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Can Bolivian Ram Live With Ram cichlid?

Compatibility assessment for Bolivian Ram and Ram cichlid

Not Recommended

Detailed assessment

Each of these fish has a profile telling you to keep it away from most other cichlids, and each of them is the other's cichlid. Both are described as poor competitors that need pristine water and calm company, and a same-genus neighbour claiming the same territory on the same layer is the sharpest version of what those warnings are about, not an exception to them.

Temperature closes the rest. The German blue ram needs 27 to 30 °C and the Bolivian ram runs 24 to 28, so the only shared setting is 27 to 28 °C, which is the top of what the Bolivian tolerates. Holding one fish permanently at the ceiling of its range to accommodate the other is not a compromise worth making for two species that should not be sharing a tank anyway.

Keep one Mikrogeophagus species, not both. Whichever you choose, the company both profiles actually ask for is the same: a group of peaceful open water characins, whose presence tells a naturally shy fish there is no threat about. A cardinal tetra shoal suits the German blue ram's warmer water, and the Bolivian ram takes the same kind of company a few degrees cooler.

Sources: seriouslyfish.com/species/mikrogeophagus-altispinosus · seriouslyfish.com/species/mikrogeophagus-ramirezi

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