Blue Electric Ramirezi Golden Ballon Longtail | Papilochromis ramirezi

Ramirezi is taken from the name of a collector and importer of ornamental fish named Manuel Ramirez, while the scientific name is Ram Cichlids, a common name known as Mikrogeophagus ramirezi, first popularized in 1948 by two people George S. Myers and R. R Harry, belonging to the family cichlids with their natural habitat originating from the Orinoco river area in Venezuela and Colombia. This fish includes fish with semi-aggressive behavior, breeds by laying eggs and lives in water with an acidity level (PH) of 5-6.5, the temperature ranges from slightly warm temperatures between 25 to 29.5 degrees Celsius.

Physically, the ramirezi is relatively small when compared to other cichlids, the ramirezi can grow to a size of 5cm, while the balloon type that has been seen in the corner of the pond is up to 3cm. Ramirezi from nature looks more colorful than ramirezi from captivity, perhaps because captive products circulating in the market are often bred by inbreeding (inbreeding or offspring).

How to Reproduce Ramirezi

Ramirezi reproduce by laying eggs, the pattern is almost the same as manfish or kite fish, laying eggs on a flat surface such as pieces of wood or roots, or flat leaves or if bred in an aquarium often lay eggs on the aquarium floor or PVC pieces. The spawning process is also the same as for manfish, before laying eggs, the brooders will clean the place where they will lay the eggs, then the female will lay the eggs followed by the male will fertilize them. After 4 to 5 days the eggs will hatch and turn into larvae and will finish the yolk that is still attached to the larvae. After the 6th and 7th day, ramirezi children will start to fly (swim) at this age, they can be given sufficient food in the form of Artemia.

How to tell the difference between a male and a female Ramirezi

In general, ramirezi will be very difficult to sort out which are male and which are female, but if they have entered adulthood and are ready to lay eggs or approximately 3.5 months, at this age physically ramirezi can look different, the males are usually bigger and look tougher and tougher. flat, while the female is smaller and rounder and the color of the belly is pink.

Types of Ramirezi Varieties circulating in the market

Quoting from Wikipedia, many varieties were developed in Asia by ramirezi fish hobbyists, among which CornerPond found the following types:

Wild Ramirez

Blue Electric Ramirezi

electric blue ramirezi balloon

Blue electric ramirezi balloon slayer (longtail)

Golden ramirezi balloon

Golden ramirezi balloon slayer (longtail)

Ramirezi’s behavior

even though it is a semi-aggressive and territorial fish, this fish can still be combined with other fish in an aquarium, but this fish will turn out to be more aggressive and guard the area when the ramirezi enters the spawning period or near the time to spawn, ramirezi This will create an area that other fish cannot enter. Parent ramirezi who are spawning or laying eggs will take turns patrolling each other to guard the egg area from the threat of other fish. Ramirezi is also a fish that loves their children, they will take turns taking care of their children until it’s time to lay eggs again, but there are cases of brooders also eating their eggs, for brooders like this based on observations from the pond corner, it is caused by water factors and age that are not ready to spawn.

How to Take Care of Ramirezi

Ramirezi is an easy fish in terms of feeding, in the corner of the pond usually fed with hair worms, sometimes frozen worms or pellets. If you intend to make fat fish, you should be given live food such as hair worms, if you want it to be easy, you can give pellets or frozen worms which are easy to get at fish stalls.

Water replacement is needed to give a fresh effect to the fish, water that is not replaced for too long will cause the ammonia content to increase and the acidity or PH of the water will rise, as a result the fish will be susceptible to disease.

In general, according to the swimming corner, ramirezi care or maintenance falls into the middle level

freshwaterfish