Asian bred Rams!!!

[Incredulous_Ed]

Here are some asian bred rams I picked up the other day. I want to see if I can keep them alive by treating for internal parasites and keeping them in great conditions. The female is maybe a inch long and is very bland, fr some reason she showed up colorful in the pics. The male si larger and has a little more color. Today the female's belly turned pink and she was shimmying up against the male and they were rotating around each other, rubbing.

[Tolley]

They're Beautiful! Hope they live! oh yeah and what temps the tank at?

[Incredulous_Ed]

Around 85f.

[Fishalicious]

I wish you the best of luck with the Asian German Rams :19: The belly in the female should ideally always have a pink belly... but the rubbing up against each other etc. is a REALLY good sign.. means they really accept each other so you could be looking at breeding Rams quicker than you thought.

[Incredulous_Ed]

Thanks guys. The rams kind of "gasp" with their gills. They just swim and dig through the sand while gasping. is this normal?

[jeffs99dime]

very nice pics and rams! :c5:

[SkarloeysMom]

Good luck with them! I'm sure you'll give them the best chance possible. Sounds like they are already liking their new home!

[country_boy454]

Wow awesome looking rams! I don't know about the gasping and rubbing thing though. Do they seem to act normal otherwise? Hopefully you get them to breed! That would be awesome!

[Incredulous_Ed]

Well, the female is suprisingly healthy, but the male is seriously gasping, and I have no idea why. He stopped eating and just kinds swims around. Dont think he'll make it. Does anynone know what this is caused by?

[shalafi04]

no idea what the gasping is about. I thought it was a sign of stress???

I hope he chills out and does okay. They really are awesome.
I'm gonna be getting some Rams and am super excited about them everytime I see you post pics of yours!! :) yay

[Incredulous_Ed]

no idea what the gasping is about. I thought it was a sign of stress???

I hope he chills out and does okay. They really are awesome.
I'm gonna be getting some Rams and am super excited about them everytime I see you post pics of yours!! :) yay
Be sure to get quality rams, not ones imported from asia.

[shalafi04]

absolutely. thank you for the heads up? How much do these "quality rams" run ya??

[Incredulous_Ed]

Expect to pay over 15 dollars for a "german" blue ram. Ask the owner of your LFS where he gets the rams from. If he gets them from a local breeder, you are good to go. But if he doesn't know, pass them up.

[shalafi04]

thank you thank you sooo much!
you rock Ed! :)

[kkevvy]

I got my German Blues from an LFS who gets them from a local breeder for $12 each. I was expecting to pay more.

[fishfanatic33]

Ok I dont know if this will help,but when I got my female krib she started gasping pretty heavily and would not eat. This went on for about a week and1/2 and there was no apparent reason,water was good,no harassment,nothing. Then it stopped and she was perfectly fine and has been fine since. Hope that helps

[NickFish]

I get all my rams from a local breeder. They cost more but are very high quality. The ones we get at out lfs are always so faded in color.

My bolivians were $12 ea and the blues are $23. Well worth it though, I have some bolivians from petland and some froma local breeder, you can tell whicha re which at a distance.

[jbeining75]

Those things look like german blue rams.....

[Tolley]

he knows, these were bred in asia though.

[jbeining75]

okey dokey.... thats cool. Those things are hard to breed from what I have read. I am thinking of setting up a ram tank and trying to get them to breed in a 30 gallon with a quarentined 10 for the fry. Hmm..... I hope April hurries up, come on Uncle sam I need my money back.

[Incredulous_Ed]

The conclusion to teh asian bred ram experiemnt:

the ale kept gasping and eventually died, but the female was very healthy, but not so colorful. I had to trade her in the other day so I could make accomadations for some other fish. She was healthy. So........

Male asian rams will die.

Female asian rams actually have a good chance at survival.

Best just to aviofd them all together.

[NickFish]

Local bred fish are best.

Whats with the asians? all there fish are poor quality....except their arros.

[Fishalicious]

I thought the same as you and gave Asian Bred's a go about 2 years ago... both very healthy and happy and then from nowhere and with no symptoms the male went and the female followed 1 month later.. never had that happen to me with fish before - especially dwarfs.

@Nick Rams in Asia are mass bred which weakens them on top of this they are given growth hormones to get them out the door faster to make money and are often also fed hormones to color them up more. All this spells very weak, poor & sickly fish that rarely make it longer than 6 months in the aqua. They don't only do this with Rams but also with other fish that are popular at the moment.

[NickFish]

Nick Rams in Asia are mass bred which weakens them on top of this they are given growth hormones to get them out the door faster to make money and are often also fed hormones to color them up more. All this spells very weak, poor & sickly fish that rarely make it longer than 6 months in the aqua. They don't only do this with Rams but also with other fish that are popular at the moment.

Oh that makes sense. Poor fish.
What other fish do they do this with? I'm really curious to know.

[Incredulous_Ed]

The way these fish farmers think is that it makes good market sense to produce a fish that need sreplacing every week. :(

[NickFish]

It does. I've always wondered if fish companies make certain fish to live really short. Why are rams always so short lived? Even good ones never live for more than a few years.

[Fishalicious]

Most Dwarf Cichlids only have a lifespan of 2-3 years... the downfall of loving them so much ....

Mind you in the wild they rarely live longer than a year which is why they breed quite easy.

Guppies & Platies used to be pretty strong fish but since they have been coming out of Asia even they can be more difficult to keep.

[NickFish]

those asians..........
ya the only downfall with rams, such short lifespans. Oh well, nothings perfect.

[gm72]

I love rams, wish I could find them around here.

[NickFish]

you can't find any gm? usually all fish stores carry them. hmmmmm.

[gm72]

Well, you must remember that I live in very, very rural PA. My LFS is limited but is expanding/varying their selection. The next closest LFS doesn't ever have rams. Petco doesn't have them either. I'm stuck.

[NickFish]

between a rock and a hard place?
I guess you could always order online if you needed. Its a pain sometimes though.

[jbeining75]

Yeah I live in Western Maryland.... all the pet shops around here use the same breeder from New York...rams are few and far in between and when they come they have to sit for three days to get their color back.....they go fast though when they arrive and are released...

[NickFish]

I don't buy blue rams from lfs, theres a local breeders I trust and thats about it. I get a lot of fish form him. He's go 15 100 gals and a ton of small tanks. its a family business they run in there house, very messy and all his stuffs scattered everywhere but they fish are really very, very nice.

Wow jbeining, you're really racking up the post count lol. That was fast!

[Emmastaff]

Nice fish! How is the male doing? My Male Krib was kind of gaspy like this the first few days I had him. I think he was stressed. He seems better now and is eating.

[fishfanatic33]

My LFS gets most of they're dwarfs from local breeders

[Incredulous_Ed]

The male died long ago. I traded in the female because i didnt have any room. My bolivian rams are kinda gaspy but healthy enough to breed i guess.

[slinky]

Just get them. They are beautiful fish. If you can get non-Asian bred then great. Otherwise, it isn't as though all of them are made of crystal.

[NickFish]

But see, if everyone bought the asian rams then eventually thats all you would be able to buy.

If nobody buys the asian rams then they'll just stop selling them.
The poor fishes already very short lifespan is cut in half, and then halfed again, just so they will be colorful right away, instead of in a month.

[sailor]

I lucked out and got my gbr's from a breeder. They are small right now, less than an inch but showing great colour allready. You guys were right about the dither fish, I picked up 8 cardinal tetras and it has brought the rams out more.

[NickFish]

Glad to hear that sailor! Hope they breed!

[kitten3326]

Sorry to hear your male died, they were a nice looking pair at least from the pictures, I am going to pick up a couple of pairs of GBR's however I will definetly make sure they are not from asia.

[MelonMan]

i really want some german breds but there impossible to find and when you find them they cost heaps. I will probably go with the asian breds, not that i want to.

[Incredulous_Ed]

Dont go with them patrick. They will die. Mine did.

[MelonMan]

thanks i better not, i will have to have a good hard look for them though

[SkarloeysMom]

thanks i better not, i will have to have a good hard look for them though

Check to see if you have any Cichlid clubs in your area. Sometimes you can find a local breeder through a club. I found this one online just by googling Texas Cichlid society http://home.flash.net/~tcichlid/.