blue ram questions....

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Piranha
MFK Member
Apr 16, 2007
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Hello all,

I just picked up some Blue Rams (the fish I had when I was a kid). Are these guys the same as German Blue Rams? I understand that Bolivian Rams are different but GBR vs BR... are they the same fish?
 
german blue rams and bolivian rams are different fish.. from what i remember one is more colorful than the other and one is hardier than the other... i forget which is which, but my lfs has electric blue rams for sale and they look awesome.


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Reread the og post... it has been established that bolivian and gbr are diff. i was asking about

blue rams and german blue rams.
 
Bolivian rams are the hardy type, Blue rams and German Blue Rams may be more colourful but are a lot more difficult to keep. The secret is to have good water quality with plenty of water changes. The blue ram and the German Blue do not live in nature they are examples of tank bred fish. Go for the Bolivians if you want to keep these species.
 
Colors tend to be a little different. I'm really not sure on hardiness, I've owned Blue Rams/GBR/Bolivians and didn't notice any difference in hardiness just colors.
 
Blue ram is a natural fish. German blues were line bred for more blue color. Electric blues were line bred even further. Gold as well. All the same species though.
 
One of my big pet peeves in the hobby is the name "German Blue Ram." Most of the rams you see in LFS aren't even bred in Germany, but in Asia. Fish farms in Florida also raise them. Yes, the aquarium strains show more blue than the wild rams, but the name "German Blue" still seems misleading.
 
Just to add to the already good info above, basically there are two ram species: altispinosa (Bolivian) and ramirezi (Venezuala, Columbia). German blue, fish farm/tank raised blue of whatever country, long fin blue, or electric blue, they're still basically ramirezi, just different lines or strains from the original fish. German blues have a good reputation-- or did-- and a lot of blue rams come with the name, whether because the original breeders of the strain were German blues, the breeder/seller is piggybacking on the good name of German blues, or simply because it's the popular name marketed to fishkeepers. But, as mentioned already, German blue ram doesn't always mean bred in Germany or same quality as the original German blues.

My sense is a lot of the ramirezi available today aren't the same quality as years ago. Just my supposition, since when I had them 20 years ago I didn't find them to be as delicate or difficult as what I've heard lately.
 
Thanks for the info. I added 8 blue rams to my chaotic tank.
 
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