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Originally Posted by DOO-E

Well guppies are adapted for all types of enviroments.

DOO-E, almost any fish will live in wrong conditions, does that make it right. guppies like slightly alkaline semmi hard to hard water. discus, rams, angels like acidic very soft water. and raising them in the wrong enviorment can cause problems down the road.

Originally Posted by DOO-E

As for rams when they are young and growing like this you should keep them in soft tap water so they get the essential "elements" or whatever you would call them from the water.

where did you get this info from. soft tap water so what PH would that be? If you are serious about Rams and Discus you will use very soft water, our tap water out here is almost perfect as it is only 12 to 17 ppm hardness and aprox 6ph (sometimes a bit lower) but your tap water in Taber will be hard with a higher PH. the best route you could take will be to use RO water and add a discus remineralizer to it. Rams are not an easy fish to breed in captivity, yes there are some people doing it but few. the conditions for them to breed are exacting and that starts from a baby. by keeping it in a wrong enviorment you are reducing the chances of it being able to breed as an adult.

here is some info for you that I have condenced from 3 or 4 books I have.

Ram
Habbits: timid, very peaceful. should have there own well-planted,
well heated (80) tank. should not be kept with overly active fish
in a comunity tank

water conditions: aged soft acidic water (5.5 to 6.5ph).
Tank should be placed so it recives several hours of
natural sunlight every day. tempature 80 to 85.

food requirments: live foods only, preferably Enchytrae or Tubifex worms
Dried foods are seldome touched

they are very hard to breed but it is possable givin the exacting conditions.
new fry should be fed infusoria and then newly hatched brine shrimp and finly choped tubifex worms.

now having said all that I have seen rams eat dried flake food but it all depends on the fish, most that I have seen won't take dried food.

I am going to say one more thing, if you are serious about wanting to try breed Rams, do it right and put them in a species tank not a comunity tank, as you angels get bigger they willbe agressive towards the rams and they will eat your neons (did you know neons are a natrual food source for Angel fish?) well I gues that would keep the neons from spooking the Rams anyways seriously though if you want to breed something set up a dedacated tank for the pair and recreate the natural enviorment for them as close as possable. yes fish will breed in a comunity tank (I have lemmon tetra's having babies all the time in mine, but I also only have fish that are natural occuring togeather in the wild) but the chances are higher in a proper enviorment.

Steve