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Long Finned Rams:
This information is basically the same as the “German” Blue Rams.
Total size: 21/2 – 3in.
Adaptable temperatures: 76-82 degrees F
Swimming range: Mostly lower levels but may swim higher when fed.
Scientific Name: Papiliochromis ramirezi
Life span: Not usually longer than 2 –3 years in home aquariums.
Rams, rams, rams. Well these little fish will most deffinatly shock you by keeping them. Their personalities are like no other Amazon fish. Yes indeed they are cichlids and by watching their behavior, you can tell they are related to the larger bullies. They act like cichlids, only mini (hence the name dwarf cichlid). Rams have a horrible little rumor that they are hard to keep, which yes is true, unless you have the right setup and very clean water. If your main goal was to keep a discus tank, than rams could be their roommates. Rams NEED clean water. They are very shy when it comes to human interaction, which unfortunately makes them easy to stress out (which also results in death). Rams are found in Paraguay, and upper regions of Brazil in the Amazon basin. In the wild they are found at water with PH levels of 5.0 (yet another discus similarity). The best PH to have in your home aquarium is 6.0 – 6.5 because this “PH friendly” for all the tank mates you may want. When breeding they lay their eggs in batches on flat surfaces such as slate rock, river rock, and driftwood. Even if you aren’t planning on spawning them, driftwood is a must! Caves and isolated hiding spaces are very important to rams. Because of their cichlid behavior, they are very territorial, especially when it comes to spawning, so many hiding places are needed to keep them stress free. The amount of rams you have is based off of the amount of base surface you have. Technically each pair of rams should have their own two square feet of area (meaning no tanks under a 20 gallon long). This makes keeping rams annoying because they are very pretty and often times we don’t have tanks larger than 20 gallons. In my 75gallon tall aquarium, I plan on have 6 rams. Even though the tank is only 4 feet long, it is 15 ½ inches wide (and when the math is done, that is more than enough square feet for 6). A word of caution, if your rams to pair and spawn (which is very rarely the case) then make sure you watch out for any possible corydoras you have in the tank. Because they swim in the same general areas, the rams are said attack them resulting in cory eye loss. Now, the long finned thing with these is very rare. Long finned anything is almost never seen, but its close to unheard of for rams. When the rams have long fins its near impossible to tell females from males because their anal fin is elongated as well as the tail and all other fins. The ram is a great fish for people who are willing to what is needed in keeping them well.
Good tank mates:
Altum angelfish
Angelfish
Discus (Heckel or brown discus are best)
Assorted tetras (cardinals and rummy nose are best)
Corydoras (except when breeding due to them eating ram eggs)
And quite possibly other dwarf cichlids, but not recommended.
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