German Blue Ram information
The German blue ram is a colorful and fairly peaceful dwarf cichlid. It is a popular aquarium fish, but is not recommended for beginners.
The scientific name of the German blue ram is Mikrogeophagus ramirezi. It belongs to the subfamily Geophaginae in the cichlid family. The fish is named after Manuel Ramirez, one of the first collectors and importers of German blue ram for the aquarium trade. The species was scientifically described in 1948 by George S. Myers and R. R. Harry, who considered it a part of the genus Apistogramma.
If you read about the German blue ram in older sources, you might find older scientific names such as Apistogramma ramirezi, Microgeophagus ramirezi, Papiliochromis ramirezi, Pseudoapistogramma ramirezi and Pseudogeophagus ramirezi. As you can see, the German blue ram has been moved a lot between various genera.
The German blue ram has been given many different common names in English, many of them alluding to the beautiful coloration of this species or to a specific strain. It is for instance known as Blue Ram, Golden Ram, Butterfly cichlid, and Dwarf butterfly cichlid. The names Ramirez’s dwarf cichlid, Ramirezi, Ram cichlid and Ram are also used.
In Asia, several strains of Mikrogeophagus ramirezi have been developed for the aquarium trade. Aquarists can for instance purchase unusually yellow rams, known as Golden rams or xanthistic rams. Xanthochromism (also called xanthochroism or xanthism) causes animals to be usually yellow due to an excess of yellow pigment, or possibly due to a loss of darker pigments that allows the yellow pigments to dominate the coloration. Asian ram breeders have also developed rams with large, high-bodies and elongated fins. It should be noted that Golden rams and rams with unusual bodies tend to be more sensitive than the normal wild-type German blue ram. Low fertility and poor brood care are also fairly common. Other popular strains include the dark knight ram, the balloon ram, and the electric blue ram.
The German blue ram can become at least 3 years old.
The German blue ram lives in the Orinoco River basin, in Los llanos of Venezuela and Colombia. Los llanos mean “the flat plains” in Spanish and is a large area of tropical grassland plain located east of the Andes in north-western South America. In this area, the water is warm and the temperature will typically stay within the 25.5-29.5 ºC (78-85 ºF) range. The water is soft and acidic with a pH-value around 5.
The sites where German blue rams have been found generally have slow-flowing water. The color of the water can be anything from dark tea-color to completely clear. German blue rams are normally only found where there is plenty of covers consisting of aquatic plants or submerged land vegetation.
Appearance
The male German blue ram can reach exceed 7 cm (2.7 in) in length, while the female fish stays a bit smaller. The German blue ram is rather stocky built and flamboyantly colored. The main body color is yellow-green and decorated with blue dots that extend into the dorsal, anal and caudal fins. You can also see seven faint interrupted dark vertical stripes on the flanks of the fish, and one intense stripe that runs vertically downwards across the head through the eye. Wild German blue rams will normally have more noticeable bars compared to aquarium-bred strains. In specimens with pale bars, the second bar on the flank can look more like a single black spot than one of several bars. The flanks of the German blue ram are grey or blue, while the head and chest are yellow, gold and black with blue shades. There is a red patch on the belly and you can also see a red patch near the eyes. Red and blue dominates the pelvic fins, while the large dorsal fin is yellow with black at the front edge. The upper and lower lobes of the dorsal fin and tail fin are red.
