Why would you want to buy a deformed fish, or a line-bred mutated fish.

Rams are weak enough as it is at the moment, A balloon variation can only be worse. I hope we don't see these monsters in the shops in Ireland.

I fully concur, although I have never seen these poor Rams the mind boggles...each and every time I see 'Balloon' Mollies and those dreadful 'Parrot' fish I cringe - and that's before ever we talk about dyed and tattooed fish. Wild Rams, and even the Eastern european ones to a lesser degree are amongst the loveliest of all Aquarium Fish...why not try those?
Nature has provided us many many natural beauties in the Fish world, why, oh why should breeders feel they have to create dreadful mutants - a perfect example being Discus, in my opinion the nicest of all Discus are the 'unadulterated' Wild fish...take a look at a wild Tefe or Heckel and then make a comparison with the multicoloured fabrications we see now - no contest, I believe!

John

They are majorly inbred and and weak personally I wouldn't buy any sort of ballon anything. Why support those who think keeping a proliferating and suffering mutation for enjoyment. While the fish look well and are impressive we are surely only encouraging inbreeding and further damaging the fish trade by purchasing these fish from the suppliers etc.. We arent havent a go at you Aidann but I would like to think we are trying to represent the best interests of this hobby by simply stating the facts etc. Why not go with normal Rams,just as colourful and more natural looking also.
Gavin

Rams are one of the most stunning fish naturally, why anyone would want to line breed a balloon version is beyond me and why you would particularly specifiy that you want balloon rams is beyond me two.

Where have you seen pictures of them that makes you want them so much if you have not seen them in your local LFS. I would be interested to see the pictures as I find it hard to believe they could look any better than the real thing.

Welcome to the forum, you have gone in a the deep end and touched a nerve as far as a few people are concerned, as you see. But you are still very welcome, why don't you tell us what other fish you keep etc.

Daragh

Hi aidann06,
welcome to the forum, just quickly saying you should try the golden rams first, imo a much nicer fish, true to breed and not as weak as this mutated strain, the regular fish is much more of a joy to keep much more active and more likely to live a longer and healthier life... as you will find out i'm sure we like our fish au naturel these dyed, mutated and line bred species are generally frowned upon as being cruel to the fish and made weak by these mutations so you'll probably spend more rebuying the variety due to a shorter lifespan, hope this is of some enlightenment to you and if your thinking of other fish let us know your queries.
Seamus

sorry i touched such a nerve did not mean to im only a beginner at this so i would not no.
i have 6 tanks the collection gets bigger every day ha i have 2 breeding pairs of angelfish a breeding pair of kribs and some unusual bettas like copper and lavender butterfly pairs and some plakats.

Don't worry about it Aidan. This is all about educating one another and promoting responsible fishkeeping.

Ordinary rams are great little fish but to be honest i've never had much success with them due to my hard water and the fish themselves generally being weak.

Hi Aidann06, cockatoo cichlids are a beautiful little cichlid, if you can manage to breed angels you should fly with these, also check out some other of the apistogramma species as they are a great bunch of fish, the likes of the hongsloi, aggassi, borelli, veija etc are beauties imo.. these have beautiful colouration and are not too big in size max of 2.5"ish and i,ve never had any trouble from them
Seamus

"Dreadful Mutants" is a bit harsh John. Breeding programs of healthy strong Discus, able to withstand aquarium life are IMO good for the hobby. Hard and sensitive Wilds are beautiful but difficult for the average keeper. i dont think they should be confused with deformity..