New Blue?

[Cathy G]

Hi All,

At my LFS they have new rams - they say they are directly from a particular country in South America, they bypassed Florida, etc. where most of our fish come from. (The young man forgot which country...)

These rams were called Blue, but do not look like the typical blue ram. They have 3-5 verticle dark stripes, longer irridescent fins and are a little fatter/rounder than regular blues. I don't think they are "balloon" rams, they didn't look that fat. Their body color was non-discript and the color blue was mainly in the fins. The shape of their body was definately a ram shape - they were smaller than the Bolivians.

Has anyone seen any fish like this? I have a ethical problem with purchasing anything distorted where the distortion compromises the health of the breed. (I wouldn't want to buy a balloon or a painted fish, etc.) But my guess is that breeding for longer fins and different/stronger colors wouldn't necessarily be bad.

I might have to buy a couple... any advice or recommendations would be welcome!

Cathy G

 

[aspen]

hi cathy, i'd love to see pics of these fish. i haven't heard of a 'new' race of rams, although wild rams come in a variety of colours. while the 'german blue' rams are nice, i like to see more yellows and oranges on the more natural strains.

rick

 

[Randall]

Mikrogeophagus ramirezi

Hello Cathy,

Wild Mikrogeophagus ramirezi are found in the Orinoco basin in Venezuela and Columbia. Although their coloration is variable, I've never known their finnage to be. The vertical barring, however, is consistant with mood-dependant or stress coloration.

If you'd like to know if the rams were selectively bred to exhibit the characteristics that you describe, you can always ask the owner of the store about it. Who, for example, is the distributor, and are the fish wild caught, tank bred, or farmed?

I admire your sense of ethics where purchasing tropical fish is concerned.

Good going!

Randall Kohn

 

[Cathy G]

Yuck

Hi, the New Blue? were NOT. (I think that this is the last straw with that LFS, as they gave me 2 different stories and the manager was perhaps caught in a lie) The poor fish are the same old same old. Just REALLY stressed as was suggested and very very stripey. The reason for their different appearance was that they were a "Hybrid" from Taiwan. Hybrid from what? I asked. "Don't know"
All this after being promised they were from South America...
hmph.
Cathy
p.s Moderator can go ahead and delete this whole subject!