Mar 2013)

Hi guys, cheers for all the feed back.

Have to say I saw them in my LFS at the weekend and was tempted to get some but thought I'd leave it and do some research on them first.
Spent most of last night doing so and am glad I did. I didn't realize they where genetically breed to be like this. Also read a few stories on them which was enough to put me off.

So now I'm looking at getting some regular german blue rams and/or some electric blue rams.

Question is how many could I have in my tank? they would be the center piece and i'm unlikely to add any thing afterwards. 

Tank is 200l with a 12 dwarf neon rainbows, 3 siamese flying fox, a betta and some amano shrimp.

It would be great if I could have a pair of each?


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## Ed Seeley (26 Mar 2013)

They're all the same species so get two pairs and you might end up with two mixed pairs. I prefer the natural form and assuming a 200l tank is around 1m long I'd go for one happy pair; two at the very most.


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## dean (27 Mar 2013)

Glade to see you've gone off the balloon	 crap fish 
 I still see "Painted" Glass Fish and it annoys the hell out of me 

Remember Rams are cichlids and just because they are small doesn't mean they don't have attitude or that they will pair off just because you bought a male and a female 
They need territory so it all depends on your layout, if its a carpet with stems at the back then it may be viewed as one territory if its has plenty of hardscape (caves/wood/rocks) then that will determine how many to buy.
Minimum I would get would be a trio (1male 2females)
They are not hard to bread but fry are tiny and hard to raise, I know a breeder who took 2 years to solve the problem


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## discusdan (27 Mar 2013)

cheers for all the help guys, i'll have a good think about it.


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## Ed Seeley (27 Mar 2013)

Please bear in mind that Mikrogeophagus species are naturally pair forming, not haremic so you may end up with a spare female if you buy a trio.  Sometimes in captivity harems will form but often not.

With all cichlids that form bonds you are much better off buying a group of 6 or more fish and let them choose their own partners, however you often then need to rehouse spare fish.  With Rams (along with most common cichlids) you can often get away with match-making for them and picking a pair.  If you look in the tank they are being kept in you can often pick out a dominant pair that has already bonded - these are the best bet if you don't want to take 6 or more.


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## discusdan (29 Mar 2013)

Went to the lfs today with the intention of ordering some in as they never had any last week and low and behold they have two tanks of them, along with another tank full of balloon rams and another tank with some electric blues.
the electric blues did look great but the price made my eyes water a bit, they also wanted silly money for the balloon rams which I saw in a maidenhead aquatics last week for 3 quid each, so how they got to their price I'm not sure. They did look better quality fish than the maidenhead ones though.

any way got chatting to the guy in there that I've got friendly with and we made a deal on 6 German blue rams which I was happy with, There juvenile fish so sexing them was a long shot but he said there was no problem with me taking ones back if a pair formed.

so happy with the out come and cant wait to watch them grow.


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