Ram Cichlid Blog

Or he can just send it to me since I have a large group already.

Hmph, or you could send me a couple of yours to keep mine company.

 

Is the other Ram a high fin? I wish I can take quality pictures like you...My Ram doesn't look colorful like yours.

Btw...PetSmart Ram's are on sale.

 

This may seem like a strange question, but how do they actually selectively breed in order to get a balloon?

 

This may seem like a strange question, but how do they actually selectively breed in order to get a balloon?

Sorta kinda. Balloon was achieved, as it is in many species, by inbreeding for spinal deformities. This eventually leads to the balloon body and they breed from there.

 

That's so cruel deforming them like that!

BTW: I love the pictures of your rams, Rogue!

 

Is the other Ram a high fin? I wish I can take quality pictures like you...My Ram doesn't look colorful like yours.

Btw...PetSmart Ram's are on sale.

Yes, I believe she is a highfin. I hardly take 'quality' pictures. Most of these pictures suck. It takes me hours to get a decent one and I just don't want to put that much time into it lol.

;D I may have to go look! My Petsmart has Apistos now!

Sorta kinda. Balloon was achieved, as it is in many species, by inbreeding for spinal deformities. This eventually leads to the balloon body and they breed from there.

Yes, that's a simple way of putting it lol. "Short bodied" fish were what balloon fish came from.

That's so cruel deforming them like that!

BTW: I love the pictures of your rams, Rogue!

Thank you!! I just got a slightly better one of the female so I'll post it in a bit.

 

I didn't know there was such thing as a highfin ram...

 

Lol cuties. Easiest way to get pics, take a video of the fish and get some good angles in. Upload it to your computer and open it as big on the screen as you can, then use the Snipping tool https://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-vista/Use-Snipping-Tool-to-capture-screen-shots to take pics of the video paused at certain points with good quality and angles. Its how I do my bettas.

 

Very nice...did you ever get pics of the incoming EBRs?

 

Not yet. The incoming EBRs have been delayed because my friend is sick with the flu. She might go to the hospital this weekend if she doesn't get better. That puts off shipping the fish for another two weeks.

 

WOW!!!! Those are awesome colors. My GBR is dull looking compared to yours.

 

Thanks! Mine is pretty young still too and in a bare tank. If I had her in a planted tank she'd look great. Hopefully when she's fully mature I'll get lots of nice babies.

 

I don't remember, did you get her from a breeder or an LFS? I'm still hoping mine would color up eventually.

 

She's a wild fish.

 

Since you are the resident ram expert, is there a difference between GBR and Blue Ram?

Where did you get the wild caught ram? that looks stunning.

 

I'm not real big on balloons, generally, but he's a cutie <3

 

Since you are the resident ram expert, is there a difference between GBR and Blue Ram?

Where did you get the wild caught ram? that looks stunning.

It depends on who you talk to. As you know GBR means German Blue Ram. They are also called Blue Rams or Ramirez Cichlids. It's all the same fish really.

From the same guy I mentioned to you. I called him up and said I wanted a really young female ram so he went out the next day with his two sons and found an unpaired very young female. He then gave her to a friend of mine who is a transshipper and the ram showed up at my door 2 days later. It was easier than I expected but he apparently got lucky when he found the rams. They aren't normally easy to find and it can take him a week or so to catch some.

 

This is what I was informed about GBR and Blue Rams

PetCo employee informed me that the difference between GBR and Blue Rams are the coloring...GBR were bred in Germany to develop stunning colors while Blue Rams are just boring GBRs that weren't bred for their colors. That explanation sounds feasible....

However, after seeing your Wild Caught, that color is extremely stunning. I think I just got a dull colored female in my tank.

 

Uhh... no lol. I believe they were first bred in captivity in Germany and that's why they are called German Blue Rams. It has very little to do with color unless you are talking about different strains.

Hahaha you don't have a dull female. She's quite pretty.

 

I just got confuse, at Petsmart I see them labeled as Blue Rams, and one of the LFS have them labeled German Blue Rams...

I like yours better

 

They are usually dull until they mature. At least that's been my experience with LFS rams.

 

LOL they are the same thing! Some people call them Angel Rams. Doesn't mean they are a different fish. That's a good example of why I prefer to use scientific names lol.

 

I think I will adopt that practice then....I still like your Mikrogeophagus ramirezi.

Probably that is it, I know when I got her she was still a juvie...

 

Isn't a dark substrate supposed to make them look more colorful? My rams show more color directly over their driftwood as opposed to the sand.

 

Lighting plays a big part in that so it depends.

 

Mr. Ram King, I've been trying to look for a picture of Red Rams, do you happen to have any?

 

Here's a good example -

 

Oh Lordy!! The Red Rams is beautiful!!!! You should order and breed those I wouldn't mind having that one in my tank.

 

Oooh. Didn't know those existed <3

 

Here's a good example -

Looks like a really high quality Gold Ram.

 

Purty <3

 

Got my rams this morning!

They looked really good right out of the box for being in the mail for 4 and a half days.

 

They look great Dill!!!

 

Very nice color!!

 

I got mine today too, had to drive an hour and back. Will be QTing and nursing them to health at my place instead of the warehouse.

Did you do drip or plop?

 

Are they in bad health?? sorry.

I am still dripping. Been about...8 hours so far and I'm getting ready to put them in my tank. Dripped really slow because of the low pH in their water. Also their water was higher in ammonia and nitrates than I would have liked (common in long shipments) so that's another reason I'm dripping really slow.

BTW These fish have been in the mail for over 8 days! Just goes to show how hardy they are ;D. I dunno if I mentioned this to you Amazon but while I was going over their genetics sheet (came in the box with mine) I found out that their sire was one of my rams! He was my biggest and best breeders.... and he was half purple .

 

They look fine, just one bag is extremely dirty. If I combine all three bags, I still don't think I have enough water for the bucket.

 

I did my usual float/add water every 30 minutes for about 3 and a half hours, then put them in.

 

I bought that drip acclimation gizmo that I showed you before so I'm using that one on the bag with the dirtiest water, while the other two, I'm adding .5ml every minutes unless you see something wrong with that method.

 

.5ml!? Isn't that gonna take like.... days? lol

I still need to order that thing. I'm waiting till some other stuff goes on sale on amazon so I can get it all at once.