How to make a black ram darker

[Adrian Rodriguez]

I recently got a pair of Dark knight rams and they are good quality black but they are not pitch black. I heard that if I breed a black ram to a gold ram intensifies the black. Is this correct or is there another way to produce darker color in my black rams?

[Fish Folk]

This is an interesting question. What you'll find for sale is "Gold from Black" rams. This is because the Black Ram line is not always cued up with dominant genetics, so often when Black Rams are bred, they (surprisingly) yield gold rams. So (if I understand this right) what happens is then that the gold rams from black are heterozygous, having a black ram recessive gene that can be expressed when bred back with a black ram. However, your fry yield will probably only give you a ration of  1/4 what you're looking for (good old Punnett Square logic being applied).

Honestly, I think the issue here is that there's a gradation of "black rams" in the genera market now. Most are a darker gray German Blue color form rather than true Black Ram. When Cory was in Israel at the fish farm where Black Rams were selectively bred, you can see the gradation. That's why there's a few names that started getting kicked around in the hobby . . . "Black Ram," "Midnight Ram," "Dark Knight Ram," etc. 

Personally, I think the only way to really get what you want is to see the fish on video or in person at an LFS to get exactly what you want. I personally doubt that breeding a dark ram to a gold-from-black ram is going to be a solution to your color-search. But I'd be very glad to be corrected!  

[Adrian Rodriguez]

9 hours ago, Fish Folk said:

This is an interesting question. What you'll find for sale is "Gold from Black" rams. This is because the Black Ram line is not always cued up with dominant genetics, so often when Black Rams are bred, they (surprisingly) yield gold rams. So (if I understand this right) what happens is then that the gold rams from black are heterozygous, having a black ram recessive gene that can be expressed when bred back with a black ram. However, your fry yield will probably only give you a ration of  1/4 what you're looking for (good old Punnett Square logic being applied).

Honestly, I think the issue here is that there's a gradation of "black rams" in the genera market now. Most are a darker gray German Blue color form rather than true Black Ram. When Cory was in Israel at the fish farm where Black Rams were selectively bred, you can see the gradation. That's why there's a few names that started getting kicked around in the hobby . . . "Black Ram," "Midnight Ram," "Dark Knight Ram," etc. 

Personally, I think the only way to really get what you want is to see the fish on video or in person at an LFS to get exactly what you want. I personally doubt that breeding a dark ram to a gold-from-black ram is going to be a solution to your color-search. But I'd be very glad to be corrected!  

yeah I hope that as I keep selective breeding the generations get darker and darker hopefully

[Cmike15]

I think it can be a technique to strengthen the strain if you use a separate black ram later to add back into the mix to encourage the color you want. It's theory and others got the colors they want by picking from fish that had colors they wanted it just depends on the time you want to take.