# German Rams



## fishbubbles (Sep 16, 2011)

I have had two german rams for a few months now and I have not had any fry. They live in a ten gal with neons and shrimp. Im wondering if the neons are eating the eggs before I see them. Or maybe I have two of the same sex. I have noticed one does have a red belly a lot so maybe thats the female, but it is larger than the other. The one I think is a female does have the blue spots on the black large spot under the dorsal fin. The other has no bkue spots. If I did want to breed should I take out the other fish? I do have another tank for the neons and ghost shrimp. Could the shrimp stay or would they try to eat the eggs too? Also they do live in a tank with lots of plants like java moss and java fern. What else can I enhance the tank with to make them more likely to mate and be happy? Thanks!


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## emc7 (Jul 23, 2005)

neons are egg and fry eaters, don't know about shrimp. I'd expect the rams to eat them. Unless you see the rams guarding an area, you likely don't have eggs yet.. Females have a red belly which gets redder when they want to spawn. If the 2 hang out together all the time, they may be a pair. Or you may have too young a male to spawn yet. Plants are fine, but you should put in a cave. a flower pot or any sort of hard container with one hole just big enough for the fish. If you have a cave, when you will see the female disappear and the male drive other fish away from the entrance, then you may have eggs. Rams need warm (over 80), clean water and protein in their diet to spawn. Next big storm, do a big water change, it might trigger a spawn if you have a pair. 

I would wait until you are sure you have a pair, and then remove the neons.


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## bchbum16 (Jun 21, 2011)

Any way you could get a bigger tank? No offense but a 10 gallon tank is way too small for them... plus having neons with them in that tank is just too many fish in that tank IMO. I keep neons with my pair of rams and don't have a problem with my pair spawning. They are probably too stressed to breed. If you could find a 20 gallon you may have a lot better luck.


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