Lightly Medicated | H/F Lyretail Gold Ram

What “Lightly Medicated” means

This is the same animal as our non-quarantined listing, held briefly in our systems and given one short prophylactic course — a light treatment for ich and for internal and external worms — then observed eating in front of us before it goes home.

A light course knocks the parasite load down. It does not guarantee full removal, and we will not pretend otherwise. Ich is only killed in its free-swimming stage, and a short treatment window can miss cysts entirely; worm burdens can survive a single dose. Clearing an animal takes the full quarantine window — 40 to 90 days depending on the species — which is exactly what the Quarantined listing is for. This tier buys you a lower parasite load and a fish we have watched eat, not a cleared animal.

We condition the fish on our end. Every animal we medicate is brought back onto prepared food on our own systems and is eating before it leaves — in practice it is rare for a lightly medicated fish to ship out and arrive sick. Do the same at your end: get it eating in your aquarium before you count it settled.

When it ships

Plan on 3–5 days on our systems for the treatment course, and it does not leave until it is eating. If the animal is not already in our systems we source it first — allow up to two weeks for it to reach us before that clock starts. From the day you order, plan on roughly two and a half weeks in total.

The guarantees

• Shipped orders: 24-hour live guarantee from confirmed delivery.
• In-store pickup: 7-day live guarantee — bring a water sample from your aquarium so we can test it before your livestock goes home with you.

Want the full program — treated, observed, confirmed eating, and covered for 28 days on pickup? That is the Quarantined listing. Run your own quarantine and just want the fish this week? The non-quarantined listing is cheaper still. The whole ladder is explained in Quarantined vs Non-Quarantined.

The Gold Ram is a selectively bred xanthic morph of Mikrogeophagus ramirezi — melanophores suppressed, letting the warm golden-yellow undertones of the base coloring come through without competing blue and iridescent pigment. The H/F (High-Fin) Lyretail strain adds elongated dorsal rays and a lyre-shaped tail, producing a fish that looks like hammered gold leaf shaped into a dwarf cichlid.

Care requirements are identical to the standard German Blue Ram, and that’s worth knowing — because rams in any color form carry demands that catch people off guard. They need warm water (78–86°F is the real target), soft and slightly acidic chemistry, and impeccably clean conditions. The gold coloration is purely cosmetic; the fish underneath is just as sensitive as any other ram. They’ll pair naturally, spawn on flat surfaces, and guard fry with the same intensity a full-sized cichlid would, which is one of the more charming mismatches in the freshwater hobby.

The gold morph reads as warm and jewel-like under full-spectrum lighting — a different aesthetic than the blue. If you’re building a planted tank where the flora is doing the color work in cool greens and the fish need to accent rather than compete, the gold does that beautifully.

Scientific name: Mikrogeophagus ramirezi (xanthic/gold morph)
Origin: Captive-bred; wild Mikrogeophagus ramirezi from Venezuela and Colombia
Water parameters: Temp 78–86°F · pH 5.5–7.0 · GH 2–8 (soft water preferred)
Tank requirements: 15–20 gal for a pair; 30+ gal for a community
Diet: Omnivore — micro-pellets, frozen daphnia, baby brine shrimp
Compatibility: Peaceful except when guarding spawn; pair with small, non-aggressive species
Husbandry note: Keep water warm and consistent. Rams don’t show temperature stress immediately — they decline slowly and then suddenly, which is the most dangerous kind of husbandry mistake because it looks fine right until it doesn’t.