gold vs blue

[sharn]

after recently aquiring some blue and gold rams i have made a sad observation. i purchased 2 male and 2 female gold rams along with a male and female blue. 3/4 of my golds have died leaving my lone breeding male (one pair laid fertile eggs but ate them) and my two blues.

the fish have had the same water params but came from different sources. ive read about golds being more sensitive but maybe i got a bad batch? ive also been told they are normally infested with parasites. the blues cleared up from w/spot alot quicker too.

this is really sad for me as im wanting to get some normal gold rams out to other people as they are pretty uncommon in my country and to have a pair that laid fertile eggs and have the female die on me was devastating. maybe this is why they arent on many LFS lists, maybe theyre having problems with these fish due to whatever reason and have stopped selling them till they got it under control? has anyone else had experiences with both?

[parkap]

sharn,

I've not kept gold rams but have thought about it a number of times, so I hope someone gives you some good info. I see them quite often where I live but don't know if they're just a farm bred hybrid of some time or a naturally occurring variety like the blue rams.

p.

[Fishpimpin73]

The golds are a hybrid and notoriously known for being "sensitive".

With that said however..............

Knowing that they ARE a bit more sensitive gives you just the ammo that you need to be succesful with them.

At least IMHO :wink:

[Nathan]

i ahve 5 blue rams and 2 golden rams, i personally think the blue rams are much more nicer to look at, also ive found the golden ram male has grown a lot bigger then the blue ram male. i havnt had any problems with mine at all, no sickness's or anything just a few fights but thats all, really sorry to hear about the loss and all the trouble your having!!
Nathan

[kevkoi]

Wait... before this gets out of hand. Gold Rams are LINE BRED. NOT HYBRIDs.

A hybrid is when 2 species are bred with each other. Rams are rams... their species is "ramirezi". We must have some understanding of what is genus and species in order to call something a hybrid or a line breed. In this case, let me put this matter to rest. Gold rams are a man made line breed of the blue rams Microgeophagus ramirezi.

As to the "sensitive" or not issue of rams in general, I stress that this has to do with breeding and where the stocks are obtained from. Rams (of any sort basically, blue or gold) mass produced in Asia are hopelessly problem riddled. This could be due to too much in-breeding or poor husbandry.

However, I would say that close to 80% of the rams circulating in the ornamental fish hobby are produced in Asia :? even with all it's associated problems.

I feel that when we get the rams (blue or gold) imported from Germany, they are as tough as nails and we never have any problems.

[sharn]

good ol germans huh? we dont get any german imports over here i dont think but im really starting to think its their inbreeding/genetic problems. they are really beautiful fish, my male has some insane fins while my blues are shorter. i think maybe they are bred for colour and fin rather than quality...

either way if i find more i will buy them, if those die too im going to have one huge cry lol, i really do fancy them over the blues (i think its that purple shimmer they get in certain lights that does it for me hehe). well see how it goes but the blues are either hardier or better quality cause theyre fine!

well done kev- now youve got me thinking of trying to get some imported from germany lol, you evil evil man haha. ill look into it and if finances permit i might give it a go...

[Th0mas]

Not all local stuff are bad. I know someone in Qld who has really good quality rams and are pumping them out into the market. It's only a matter of find out where the LFS source their stock from.

In the past, I've seen some really badly deformed fish produced from local breeder. You'll just have to be careful when choosing the LFS and their stock.

There's no guarantee on German stock either, I've heard story on German exporter sourcing inferior stock from other European wholesaler (Czec, Polland, etc) and re-export them around the world as their own. It really depends on luck with what importer receives, sometime they may receive a batch that originated from Eastern Europe.

Thomas.

[sharn]

im in new zealand and its sad to say we dont have the best quality fish around and we have extremely small import lists :( ill keep looking and see what i can find