Back to the Glass Box - Starting Again After 3 Years Away

[Mincher183]

Just a heads up for anyone checking in on the thread. Those rams aren't rams. I see a lot of new aquarists or non SA Cichlid fans making that mistake (probably not in this thread but elsewhere).
Mikrogeophagus ramirezi is the delicate, warm water ram of the hobby - the one bred into freakish coloration. It's a readily available but at times difficult to keep, sensitive species from the Llanos region of Peru and Colombia.
Mikrogeophagus altispinosus is a cousin to ramirezi found so far, at quite a distance away and in a radically different habitat. They are larger (though still small Cichlids) and come in two natural colour morphs - a brown and a green one. The green one may be the recently described 3rd member of the Genus, M. maculicauda, which is kept like altispinosus. They are far easier to keep, hardier and not from really warm water (22 to 26 degrees, to ramirezi's preferred 27 to 30).
Back years ago, ramirezi were already popular, and the business side of the hobby marketed a lovely African softwater Cichlid (Anomalochromis thomasi) as the African ram, or African butterfly fish (rams used to be sold as butterfly fish). Then they tried to piggyback on the popular name again with Bolivian rams.
I have a great liking for altispinosus, and I hate the way they get mistreated because of their English marketing name.

Yeah for the avoidance of doubt. By Bolivian Rams, I’m talking about the Clown Ruby Cichlid (Mikrogeophagus altispinosus)

 

[GaryE]

That's cool. I have never seen the Clown Ruby trade name before. That's a new one for me. I'm one of the few people here who likes Latin names. I just call them English and get on with learning them.

 

[Innesfan]

That's cool. I have never seen the Clown Ruby trade name before. That's a new one for me. I'm one of the few people here who likes Latin names.

I didn't get the memo on that one either. And i sense that there are more of us here who rely on the Latin names than you might think.