Tropical Fish Forum
Tropical Fish Keeping Help and Advice => General Fishkeeping advice => Topic started by: fcmf on January 17, 2016, 04:22:46 PM
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Hello,
I saw a single German blue ram in a fishtank with other species of fish in the LFS which particularly caught my eye. Would these fish be suitable to keep singly? According to the Community Creator, it would just about "fit" in my tank with the current fish I have, although I'd need to raise the tank temperature a little. I'm definitely tempted but, equally, probably think this isn't wise eg fish are fine and healthy at 24'C so don't want to mess with that, the tank seems at full capacity as it is when they're swimming around (although OH thinks another shoal could easily fit in ::)), a single fish of one species and a different temperament to the other 12 might feel "lonely" with or be bullied by 2 shoals with 6 members and quite strong "personalities" in each and there can be quite a lot of boisterous activity already.
Independent opinion appreciated re whether I'd be wiser to leave this to the future and instead get an established pair or a group; thanks.
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I think it would be OK alone - this is a fish that likes to choose it's own mate so getting a male and female which don't get on would be worse.
Was the fish a standard ram or one of the selectively bred version (eg electric blue, gold, balloon, long finned etc)? The more 'standard' the fish the greater the risk of it having recent wild ancestors. The 'modified' forms have been tank bred for many generations to get the fancy versions and are less likely to have recent wild ancestors. This is important as tank bred fish are more tolerant of a wider range of conditions, including temp, than wild caught fish. With your water, there's no problem with hardness, pH etc it's just the temp. Wild caught fish need 27 to 30 C. Harlequins range is 22 to 25; x-rays' is 24 to 28.
As a side note I have just learned that Fishbase is the best source for things like temp, that's where those numbers came from. When they give temps, someone actually measured the source water of the fish. The site is primarily a university resource; it was not designed for the general public though we can, of course, access it.