Introducing Female German Blue Ram

[crazyfishlady_]

I have a male German in a tank. I'm just wondering the best way to introduce a female German blue ram into my tank in hopes that they will mate and bond together?

 

[ficklefins]

They may pair up, they may not. If you can, the best way to do it in my opinion is to introduce a few females at once, let him pick which one he wants, and then rehome the other ones. My LFS has been pretty good about buying fish back from me when I've done this on the rare occasion before. I'm not sure if that's the norm or not, though.

 

[crazyfishlady_]

Is there an easy way to tell if they have paired up?

 

[ficklefins]

With mine, it was pretty obvious because they would hang out together and would guard a little spot in the tank from the other rams.  They wouldn't necessarily pick fights but if any of the other female rams got anywhere near the little spot, they would chase them away.  I noticed that the male was a lot less aggressive about it than the female.  He probably couldn't care less to have more ladies but the female would have none of that

 

[peegee617]

I have totally seen that too. I had two females on their own in a tank and they got along just fine until I introduced a couple of males. Now they can barely stand the sight of each other and they go at it full tilt while the boys just look on.
 
Why does that seem vaguely familiar??
 
Here are one of the pairs. I've read all sorts of descriptives on how to tell males from females, but I've not once read how the male's forehead is more pronounced (in typical cichlid style) and flushed red (maybe that was just because he was feeling, well, you know.....)  You can see that clearly here.