I like those little rams, but as you know the most interesting at cihlids is breeding. But I can not find a female. I have read about the problems on internet, but might be somebody suggest how to get a fertile pair.

depends on the type of ram. You have to be specific so we can help.

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75g Blackwater Oscar tank, 55g rescued Koi tank, 55g Native tank, 55g Community tank, 29g Community tank, 25g Bolivian Ram tank, 20H GBR tank, 20L Black Convict, 20L in progress, 10g Fry tank, 10g Dragonscale betta tank, 3g Crowntail betta tank.

Welcome to the forum! You will have a good chance of finding mated pairs on aquabid.com. or asking around, I'm sure we have a ram breeder or two hanging around somewhere

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Frontosa Fanatic

I mean those South American's. I have seen only 2 species: Bolivian ram and I forgot another name. Anyway if there are more then 2 species of, and/or significant difference at maintenance I will appreciate the explanation.
At this stage I would like to get any pair of. I had large aquariums, but now found it more interesting to overcome difficulties at maintenance of small ones
and certainly keeping little fishes.

There are huge differences in keeping them. They have travelled under several scientific names: Mikrogeophagus (Microgeophagus, Papiliochromis) ramirezi and altispinosa. With the right names, you can do real research.
A proper explanation of the differences would be a 3000 word article, and lots have already been written. It'll take you ten minutes to find enough reading for a week...

The rams I have most commonly seen, are bolivian rams, German Blue rams, electric blue rams, blue powdered rams, and who know what other color variations there are.

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Frontosa Fanatic

To get a true pair, you need to get 3-5 juveniles and let them pair up on their own. That's what i did with my bolivian rams. Ended up with a true pair and another female and they are all coexisting in a 20 gallon long. The pair have successfully hatched their eggs but lost all the babies. It was really cool watching them care for the eggs.

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20 gallon long:Amazon Swords, Ruffle Swords, Red Flame Swords, Fanwort, Wisteria,8 Lemon tetras,
6 otos, 11 Amano shrimp, 3 mystery snails, 3 Bolivian Rams, 3 black skirt tetra and 2-3 lemon tetra fry
10 gallon: 30 lemon tetra fry, give or take...1 gallon Anubias, Fish: 1 betta

one of my LFS carries gold rams in addition to several of these species. i myself have 2 bolivian and a german blue (gbr sold as br and lacked coloration in tank. got her home and her colors really came out!)

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fish tanks are art. they represent the imagination of their owner, and one's desire to create something beautiful that enriches its environment.

There are only two species - M ramirezi, and M altispinosa.
All of the powder blue, neon blue etc are colour variants produced through selective breeding, and all are of forms of ramirezi.
There are two geographical colour varieties of altispinosa, the Bolivian ram - the most common one with brownish flanks and neon red fin tips, and a less commonly bred or imported pastel blue and green one - a stunner of a fish I haven't seen in a long time.
Wild ramirezi come from Colombia and Venezuela, from soft, acid, clean warm water. They are different from the domestics, with shorter fins, rounder bodies with more weight on them, and tons of attitude. They are livlier, fun fish to keep.They need very soft water to prosper, something that carries over to most of the fancy form rams.
Bolivian rams are larger, tougher fish that seem to like water of medium hardness, and are therefore easier for most of us to keep.

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http://s1050.photobucket.com/profile/TheReefingMadness

hello and welcome

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What happens if you get scared half to death, twice?

Thank you for the quick basic explanation. But what to do with getting fertile pair. As it was mentioned above, the advice how to get the pair is common, but the fry not survive. And I read a lot similar on Internet.

Fertility is usually not a problem of the fish, but of the water they are in. When a cichlid expels an egg, it sucks in water and sperm as it expands. For a fish like a ram, which has evolved in extreme conditions (water with almost no mineral content), its eggs maximize their mineral grab. In already hard water, they draw in too many minerals, harden and die. Meanwhile, the sperm has great difficulty making it to its target in hard water. Their reproduction is finely evolved for very specific and extreme conditions, and if we try to breed them outside of those conditions, the eggs die and an inexperienced keeper thinks the fish are infertile.
You need the right tank, and not necessarily the 'right fish'.
So to get a fertile pair, outside of the most inbred fancy forms, you need a male and a female ready to spawn with each other. They are picky about their partners. Usually, you need six, three couples, to be sure of a pair.
To successfully breed them, you need water of very low hardness, ideally a little tannin stained and acidic, and warm - 82-85 fahrenheit. A 15 gallon is a good size. It has to be very clean in the tank, and the pair needs quiet, shadows and hiding places, and peace.
The fry do best with live food to start - freshly hatched brine shrimp and micro-organisms as you'd find in java moss. If you overfeed, you lose them. They are very delicate. A lot of hobbyists get a spawn and lose the fish because they starve to death. Or, they overfeed and the fry are attacked by Oodinium sp. Or they use a too small aquarium, and the water quality can't be maintained...
I have bred and raised more than 40 different dwarf cichlids, and I consider rams to be right up there with the hardest.
If you can get a pair of altispinosa (Bolivians) they are much easier, as they don't need water to be as soft. They could do with larger tanks though.

I would highly suggest keeping them for a year or two before you start to dabble in soft water breeding. ALOT can go wrong really fast with breeding rams.

There is the german blue ram and the bolivian ram that are true species.
The electrics,powders,golds,ect are all done as mentioned through selective breeding, unfortunately even with my set ups I am having a very hard time keeping GBR's alive past the 2 year mark but they breed like crazy.

Id start with bolivian rams
Bolivian Ram, Mikrogeophagus altispinosus

welcome

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"Being ignorant is not so much a Shame, as being unwilling to learn".-- Benjamin Franklin

Thank you very much. First time I have got the clear explanation on the topic.

Welcome to this great forum.

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