Matt's 220 Litre Aquaoak

When see today (I haven’t seen him much) he didn’t run for cover quite as much as before and still looked healthy...  or much else to report unfortunately, but I have a feeling things are slowly on the mend. I didn’t see any sign of swim bladder is the short glance I got.

Time to temporarily purchase 3 women (if LFS permits) and see if he chooses one... (then return the 2 turned down)?
 

Quote from: fcmf on August 16, 2020, 07:36:37 PM

Time to temporarily purchase 3 women (if LFS permits) and see if he chooses one... (then return the 2 turned down)?
 

Then he just needs Cilla Black and he's sorted!

  

don’t know why they suddenly decided to fall out but these things can happen of course.

Unfortunately, they are notorious for this if they haven't actually chosen their partner; they'll tolerate them for so long and then... I've read of so many similar scenarios. Sue summed it up well ie

This is what made me ask about them being a bonded pair. With a lot of cichlids, if they haven't chosen their own partner they can appear to get on and even breed, then one of them snaps and attacks or even kills the other 

Hopefully any internal damage to whatever organs repairs itself in time, after which you can decide whether or not to play Cilla Black.

Don't forget that Bolivian rams also need to choose their own mates.........

If a pair forms there could still be trouble.

About 10 years ago I bought 2 Bolivian rams which turned out to be both male. They coexisted with no bickering. Then I found a shop with mature rams with their breeding tubes visible so I bought 2 females. As soon as the males had something to fight over, it was world war 3 in the tank so one male went into the QT. After dithering between them for 4 days, the male paired up with one female and they both attacked the other. She went in the QT as well, then they went back to the shop.


it is now believed that male Bolivian rams are solitary fish in the wild, only allowing a female to enter their territory.

Still not seeing much of the big guy though it is more and more each week... and nearly always as meal times.

In other news I’ve taken out all the aquasoil from the tank recently - quite a task siphoning it out over three weeks during water changes - moving all the hardscape and replanting all the plants etc... but it should massively decrease the length of time it takes me to complete tank maintenance... the aquasoil constantly got moved around in the tank ending up on the cosmetic sand at the front - also the goby was constantly digging it up. I’ve moved now to a simple 50% water change one week siphoned out into the garden and filled using the tap connector and hose (no sand cleaning etc.) I can do this whilst my little one plays by keeping the hose out of reach. The next week then is a tank maintenance week (a few buckets of water changed as a result of sand cleaning / holding the siphon tube next to the glass cleaner / whatever else is required that week like maybe filter maintenance  etc.). Im confident in doing this because my tap water nitrates are negligible plus my stocking less than 50%, the heavily planted nature of the tank inc floating plants will also help too. It should allow me to get more enjoyment from the tank with less input and also stop the tank from always looking messy with the aquasoil issues. I am using root tabs to provide the plants with nutrition where required. If I were setting up the tank anew I would probably have done a nutrient rich base layer under the sand. I have a backup plan to use hidden containers of aquasoil with high sides if this doesnt work out for the plants... I’m pretty confident it will though given I have established plants, water column dosing etc etc...  fingers crossed 

They are certainly stunning fish.
 

Tank & fish all looking fantastic.
Well done. 

I just won the Maidenhead Aquatics gallery competition with this photo!  Very pleased!! 

Good timing - I’ve selected the marine prize bundle which will get me started for my new saltwater tank!