EA900 Stocking Question

[PAYN3Y]

Hi,

Thought I'd post this hear as I didn't get any responses from my Journal.

I have an aquascaper 900 which is now about 6 weeks old. I've added some Caridnals 2 weeks ago who are doing well and 2 days ago I added 10 Black Phantom Tetras and 2 golden rams.

Many people only seem to have two types of shoaling fish. I'm tempted to add a third in a few weeks rather than upping the numbers of the current breeds. Any problems adding 10-15 rummy nose tetras or will this start to become over stocked?

Current stock list:
18 Cardinal Tetras
10 Black Phantom Tetras
2 Golden Rams
20 Amano Shrimp
32 Cherry Shrimp (although some are pregnant)

Does anyone have any experience with more than two rams? I have a male and a female but would love to add two blue rams later down the line. I'm a little worried they'd fight though.

Thanks in advance.

 

[SolarPear]

Your black Phantoms look young but as soon as they get older they'll start hunting your cherry shrimp for sport.

 

[alto]

Tank footprint is 90cm x 50cm so that’s a decent amount of room for a group of rams - they aren’t really pair bonding fish so I always plan on a group if I add them
I’d do 7-9 in that tank, enough so they can squabble a bit as they like to do, difficult for any “bully” to harrass a specific fish, a mix of males & females is nice, though all male can work as well

Many breeders produce only males as better sales - though I’m confused on this as I find rams are one of the fish species where females can look as stunning as males ... smaller though I suppose - this can be done via pH or hormones
Some lines are also modified to produce different body shapes, balloon or short body, “large” (these are usually produced through hybridization or hormones or both - the resulting fish conformation is as much off breed standard as the balloons are), also longfin, high fin (also short body long fin etc), butterfly (confusing as they were called butterfly rams long before these excessive fin modifications were developed)

For longevity/health look for normal body type, also juvenile fish should not be as brightly coloured as mature fish - dull, grey fish can be stress - fish should seem active & “happy”
Overly timid fish are often ill rather than simply “scared”/stressed
If you do buy timid rams, I’d treat for external parasites (or with Praziquantel or Metronidazole, depending upon symptoms)

All the various color lines can vary from quality breeding to excessively inbred lines (usually immune system becomes very weak in these fish, breeders will maintain them from hatching to sale with various water column medications ...)

Drive the extra distance for local bred stock or nice conformation active rams

 

[alto]

Many people only seem to have two types of shoaling fish. I'm tempted to add a third in a few weeks rather than upping the numbers of the current breeds. Any problems adding 10-15 rummy nose tetras or will this start to become over stocked?

Add as many different sorts of fish as you like
Mark Evans used to add a few of this, a few of that, to determine what he wanted for the scape & his viewing preference ... always saying he’d remove the extras
which seldom happened unless they attacked the plants - such as the SAE that began excavating the HC

Tanks still looked grand

Tanks should be fine with your stocking plans
You might want to add odd numbers rather than evens (re human eye aesthetics)

I’ve had black phantoms that shrimp hunted, but also groups that didn’t ... I was actually surprised when my last group became shrimp obsessed

 

[Wulfen]

Hi,

Thought I'd post this hear as I didn't get any responses from my Journal.

I have an aquascaper 900 which is now about 6 weeks old. I've added some Caridnals 2 weeks ago who are doing well and 2 days ago I added 10 Black Phantom Tetras and 2 golden rams.

Many people only seem to have two types of shoaling fish. I'm tempted to add a third in a few weeks rather than upping the numbers of the current breeds. Any problems adding 10-15 rummy nose tetras or will this start to become over stocked?

Current stock list:
18 Cardinal Tetras
10 Black Phantom Tetras
2 Golden Rams
20 Amano Shrimp
32 Cherry Shrimp (although some are pregnant)

Does anyone have any experience with more than two rams? I have a male and a female but would love to add two blue rams later down the line. I'm a little worried they'd fight though.

Thanks in advance.

Tank looks lovely

 

[PAYN3Y]

Thanks for the info. I'm going to let these settle in before adding any new additions.

So far the phantoms haven't bothered the shrimp but they may in time. I guess it's nature and it's possible the shrimp can out breed them.