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a week ago i purchased my first bolivian ram/butterfly...
he's gorgeous. i went on the net to find out more information about them and i found out about the Blue Rams.
are there only the two types?

i read someone else's "topic" about them not eating from the top. that also worries me. he doesn' seem as shy but he really hasn't eatten...should i try thie frozen bloodworms????

German blue ram and bolivian ram are the 2 kinds typically sold at petstores, you may also see a golden ram but it is just a color morph of the german blue ram.

-Vincent

My German blues love the frozen bloodworms...they seem to hunt them among the plants.....stalking one that moves a little with the current then striking it...they are very enjoyable to watch eat!

My bolivians ate from the top - no problems. I do have a lot of rocks, driftwood, and live plants that go all the way up top, too, so maybe that makes them feel more comfortable about coming up to the surface.

To answer your question, there are only two species of rams recognized right now:

Mikrogeophagus ramirezi (blue/gold/german/balloon rams) and M. altispinosa (Bolivian/butterfly ram)

The names in parenthesis are their trade names or color morphs...but there really are only two species.

Eric

Your two species of Ram, as cited above are:

[1] Mikrogeophagus ramirezi - Venezuelan Ram, also known by various other names, including (ludicrously) German Ram, Blue Ram etc. Natural habitat of this fish is lakes and slow flowing streams in the open countryside of Venezuela known as the llanos, their bodies of water recieving intense illumination by the equatorial sunshine, and thus leading to the fishes possessing a requirement for elevated temperatures in the aquarium;

[2] Mikrogeophagus altispinosa - Bolivian Ram. Natural habitat is rainforest streams in Bolivia, some of these streams being at some altitude above sea level, and thus this species tolerates more "normal" aquarium temperatures than the Venezuelan Ram.

The genus into which these fishes have been placed is itself the subject of quite a tortuous history. Originally, only M. ramirezi was known, and it was placed into Apistogramma alongside most of the other South American Dwarf Cichlids, even though it was obvious to taxonomists that it didn't properly fit there. The first attempt to reclassify the fish came when M. altispinosa was discovered, and a German taxonomist erected the genus Mikrogeophagus (note the spelling with a 'k' - the paper was German, don't forget!). This was disputed (as is the way of these things), and a second author proposed Papiliochromis instead, claiming among other things that Mikrogeophagus was erected on phylogenetically invalid grounds. A third author waded into the mix (I think Axelrod and Burgess had something to do with this stage of the game), proposed the genus Microgeophagus (spelt this time with a 'c'), and the taxonomy of these fishes was an unholy mess. A later revision of the ongoing work came to the conclusion that these fishes were indeed separate from Apistogramma, and that the original German author was right (supported by DNA data among other things) and so, even though Microgeophagus would be the expected spelling here in the English speaking world, the Rule Of Priority laid down by the International Committee on Zoological Nomenclature (ICZN) states that the first name validly applying to the definition of a genus or species is the one to choose, and thus, we are stuck with Mikrogeophagus, the original German spelling! However, just to confuse matters, some papers still refer to the fishes as belonging to Papiliochromis and this particular mess, even with the weight of the ICZN behind Mikrogeophagus, is likely to rumble on for some time to come.

Of course, it's entirely possible that yet another species may await discovery. After all, the year 2005 saw the discovery of two new Apistogramma species whose existence was previously unsuspected, namely Apistogramma salpinction and the "super dwarf" Apistogramma angayuara, and only a few weeks ago someone discovered no less than eleven new species of cave dwelling Balitorine hillstream loaches in one location in Turkey, so watch this space and be on the lookout in case someone discovers yet another species of "Ram" in the future!


Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002