All rams created equal?

[snakeskinner]

I've admired rams everytime I see them in a LFS and the more I read and see, the more I think they're for me but I notice that the different variety's seem to have different characteristics. What I have is a heavily planted (several caves) 36 gallon 1/4 cylinder that has the following inhabitants: 3 giant danio, 2 serpae tetra, 1- 6" pleco, 6 ottos, 5 small tiger barbs, 1 gold gourami and about 7 ghost shrimp (had 10 but can't find them all). I'm looking at possibly getting a needlefish and/or a couple gold rainbow panchax. It appears that the german blue rams are the most docile but also the most picky about water conditions. Other than the ottos, most of the fish I have can hold their own (not too worried about the shrimp, they're just for fun, fish food and cleaning). Any advice? I want a variety with bright colors and some of the other variety's don't seem to have the good colors from what I've seen in photos. what do you all think? Kyle

[NatakuTseng]

Not all rams are created equal. There are essentially three geographic distinctions between them that make a huge difference. There are Wilds, who generally are quite hardy and colorful, but they probably should have water conditions similar to that found in their natural habitat, and need to have chemical and pollution free water, essentially extermely clean water. Then there are the Asian bred rams, these are very weak and fragile rams who need to be in very soft water 2-4 gH, and acidic water around 6 pH. This is because they do not adjust well to harder water, and become prone to diseases and parasites on their skin, as their slime coat deteriorates. A vast majority of asian rams will die within 6 months of being in US water, unless given their specific water requirments. Then are European bred rams, the hardiest of the bunch, not very specific of their water condtions, I have two pair who spawn in my water very reguallarly, pH is 7.4-7.6, and my hardness is 8gH. They are very colorful, much more so than the asians who tend to be on the lighter side of the color scale, very pale. Asians are generally dominate in yellow, while european rams generally have much more red and are darker in color, the wilds have more blue and black on them. The same kind of things apply to the Gold variant of rams, except for the color issue. If your looking into getting them, make sure you only get one pair for your tank, or you'll have issues with them fighting, and eventually one pair will just wither away and die. The blue males have a longer ray in their dorsal fin, its usually the 2nd or 3rd ray, the black dot on their side generally won't have blue speckles in it, and they generally won't have a pinkish belly. The females will have blue speckles in their black dot, and will have a pink belly. Adult males are also larger than adult females.

[snakeskinner]

thanks, I've only seen them in one local LFS, I'll see where they get theirs. I only planned on one pair anyway. Are there any other small cichlids that will co-exist with rams? thanks, KYle

[snakeskinner]

I was finally able to go to a couple LFS's in search of Rams today and I found one shop that had a trio of very small Blue rams for a good price but I asked the lady running the store where they came from and she said that she gets them from a wholesaler and has no idea where they get them. She did, however, tell me she considers them very hardy since their local water is an 8.3 PH and they do just fine and she'd never lost one. I also stopped by the place I'd seen them in the past and they were out but may get more Wednesday. They too said they get them from a wholesaler and didn't know where they were bred. I think I'll see if they got any on shipment Wednesday and if not I'll go get a pair or two from the shop I saw them. I do like the fact that they are very young (probably 1" long"). Kyle