2 × Gold Ram Cichlids (Mikrogeophagus ramirezi)

Gold ram cichlids: what arrives in this two-fish pack

Order this listing and two gold rams come to you in the same parcel, each one 3–3.5 cm long when we pack it. That measurement describes the fish on the day it leaves us; it is not the size it will reach. They are sold as two fish, not as a guaranteed male-female pair. We put that up front because rams are pair-forming cichlids, and the sexes of your two fish decide how they will share a tank. There is a full section on that further down this page.

A gold ram is a colour form of the ram cichlid, Mikrogeophagus ramirezi, not a species of its own. Wikipedia groups gold and electric blue rams together as xanthic morphs, the term for forms in which yellow pigment dominates, and Seriously Fish lists gold among the ornamental strains produced for the hobby, alongside long-finned, electric blue, pearl and balloon fish. Everything the scientific sources say about the species applies to a gold ram: the warmth, the soft water, the pairing behaviour and the need for a mature, very clean aquarium.

Names you will see

The ram was first described in 1948 by Myers and Harry as Apistogramma ramirezi, and Wikipedia credits the species name to Manuel Ramirez, one of the first people to collect and import it for aquarists. It has since passed through several genera. Older books and labels use Papiliochromis ramirezi or Microgeophagus ramirezi, and our own stock records still list this fish as Papiliochromis ramirezi 'gold'. FishBase treats Mikrogeophagus ramirezi as the accepted name, and Seriously Fish notes that Mikrogeophagus is now generally accepted as correct. So if you have been searching for gold Apistogramma rams, this is the fish, but it is no longer placed in Apistogramma.

The pack in brief

• What you get: two gold rams, 3–3.5 cm each at dispatch.
• Sexes: not selected; this is not sold as a guaranteed male-female pair.
• Adult size: 4.2 cm standard length, the maximum FishBase records.
• Temperature: 27–30 °C.
• Water: soft and acidic; we suggest pH 5.5–7.0 and 1–10 dGH.
• Aquarium: mature, gently filtered, at least 60 cm long for one pair.
• Diet: sifts sand for food; frozen, live and sinking dried foods.
• Character: peaceful with other species, but males will not tolerate other males.

If you would rather have a mix of colours, the 2 × Assorted Ram Cichlids pack is the same species in assorted forms, and there is also an Assorted Ram Cichlid listing.

What makes a ram gold, and how to tell the sexes apart

The gold ram pictured on this page shows the features that set this form apart. Its body is a warm yellow-gold that deepens towards orange across the head and face, and the eye is ringed in orange-red around a dark centre. Small violet-blue spots are scattered along the rear half of the flank and repeat in rows over the dorsal fin, the anal fin and the tail. The fins themselves are pale and washed with yellow. The front rays of the dorsal fin are drawn out into long, fine points well above the rest of the fin. Just as striking is what is missing: the dark spot below the dorsal fin that Wikipedia describes in the species is not visible on this fish.

Gold, like electric blue, is a bred form, and individual fish may not match the one pictured exactly. Seriously Fish also notes that farmed rams are generally raised on dried foods high in carotenoid pigments, which are used to intensify colour, so the depth of gold you see can reflect diet as well as breeding.

How big gold rams grow

Rams are tiny by cichlid standards. FishBase records a maximum standard length of 4.2 cm for males and unsexed fish; Seriously Fish gives 40 mm, again as standard length; and Wikipedia puts adult males at 34–40 mm, with females a little smaller. Standard length stops at the base of the tail and leaves the tail fin out, so an adult measured from snout to tail tip comes out longer than those numbers.

Your two fish arrive at 3–3.5 cm. Because dispatch sizes and standard length are different measurements, it is hard to say exactly how much growing each fish has left, but you are buying young rams with some filling out still to do, not finished adults. That has an upside: you see them colour up and, if you are lucky with the sexes, start to pair.

Telling males from females in a gold ram

Sexing any ram is easier once the fish are adult, and gold rams remove one of the most useful clues. Here is what the sources describe, and how each cue holds up in the gold form:

The honest summary is that two 3–3.5 cm gold rams cannot be reliably sexed by eye, which is exactly why this pack is not sold as a pair.

Related forms

If you like the species but want a different colour, the Electric Blue Ram is the other xanthic form Wikipedia mentions, and the 2 × Longfin Ram Cichlids pack offers two fish with extended finnage. All of them share the gold ram's water needs and the same rule that males do not get on with other males.

Can two ram cichlids be kept together?

Yes. Keeping rams in twos is exactly what FishBase recommends, and a settled pair is the best way to see the species at its most interesting. The catch is that "two rams" and "a pair of rams" are not the same thing, and with an unsexed pack you need to understand the difference before the fish arrive.

How rams sort themselves out

Seriously Fish describes young rams as gregarious. As they reach maturity they start to form pairs, and a pair that is breeding will defend a patch of tank roughly two feet across. Wikipedia adds that the species forms monogamous pairs before spawning and that males do not tolerate other males. Put those facts together and you can predict the possible outcomes for a pack of two.

• A male and a female. The best case. Given a mature tank with cover and a flat stone or two, they may well bond and behave as a pair.
• Two females. You avoid the male-against-male rivalry the sources warn about, though you will not see a true pair or any breeding.
• Two males. This is the combination to plan for. Seriously Fish notes that with ornamental forms, in many cases only males are distributed, so two males is a real possibility with any bred ram. In a small tank one is likely to be harried by the other.

Planning for every outcome

The safe approach is to set up for the awkward case and enjoy it if you get the good one. Give the two fish more room than the bare minimum, break up sight lines with wood and planting so one fish can get out of the other's view, and keep a spare tank or a plan for rehoming if one is clearly being bullied. Watch them most closely as they mature, since that is when Seriously Fish says pairing behaviour begins.

How many ram cichlids should be kept together?

For most keepers the answer is two: one pair to a tank of at least 60 cm, with a shoal of small peaceful fish for company. A single ram can live perfectly well with suitable companions, though it will never show pair behaviour. More than two rams calls for a longer tank with clear, separate territories, because each pair that forms will want its own two-foot patch. Simply adding more rams to a 60 cm tank does not give them more company; it gives them more to fight over.

From the Orinoco llanos to your aquarium: water for gold rams

Gold rams are bred in captivity, but their needs were set long ago in the wild. FishBase gives the species' range as the Orinoco River basin, in the llanos of Venezuela and Colombia, and Wikipedia describes it as endemic there. Seriously Fish mentions one specimen reportedly taken from the rio Purus in Brazil, but the Orinoco llanos are the ram's home.

Seriously Fish paints the llanos as tropical savannah: grassland, forest and plains that flood each year, close to 600,000 square kilometres in all, with a sharp wet and dry season and heat all year. Wikipedia describes the ram's water there as warm at 25.5–29.5 °C, acidic at pH 5.2–6.7, slow-moving and low in dissolved minerals, sometimes clear and sometimes stained dark with tannins, with plants providing cover. FishBase classes the fish as benthopelagic: it lives on and just above the bottom.

Turning that into numbers

• Temperature, 27–30 °C. This is the range both FishBase and Seriously Fish give. Wild readings reach down to 25.5 °C, but a tank set at 27 °C or above satisfies all three sources at once.
• pH, 5.5–7.0. FishBase gives 5.0–6.0, Seriously Fish allows 4.0–7.0, and the wild readings fall between. Our suggested 5.5–7.0 is a workable middle, and the lower end is nearer the natural water.
• Hardness, 1–10 dGH. That is Seriously Fish's range; FishBase lists 5–12 dH. Either way, soft. Seriously Fish advises against mixing rams with fish that need hard water.

Clean water is not negotiable

Of all the points in this guide, this is the one that matters most. Seriously Fish states that rams need pristine water and must never be placed in a new or biologically immature aquarium. It also suggests regular water changes of 10–15% in preference to occasional large ones, so the chemistry stays steady. When water quality slips, the same source warns that rams become prone to a condition resembling head and lateral line erosion, better known as hole-in-the-head in other species.

A routine that suits a pair of gold rams:

1. Change 10–15% of the water every week, using water already brought to tank temperature and to the same hardness and pH.
2. Vacuum lightly over the open sand where food collects; you do not need to dig through the whole bed each time.
3. Test for ammonia and nitrite, which should both be zero, and keep nitrate low.
4. Rinse sponges in old tank water rather than tap water to protect the filter's bacteria.
5. Lift out any food the rams have not cleared.

Hard tap water is the usual stumbling block. Blending it with reverse osmosis water to a fixed ratio, and using that same blend for every change, gives you soft water that stays consistent from week to week. Sort this out, and test it, before the rams are ordered.

Setting up a tank for a pair of gold rams

FishBase gives 60 cm as the minimum aquarium for the species, kept in pairs. Seriously Fish is more specific: a footprint of 60 × 30 cm, about 54 litres, will house a single pair. That makes 60 cm the starting point for this two-fish pack, and a longer tank a sensible upgrade if there is any chance your two turn out to be males.

Laying it out for an unsexed pair

Because you cannot know in advance whether your two gold rams will pair, design the layout so it works either way. Put wood and planting in two or three separate clumps rather than one central heap, so the tank divides into zones and a fish chased out of one area can disappear into another. Leave open sand between the clumps for feeding and display. Set a flat stone near each clump. If the fish do pair, they will pick one; if they are two males, each has somewhere to stake a claim without living nose to nose.

Light-coloured sand shows off gold fish nicely, and the shade from wood and leaves gives them somewhere to retreat when they want to. Tannins from wood and leaves will tint the water, which is normal for the species in the wild.

Maturity first

Run the tank, with its filter and heater working, until it is fully mature and your water tests are steady before you order. A ram added to a tank that is still settling is going against the clearest advice in every source we used.

Dither fish and other tank mates for gold rams

Seriously Fish does not recommend rams for a general community aquarium, for two reasons: they need pristine water and they are poor competitors. That rules out a busy mixed tank, but it does not mean a gold ram should live alone. The right companions actually help.

What dither fish do

"Dither fish" are calm, visible fish that swim in the open and signal to a shy species that it is safe to come out. Seriously Fish makes the same point for rams: groups of peaceful, open-water characins are particularly recommended, because the presence of small shoaling fish appears to be taken as a sign that there is no immediate threat. A relaxed shoal overhead can therefore help a ram feel safe enough to stay in view.

Good choices

• Cardinal tetra (Paracheirodon axelrodi). Named by Seriously Fish as a ram companion that meets its temperature needs.
• Green neon tetra (Paracheirodon simulans). Also named by Seriously Fish on the same grounds.
• Other small, peaceful, open-water characins that are comfortable at 27–30 °C in soft water. Check each one's temperature range before you buy, because many common community fish prefer it cooler.

Fish to leave out

• Most other cichlids, along with any territorial or aggressive species. Seriously Fish lists both as unsuitable.
• Hard-water fish, because their water and the ram's cannot both be right in one tank.
• Anything big enough to bully or swallow a 4 cm fish.
• Large numbers of fast, hungry bottom feeders, which will beat a poor competitor like the ram to the food on the sand.

Stocking a 60 cm tank

Keep it simple: your two gold rams on the bottom, and one modest shoal of a suitable small characin in the middle of the water. Resist adding a third or fourth species. Every extra fish is more waste for a tank that has to stay spotless, and more competition at feeding time for two small cichlids that do not push to the front.

Feeding gold rams

Seriously Fish describes the ram as benthophagous, a bottom feeder by nature. It scoops up mouthfuls of substrate, sorts out what it can eat, and pushes the rest out through its mouth and gills. It will also pick at solid surfaces and take food straight from the water. Feeding a pair of gold rams well means making sure food actually reaches the sand where they look for it.

Foods that suit them

The foods Seriously Fish lists are bloodworm, Artemia (brine shrimp), Daphnia and grindal worm, live or frozen, backed up by good sinking dried foods. It also mentions gelatine-bound home-made foods mixing dried fish food with puréed shellfish, fruit and vegetables. A straightforward rotation might look like this:

Winning the race to the food

Seriously Fish calls rams poor competitors. With quick tetras sharing the tank, much of what you drop in can vanish in mid-water. Drop sinking food where the rams usually forage, wait until it settles, and check that both gold rams are eating rather than one fish taking it all. If one is pushed off, feeding at two points at once usually spreads the fish out.

Portions

Give what is cleared in a couple of minutes and no more. Leftovers rot in the sand and push up ammonia and nitrate in a tank that has to stay pristine. Lean feeding does a ram far less harm than polluted water.

Colour and diet

Because farmed rams are commonly raised on high-protein dried foods rich in carotenoid pigments, as Seriously Fish notes, a good sinking food is the obvious thing to offer first when your fish arrive. Over the following weeks, bring in the frozen and live foods above to give them the varied diet the species takes.

Health, stock quality and how long gold rams live

Rams have a name for being delicate, and with bred forms in particular the sources agree there is some truth in it. Knowing why helps you keep your gold rams well.

What the sources say about bred forms

Seriously Fish says the artificially reared forms of the ram, gold among them, tend to be genetically weak, more prone to disease, shorter-lived and less vigorous breeders than wild fish, and that hormones may be used to raise production. Wikipedia makes a similar point: many of the cultivated varieties show lower fertility, health problems or weaker brood care than wild-type rams. Wild-caught fish are described by Seriously Fish as genetically superior but more demanding, and arguably best left to experienced keepers.

None of this means a gold ram is a poor buy. It means a gold ram has less margin for error, so it pays to get the basics right from day one.

The basics that keep rams healthy

• A mature tank. Never a new set-up; Seriously Fish is clear on that.
• Stable warmth within 27–30 °C.
• Soft water, kept consistent by small weekly changes rather than big, occasional ones.
• Clean sand and gentle flow.
• Calm company and enough food reaching the bottom.

Seriously Fish links falling water quality to a condition in rams like head and lateral line erosion, where pits form on the head and along the flanks. If you see pitting appear, look at your water and maintenance before anything else.

Quarantine for new arrivals

If you already have fish, settling the two gold rams in a quarantine tank first protects your main aquarium and gives the newcomers a quiet start. Seed its filter with mature media, match its temperature and water chemistry to the main tank, and give the rams somewhere to hide.

Warning signs

These are general signs of trouble in any aquarium fish. If you see them, test the water first:

• fast or heavy gill movement, or gasping near the surface;
• fins clamped against the body;
• a fish that still will not eat once it has had time to settle;
• one ram constantly hidden, or chased every time it appears;
• white specks, cottony growths, frayed fins or pits on the head.

How long do gold rams live?

We could not find a lifespan figure for the species in FishBase, Seriously Fish or Wikipedia, so we will not invent one. What Seriously Fish does say is that artificially reared forms show shortened life-spans compared with wild fish. The steady, clean, warm, soft conditions described above are the best thing you can give a gold ram for a long life.

Spawning gold rams

If your two fish turn out to be a male and a female and they bond, you may see them breed. Seriously Fish calls the ram a biparental substrate spawner in which both sexes share brood care equally, and Wikipedia also describes both parents tending the eggs and defending the territory. FishBase, by contrast, says the female cares for the eggs and larvae. Two of our three sources describe shared care, and that is the pattern this guide follows.

From eggs to free-swimming fry

1. Choosing a site. Wikipedia says eggs go onto flattened stones or into small pits dug in the gravel; Seriously Fish adds driftwood, broad leaves and the aquarium glass.
2. Laying. According to Seriously Fish, the female lays one or more rows of eggs and the male follows to fertilise them, again and again. Wikipedia describes the eggs as adhesive and 0.9–1.5 mm across, with 150–300 in a typical clutch and up to 500 reported.
3. Tending. The parents fan water over the eggs. Wikipedia gives hatching at 40 hours at 29 °C; Seriously Fish gives 2–3 days.
4. The wriggler stage. For roughly five days after hatching the young barely move and need no added food, according to Seriously Fish.
5. Free-swimming. Wikipedia describes the fry then foraging in a tight school, shepherded by one or both parents.

Feeding the fry

Seriously Fish suggests starting with microworm, infusoria and other microscopic foods for the first two or three days of free swimming, then moving on to newly hatched Artemia nauplii. Leaf litter in the tank helps, because the microbial life it supports gives the fry something extra to graze.

Why gold rams may not succeed at first

• Water hardness and cleanliness. Seriously Fish warns that eggs fungus or fail to develop unless the water is very clean and soft.
• Young parents. First-time pairs may eat their eggs, though Seriously Fish says they often get it right after a few tries.
• The bred form itself. Seriously Fish notes that commercially produced rams can fail to fertilise many eggs or keep eating them, and Wikipedia records lower fertility and weaker brood care in many cultivated varieties.

If you get a spawn, keep the water stable, the tank quiet and the other fish few, and be patient. A pair that fails the first time may well succeed the next.

Delivery day and the first fortnight with your rams

Please read our delivery and live-arrival information before ordering. Two small cichlids are relying on you to have everything in place before the courier knocks.

Get ready before the fish are on their way

• The aquarium should be fully running: filter on, water tested and steady, and the temperature already matched to 27–30 °C. Rams in particular must not go into an immature tank.
• Someone needs to be at the delivery address to take in the parcel, as live animals must be received.
• Have your net, a clean towel and your test kit within reach.

The rams travel in oxygen-filled bags inside insulated packaging, with heat packs added when the conditions call for them, carried by a tracked courier licensed for live animals. You will receive the confirmed delivery date and tracking by email.

Unboxing and our live-arrival policy

Before you cut the tape, start recording one continuous video, and keep the camera rolling as you open the box and show both fish while the bags are still sealed. Should either fish arrive dead, dying or clearly in poor condition, email hello@tropicalfishco.co.uk on the day of delivery, quoting your order number and attaching that video. Photographs on their own do not satisfy the policy. Accepted claims are settled by a replacement with your next order or a refund for the affected fish, under the terms of the guarantee.

Acclimation, step by step

1. Dim or switch off the aquarium lighting.
2. Float the sealed bag or bags in the tank for 20–30 minutes to bring the water inside to the same temperature.
3. Remember that floating only evens out temperature. It does nothing for pH or hardness, so if your tank water is far from the soft, acidic conditions rams prefer, ask us for advice before ordering rather than after.
4. Catch each ram gently with the net and move it into the aquarium.
5. Throw the bag water away; none of it should go into your tank.

The first two weeks

Keep the lighting low for the remainder of the first day. The two gold rams may tuck themselves into the cover for a while; that is what the wood and plants are for. Once they are moving around, offer a small pinch of sinking food and take out whatever is left.

Check breathing, appetite and behaviour every day through the first week. Good signs are fish sifting the sand, feeding readily and swimming with fins spread. Because the pack is not sexed, pay particular attention to how the two rams treat each other: occasional sparring is one thing, but if one fish is being chased constantly and kept from food, separate them. Hold off adding any other fish until both rams are clearly settled, and keep up your small weekly water changes from the start.

Sources and further reading

The species facts on this page come from the three references below. Each is worth reading in full if you want more detail on rams.

• FishBase species summary for Mikrogeophagus ramirezi: accepted name, maximum length, water ranges, distribution, aquarium recommendation and IUCN status.
• Seriously Fish profile of Mikrogeophagus ramirezi: habitat, tank layout, water, diet, tank mates, sexing, breeding and notes on gold and other bred forms.
• Wikipedia article on the ram cichlid: common names, wild water measurements, xanthic gold and electric blue forms, breeding figures and the history of the name.