wild gold rams??

[aspen]

i was talking to my lfs guy yesterday, and he said he ordered some wild blue and gold rams from brasil. i thought the gold ram is a tank bred hybrid. am i mistaken? maybe he was mistaken about them being offerred as wild?

rick

 

[Neil]

Rick,
To the best of my knowledge, golds are aquarium strain. But they had to occur somewhere along the line, so a gold gene may have shown up in a wild batch. However, this is not my forte.
One thing though. Just because your LFS are getting them from South America, doesn't necessarily mean that they are wild. Some of the wholesalers down there do produce tank raised fish. If you ask me, that would be a great place to breed apistos, etc. Everytime you need to do a water change, you just go to the creek with a bucket. Instant peat-filtered water with optimun parms!@! 8O :roll:
Neil

 

[tjudy]

There used to be a guy in Belize breeding African and S.A. cichlids, then sending them to the USA as imports... Many people thought 'import = wild'.

The golden color form of ram might appear in the wild, but I doubt that they would in numbers, nor do I suspect that they would survive in numbers. I suspect that if they are coming from S.A., then they are being produced there. Nothing wrong with that!!

 

[Randall]

Wild Gold Rams

Dear Rick,

Wow, how I love this forum! Where else can a guy or gal get information from several different sources, essentially in synch, yet with differences.

The gold form of M. ramirezi is indeed an aquarium strain. I have seen photos, however, of a very golden wild M. ramirezi. It would appear that this species exhibits differing coloration from population to population in the wild.

M. ramirezi is essentially a blue/gold fish. You might ask your LFR to check with his/her distributor to determine if indeed the fish you mention are wild caught or tank raised.

Good luck!

Randall Kohn

 

[adder]

Randall, my own experiences and converasations with other experienced Ram keepers tell me that they I and they have never heard or seen a wild strain of a golden Ram. My own knowledge dictates (and I could ofcourse be wrong) that the Golden Ram does not exist in the wild and is an 'aquarium' strain like you say. Do you have any pictures of this wild strain that showed golden colors? Thanks.

 

[Randall]

Golden Microgeophagus ramirezi

Dear Adder,

Wild Microgeophagus ramirezi are essentially a gold/blue fish. The wild Ram to which I refer is an unusually golden to golden yellow variety and not the aquarium bred strain that you mention. Unfortunately, I have no photo to share with you. It was some months ago, but if I remember correctly, the photo and the fish in question belonged to Julio Melgar, a well known and respected collector and exporter in Peru.

Should I be able to locate the photo, I would be happy for you to see it.

All the best,

Randall Kohn

 

[adder]

Interesting stuff. I hope you find the pic some day. I would love to see the wild strain of a 'golden/yellow' ram.

 

[cichlidfan]

I talked to the guy who orders for the aquarium that i work at here in Aus. and he said that the gold ram did exist in the wild, but it was more of a bronze colour, rather than the gold variety seen in aquariums. So technically, if he is right, both assumptions would appear to be correct... to a certain extent. :roll: :roll: :roll: