European Rams

[waterwatereverywhere]

I understood that Rams are South American fish. But a LFS has some really lovely looking rams, that are just labelled "European Rams". Any idea where these might be from?

 

[lucky62]

this refers to commercially bred, and not wild caught fish . All rams are new world cichlids from , I believe south america , in the wild . However many are bred commercially at fish farms , German , Dutch , and now Europian .

 

[waterwatereverywhere]

That explains it, thanks, I knew they couldn't possibly live in the wild here in Europe, it's far too cold! I've read that it can be difficult to get hold of healthy Rams - do you know if the commercially bred ones are likely to be hardier than the wild caught ones?

 

[lucky62]

I really don't know . There is alot of conflicting information regarding these guys , someone else is likely to come along and offer an opinion . We have kept what is called bolivian rams [ different fish same species ] successfuly . The blue rams didn't do as well with us .

 

[waterwatereverywhere]

The same LFS also had 'Red Bolivian Rams', not quite as brightly coloured as the others, but with reddish tips to their fins. Is this the only kind of Bolivian Ram, or are there different kinds? (I'm assuming they weren't dyed.)

 

[mrV]

What does "ram" mean actually? I had to search it from dictionary, but only animals that is called ram has four legs So, is "ram" nickname for some kind of fishes?

 

[waterwatereverywhere]

Yep, four-legged fish, that's why people get so excited about them!

Sorry... they're South American dwarf cichlids, scientific name "Microgeophagus ramirezi", hence the nickname. And they're beautiful fish!

 

[lucky62]

What does "ram" mean actually? I had to search it from dictionary, but only animals that is called ram has four legs  So, is "ram" nickname for some kind of fishes?

Ramirez [microgeophagus ramirez], is the name of the person to to first claim IDing the fish . For bolivian rams[ microgeophagus altispinosa ]it is a nick name due to thier likeness to blue rams .
between the 2 of them they have many names .
You will find this with quite few other species of fish as well .
Fish generaly have at least 1 common name [ sometimes more ] , as well as a scientific name .
Scientific names sometimes change , and that makes researching a fish very confusing .
So if you want to look up a fish , get names ,, all names you've heard it called by .

 

[Doggfather]

they actually breed tropical fish in the Czech Republic, which supplies much of Europe with captive breed fish, so it could be from there...

 

[lucky62]

O.K. , now we could have Czeck rams .
Waterwater , new tropical fish species continue to be found , it is possible that there is a different bolivian . I haven't read anything about that yet . Maybe they too are being so commercially bred that differnt strains are being developed . Maybe it's just different sexs . I was in a pet store yesterday , and saw some 3/4" bolivians in 1 tank and in another tank I saw some others that were close 2 " . They looked almost like different species . The small ones looked much more vibrant than the larger ones . there could be many reasons for this , however , age , wild caught vrs captive bred , stress .

 

[mrV]

Fish generaly have at least 1 common name [ sometimes more ] , as well as a scientific name .

Unfortunately! Some fish has over 10 common english names, but only 1 scientific. In Finland we have only one common name and of course scientific name too )*. So it's so easy to know always what fish we are talking about. It doesn't help either that sellers make up new "cool" names, like "King Tiger Pleco" etc. because they know that people like to buy "cool names" without knowing anything about that fish.

I think both Fishbase and Aquarium Atlas (Baensch, Mergus) use common english names correctly. Unfortunately, when ever the book is printed, some genuses have already been changed...


)* We have now got new catalog of fishes' names (common and scientific). It has been done by Finnish Biological Society Vanamo. There is both scientific name and common name - so, when everybody use them, there can't be any misunderstandings. Hopefully sellers try to use them too...

 

[lucky62]

Fish generaly have at least 1 common name [ sometimes more ] , as well as a scientific name .

Unfortunately! Some fish has over 10 common english names, but only 1 scientific.

this can be both confusing and annoying . Buyer , try to be aware .

 

[fozzy_wozzy_woo]

its hard her in the netherlands if you had never heard of the scientific name but only the common name as they only use the scientifc name here.

 

[lucky62]

its hard her in the netherlands if you had never heard of the scientific name but only the common name as they only use the scientifc name here.

that could be a mixed blessing .