The gold ram is a yellow to gold line of the ram, a peaceful dwarf cichlid with blue speckling that catches the light. It suits a warm community tank and a keeper with a little experience.
Did you know
The gold ram shows the difference between a color line and a color change. Its gold is fixed for life, while a standard ram can turn pale or dark within minutes as its mood shifts.
Caring for the gold ram
Gold rams do best in a mature, stable tank rather than a freshly set up one. Give a pair at least 18 gal (70 L), with a fine substrate and cover. They spend most of their time in the middle of the tank.
Keep the water warm, soft and acidic, at 81 to 86°F (27 to 30°C) and a pH of 5.5 to 7.0. Rams are sensitive to nitrates and unstable conditions, so hold the water quality steady.
Feed micro pellets and a quality flake, plus frozen bloodworms and brine shrimp. Gold rams are peaceful and get along with calm tank mates that like the same warmth.
Females still show a pink to red belly in condition, so sexing works as it does on a standard ram. Rams form monogamous pairs, spawn on the substrate and guard their eggs and fry.
Both parents fan the eggs and pick off any that fungus over. They move the fry from spot to spot as they grow. Breeding is hard, and reduced fertility and weaker parental care show up across most line bred ram varieties, not just this one.
Good to know
The gold ram is a xanthic line of Mikrogeophagus ramirezi, a dwarf cichlid in the family Cichlidae. Its dark melanin pigment is reduced, so the yellow layer shows through unopposed. The eye bar, dark bars and flank spot usually go with the melanin, which separates a gold ram from a merely pale one. Depth of gold varies by supplier, and washed out cream fish turn up in cheap batches. German gold ram is the same fish. The German label comes from the German blue ram strain and does not tell you where the batch was farmed. Breeders report that the line breeds true when kept pure, while a cross back to a standard ram brings back the normal pattern.
In the wild
The gold ram is one of the older ram color lines and has been in the trade for many years. No originator or date is documented. Gold stock is farmed in Southeast Asia, Europe, Israel and North America, and much of the trade supply ships from Thailand and Indonesia. The gold ram exists only in captivity, and none swim in the wild range.
Weekly picks
Tank mates
The gold ram is a peaceful, social species that keeps to the middle. These picks share a community profile with it, are safe together in both directions, and overlap on water type, temperature and pH.
A female gold ram still shows a pink to red belly when in condition. That lets you sex gold rams the same way as standard rams.
How does a gold ram breed?
Gold rams form monogamous pairs, spawn on the substrate and guard their eggs and fry together. Breeding them is hard, and reduced fertility and weaker parental care show up in most line bred ram varieties.
3.1 in (8 cm)45 gal (170 L)75–82°F (24–28°C)
2.4 in (6 cm)14 gal (54 L)77–86°F (25–30°C)
2.2 in (5.5 cm)20 gal (75 L)68–82°F (20–28°C)
3.5 in (9 cm)20 gal (75 L)79–86°F (26–30°C)
3.9 in (10 cm)20 gal (75 L)75–81°F (24–27°C)
3.9 in (10 cm)55 gal (210 L)68–82°F (20–28°C)