Gold Rams

[SarahBravo]

My lfs has just got in some "Gold Rams"....however, I'm not sure if they're Bolivian or German. They are a sunshine yellow colour all over with a few blue and pink spangles. The males have very spikey fins with heavier black markings. I know the Bolivians are meant to be hardier than the Germans. I have one German surviving out of a pair - I'd hate to buy a pair of golds for one of my other tanks and risk losing them... my water stats are okay but my Ph is high (8.4) so the less sensitive fish are best for me.

What's the best way of telling if they're Bolivian or German?

Thanks!

 

[ramesses]

First off,Germans are no more than a variety of regular blues.Golden ones are regular blues,just different coloration.
Blue rams are originally from Colombia and Venezuela,bolivians are form(of course)Bolivia.They are very closed related but they look much different.
Bolivians are a bit bigger and have larger eyes,if the ones you saw look like the german you have well,they must be gold rams.
...And by the way,golden rams do not have any dark markings,especially black ones.Orange,reddish and yellow,but NO dark markings.

 

[FrAnK3333]

My german blue rams have a dark marking thru the eye. My male and female are healthy well just my male is, my female died today becuase of fin rot .Besides that I have had them for 6 months and they are did/doing excellent.

 

[Ben]

yep, gold rams are just a colour veriety of blue rams
and just to add,
Bolivian Rams are only called rams because they are Mikrogeophagus(the same as blue/gold rams) which basically translates to small earth eater and since they were small or "dwarf", scientists named them Bolivian Rams because the blue/gold ram is Mikrogeophagus, as i said before. as well

The name ram comes from Mikrogeophagus ramirezi(the blue/gold ram) and the Bolivian "Ram" is Mikrogeophagus altispinosa.....and is just called a Ram because of the orginal popularity of the blue/gold ram.
so i dont know why it is called a ram

and i've been talking for too long

DD