Aggressive rams eating my plants!

Q&A about South American Cichlids

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alvin
Posts: 1
Joined: Wed Apr 25, 2007 5:32 am

Aggressive rams eating my plants!

Post by alvin »

Hi Pam,
I've had a pair of blue rams in a 5g tank for about a month now, and I think they're stunning - but they are causing me some heart-ache!
I did some research before I got them and they were made out to be quite a peaceful fish, but they killed the 3 glow-light tetras I had in the tank. They also killed my guppy this week, but I think this is because they had just spawned and were prtotecting their eggs. Temperature in the tank is about 79 degrees F.

Anyway, they keep eating all the plants I have in the tank - this was very unexpected. I have tried increasing the quantity or number of times that I feed them but they keep stripping the leaves.
Can you recommend any plants that they won't eat?

(Also grateful for any advice on calming them down)

Thanks
Al
Pam Chin
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Post by Pam Chin »

Hi Al,

I think it is probably the size of your tank, it is quite small, and while a pair of Rams can flourish in it that is about it. In the wild they will chase anything out of a spawning area, and there is no place to flee in your tank.

I am not sure what to tell you about the plant issue. Cichlids chew down or pull up plants for several reasons. To elimnate where a predator may hide, they like to eat them, or sometimes I swear they are just bored. The only way to prevent this that I know of would be plastic plants.

Congrats on your spawn, rams are not an easy one to do, so good going!!!

Cichlid power!
Pam
Cichlid Power!
Pam

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