Is this a normal blue ram or is it something else?

[Chase997]

I have had a female ram for a while now and cannot determine if it is standard GBR or if it has wild colorations. I don't have a very good camera so it doesn't pick up the light iridescent blue spotting.

 

[viejo]

It's a ♀ normal domestic blue ram. There are subtle differences in domestic & wild caught rams but they are all just variations on a theme. German blue is just a selling name, they probably originated from Singapore stock, I'm guessing.

 

[Chase997]

Thanks
For replying I was just wondering because of how red her belly is compared to most ram pictures out there

 

[viejo]

She does seem to have a nice red belly. This is also variable.

 

[Larry Rogers]

I have had a female ram for a while now and cannot determine if it is standard GBR or if it has wild colorations. I don't have a very good camera so it doesn't pick up the light iridescent blue spotting.

appears to be

 

[Larry Rogers]

It's a ♀ normal domestic blue ram. There are subtle differences in domestic & wild caught rams but they are all just variations on a theme. German blue is just a selling name, they probably originated from Singapore stock, I'm guessing.

Actually German Blue is a hybridized color form. A regular ram is lightly speckled, a German Blue has more blue coloration, and an electric blue has an absrncrbof other markings being nearly entirely metallic blur.

 

[Mike Wise]

The GBR is not a hybrid. It is only a commercial strain of M. ramirezi. What we see today labled GBR looks nothing like the original strain developed in Germany in the late 1960s/early 1970s.

 

[viejo]

They actually should be called Singapore Or Far Eastern rams. Or even better, just blue ram aquarium strain.

 

[Larry Rogers]

Hybrid makes for confusion with people because they do not remember that a man-made color morph is just a hybrid for color. To avoid confusion let's use morph instead since it notates the same entity. The GBR is a color morph hybridized out by German aquarium keepers much like the many color morphs of discus. Generally they do not get as large as common rams and have much brighter coloration. In this area I can get GBRs, common rams, And electric blue rams. In addition a local keeper is working on a red ram. Then there are the "goldfish rams": longfins and pot bellies; if I wanted goldfish I would buy goldfish. and there are the trash rams, several different morphs of ram with varying degrees of traits from spurious breeding practices. Most distributors carry these trash rams that are unfit for food for oscars. If you want to buy decent rams you must go online or find the pet shops that are the exception and not the rule.

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,

if I wanted goldfish I would buy goldfish. and there are the trash rams, several different morphs of ram with varying degrees of traits from spurious breeding practices. Most distributors carry these trash rams that are unfit for food for oscars.

I couldn't agree more, it is a real shame that the quality of commercial Rams is so poor.

Hybrid makes for confusion with people because they do not remember that a man-made color morph is just a hybrid for color.

I think what people have been getting at is that "hybrid" implies a cross between different, but closely related species. Under this definition a mule is a hybrid (between a male Donkey (Equus africanus) and a female Horse (Equus ferus)), but if you cross 2 breeds of Dog (Canis familiaris), even if it is a Yorkshire Terrier and an Irish Wolfhound, it isn't a hybrid.

Under the same arrangement "Flowerhorn Cichlid" = hybrid, "Ballon Ram" = variety, both = monstrosity.

cheers Darrel

 

[Mike Wise]

Hybrid makes for confusion with people because they do not remember that a man-made color morph is just a hybrid for color.

Hybrid: Offspring of a cross between genetically dissimilar individuals; in taxonomy often restricted to the offspring of interspecific crosses. ("A dictionaray of ecology, evolution and systematics" Cambridge Univ. Press). I strongly doubt that color morphs within a species are 'genetically dissimilar'. Man-made color morphs are better described as different 'strains', but not hybrids. Just my opinion.

 

[Larry Rogers]

I,'ll go with strains. Better communication of the idea.