Blue Rams at Petsmart

[ApistoNerd23]

I stopped by Petsmart (US big chain pet store) yesterday and the fish guy told me "we have Blue Rams now." He had a male and two females he had just put on display a couple of hours before. He told me that Petsmart had stopped carrying Blue Rams like 6 years ago because there was too much loss. I told him I understood since I had really bad luck with two batches of Blue Rams in the past (4 weeks happy and spawning, 5 weeks white patches, 6 weeks dead). He said he thought someone must have found a way to breed hardier Rams or something for a large chain to start carrying them again.

Does anyone know anything about Petsmart and Rams and any reason they would resume carrying them again? In my very limited experience, they are a delicate fish for someone to casually buy and take home.

And also one of my favorite fish breeds. I hope to try them again one day.

 

[wethumbs]

I was just at Petsmart two weeks ago and walked by their pathetic fish section and didnt see any Rams.

Disclaimer: I was there to get some Fenbendazole. Dont want to be ostracized as someone who buy fish from Petsmart.

 

[viejo]

So they stock fenbendazole. Good to know & yes, the chain pet stores in general would be the last place that I would buy rams.

 

[wethumbs]

They also have Piperazine in liquid form.

 

[GVsailor]

I picked up some rams from there when i first got started and they ended up carrying callamus worms into my tanks. Definitely the last place I would ever go.

 

[ApistoNerd23]

I should clarify before I get pelted to death with stones. I was there to pick up some anti-fungus medication for some Cardinal Tetra I isolated because of white sores.

I'm not advocating purchasing livestock from any large chain just more curious if anyone knew why such a large chain would resume stocking a fish which is not easily maintainable by any casual aquarist.

 

[tjudy]

I have purchased many fish from Pet Smart and successfully spawned them. In fact, at least 20 species that I spawned for the Breeder's Challenge a couple years ago came from there. That being said, the Pet Smart near me is managed by an aquarist who is one of our local club's board members. Like any other pet store, the quality of stock is most closely associated with the persons running the place and where the fish come from. Any store can get bad fish in on an order. Any nimrod can open a pet store and sell fish.

I'm not advocating purchasing livestock from any large chain just more curious if anyone knew why such a large chain would resume stocking a fish which is not easily maintainable by any casual aquarist.

Tank strain rams that are healthy to start with are not hard to maintain by a 'casual' aquarist. There are some TOP TOP TOP quality rams being produced in Florida, which is where Pet Smart would be getting them (though they may not get them from the farms I know raise great fish). The strains of rams in Florida are the German blue ram and its genetic derivatives. They grow a lot larger that wild fish, and older fish often take on a shape described as having 'shoulders'... meaning that they are very solid, thick animals. Compared to a wild ram. However, I have seen wild rams grow up to look like that too. The tank strains just get that way faster and more consistently. If you are interested in getting some really good quality tank-strain rams (German blue, gold or electric blue), take a look at www.oddballfish.com . I take the photos for the website and therefore have become very familiar with their fish and their shipping practices. If a solid, hardy ram that is easy to spawn in typical tap water conditions is what you are looking for... www.oddballfish.com is the place to get them from.

 

[ApistoNerd23]

Great information Ted! That's exactly what I was curious about. I wish I had known about oddballfish a couple years ago when I tried rams twice and was heartbroken when they all died. I'm guessing the rams did not like the "liquid rock" tap water around here and my 50/50 tap/rodi blend. Maybe it's good that I had to learn to really understand water quality the hard way but man I was bumming for a while. Rams were the only fish I really wanted to keep once I saw some at a good local fish store.