Blue Ram & Gold Ram?

[parker313]

OK, I'm really not trying to be difficult, I promise I'm just trying to do what's best for my little fish.

For those who haven't been following my "drama", I bought a pair of blue rams yesterday. I tried to get a male and a female, but am 95% sure I ended up with 2 females. Due to territory/aggression possibility, I want to return one of the females. My problem is that I am not sure if the lfs has any males. I did notice in their tank that they had a very nice supply of gold rams as well.

So, my question: Is it OK to have a male gold ram and a female blue ram?

Thanks
--Kristin

 

[parker313]

Just one shameless bump, I promise

 

[ramesses]

Thats no problem Parker,you may have one and one,after all they are all the same species only a variety in color

 

[parker313]

Thanks, I just wanted to have all my bases covered for different scenarios of availability when we go back!

 

[Crookster]

Thats no problem Parker,you may have one and one,after all they are all the same species only a variety in color

I may be wrong but I think they are different species. I think ones Bolivian and ones German.

I have two very different Rams in the same tank and they don't hang around with each other at all, but they're not aggressive with each other.

Are you sure you got 2 females. i thought females were a lot rarer than males, and anyway if they're both female they won't breed and therefore should be more peaceful

 

[luxum]

No, Bolivians (altispinosa) are a separate species, the gold rams are a color morph of the blue (ramizeri).

 

[ramesses]

Crookster ,female rams being the cichlids that they are will be aggresive toward each other.They are also territorial not as bad as the bigger stronger male. I remember seeing my female chasing after a new algae eater and killing it.
I know,I know most ramis don't act this way but,mine do.

 

[parker313]

If females have pink bellies and the shorter rays on the dorsal fin and have blue specks in their black spots (read that last one somewhere else) then yes, I have 2 females.

I guess it's possible they're still juvies, but they're an inch long, somewhere I saw that they could be sexed at about 3/4" long.

Te one still has complete run of the tank except the back corner. The lfs is closed Mondays and we're taking a day trip tomorrow so they have til Wednesday to sort it out...

FWIW, the rams and tetras are 100% completely ignoring each other, even when the tetras go in that back corner.

I didn't look at the gold rams that closely when I was there, but I am pretty sure that almost all, if not all of the blue rams were females (again, meaning that they had pink bellies and short rays).

I just want my fishies to be happy. If these 2 can sort things out then I'm happy with them, but it just doesn't seem fair that one's pretty much confined to the back corner.