How long before my Blue Ram starts to show his colors?

rsanz

rsanz

The Peacock Gudgeon Guy
Aug 22, 2006
1,574
6
38
39
Maryland
Real Name
Rob
Camera Used
Sony
I just got a Blue Ram. He's been in the tank for about 4 days now. I'm not exactly sure how old he is, but he is about an inch and a half long. Right now, he is all fleshy-colored (like, peach-ish), but he has his dark stripe through his eye and faint black marks on his side and on the front of his dorsal fin.

At what age do Rams start showing their colors? Is it just that he's young, or should he already be showing his colors and he is just stressed?

Thanks for your answers! :)
 
He is stressed. What is the temp of your tank? Rams like it quite warm - 82 minimum 86 is better. They need soft water, low lighting- or lots of cover, low nitrates and they like company. (Not to mention good foods...!)

Cathy

He/she should be showing some colors soon. Sometimes it takes them a while to get used to a new place, plus if they were farm raised in the Asian market then hormones were used to get him to grow and color up faster. Once the hormones are removed from their environment, they loose their color for a while until their own natural hormones kick in.
 
jessicar613 said:
I'm glad to hear he's doing okay. :)
Click to expand...
Thanks. :) Although I don't really know how "ok" he is doing. He's surviving, though. Now, I just need to provide him a way to thrive.

The tank's temp is at 82. The dwarf gourami and the cardinal tetras don't seem to mind the warmer water. I feed them flake food for two days, then frozen blood worms on the third day. The ram hasn't eaten anything yet, though. The gourami just started eating 2 days ago, and he's been in the tank for a little under two weeks now (like 11 or 12 days).

I'll be patient with my little ram. I already love him, though. He is adorable, and I know he still has a lot of growing to do. So maybe he is still getting accustomed to his new home. There's a pretty good amount of plants in the tank, I should add a cave of some sort, though. I have a "rock wall" type of decoration with has kind of shallow caves in it, but nothing substantial. Maybe I'll stop by petco and see what they have.
 
I bought two small rams after watching them play together in their tank in the pet shop. Once I got them home the larger one with the most color only lasted a day. The one that had less color looked loney, but was eating and swimming around. I happened to stop in a Petco store to get some supplies and while just looking over their stock I seen that they had one small ram in the tank with some other ciclids, and he looked so isolated. I bought him and when I placed the bag in the tank to acclimate him to the tank's water temperature all my other fish totally ignored him, but the other little ram came over and started to peck at the bag. My little ram stayed by the bag until I finally put the new fellar in the tank and they have been inseparable since then. I said all this to give you an idea that maybe he/she is lonesome.
 
They do actually really like company...

They may or may not go into a cave, they are not cave spawners so caves are not necessarily natural for them. A piece of driftwood would be better - something he can scootch under to hide.

Oh, mine really don't eat flakes. They like sinking New Life cichlid pellets. You could also try offering frozen brine shrimp. Mine love that too.


Cathy
 
At the LFS, my rams were hardly showing any color. Within a few days of bringing them home, they both colored up beautifully. The LFS can be a scary, stressful place. I'm not surprised mine were so pale in the store's tank!

I'm sure the potential amount of color is determined by their genetics, but I'm sure as they get settled in they'll color up. One of my rams is only about an inch, and she's showing wonderful color.

I feed omega one color-enhancing flakes. I have no idea if these even make a difference, but if you're really trying to get more color it might be worth a shot.

My rams peck at sinking pellets a few times, then ignore them and the cories dive in. They eat flakes readily, and especially like freeze-dried tubifex.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
AquariaCentral.com
Top Bottom