Sexing German Blue Rams

[Jozlyn]

I have a trio of German Blue Rams, I've looked at the pinned topic on them and the pictures and I still can't tell whether mine are male or female. One is way too small to sex yet but the other two .........

http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=34986

 

[Jozlyn]

If they all end up being male, are they going to fight?

 

[Jozlyn]

Hmmm, the Gourami has tanken a dislike to them too grrr he's flat out chasing them!

 

[Jozlyn]

I'm guessing Big Ram and Middle Size Ram are possibly males, they were fighting this morning, hanging on to each others mouth and sort of doing a tug of war.

Does anyone know how to sex these guys, please

 

[stang1]

Hi Jozlyn,
Just brought a pair of these today. The female is smaller than the male and has a reddish/pink tinge to her stomach.

 

[Jozlyn]

Thanks Stang. I think mine must be too small yet. Although Big Ram does have a reddish/pink tinge to it's stomach, but also has yellow shoulders, but appears to have blue dots in the black blotch, Big Ram is about 3.5 - 4cm, nose to tail. Middle size Ram about 3 - 3.5cm and Small Ram about 3 cm with pretty much no colours at all. *grins* they're very hard to measure!

 

[stang1]

I can quite believe it! My male is about 5-6cm and the female abou 4-5cm so their colours are showing really well.

 

[Jozlyn]

I've just noticed another difference between big and middle size. Big has black blotches at the base of it's dorsal fin, middle size does not, does that mean anything sex wise?

 

[stang1]

Just checked on google and if there are blue speckles in and around the black blotch on its side, then it's a female.

 

[tmack]

Hi. I had enough difficulty sexing my Bolivian Rams that I had to get help in another forum from some Bolivian experts, so I won't attempt to sex yours. They may still be a bit young to tell the sexes. Concerning the liplocking, I've seen the same thing with my still immature Bolivians. From what I understand it can be a sign of aggression, or of pairing off. Males will try to show dominance in this manner, and females can do it to test the strength of males before deciding to pair off. Of the 3 Bolivians I got a few weeks ago, I ended up with 2 males and a female. I'd seen all of them liplocking at one time or another, but it was more predominant between the 2 that turned out to be males. Mine were never hurt in the process, but I guess with some of the much larger cichlids, like Oscars, damage can occur. I've read that damage is rare, if ever, with the little rams though. The pic is of my 2 males sparring with each other. They were a lot smaller & much less colorful when the picture was taken.

I ended up removing one male to another tank so that the pair that was left could have some peace.

By the way, the best help that I got was from folks in the cichlid forum, where they all specialize in cichlids. You might want to check it out:

http/www.cichlid-forum.com/index.php

Good luck with the Blues!

 

[Jozlyn]

Hmmm that's interesting, the only other tank I could move one to would be the Betta's tank (10lt) so it would be ok in there, I'll keep an eye on them for the next day or two and if it starts to look too serious I'll move one in with the Betta.

Stang, I've done a heap of research on the Rams about sexing them, blue dot's through the black blotch mean female, but yellow shoulders are supposed to indicate male! I think I'm just going to have to be patient and wait for them to grow up. But I'm annoyed because I specifically ordered a pair.

Edit: I did initially post the exact same question in the Cichlid forum and got no response so I put it in the TFF as well

 

[tmack]

Hi. The sexing can drive you crazy! I think it's even worse with the Bolivians, and to every "rule" there are exceptions - females with some male traits, & vice versa. One thing that helped in my case was to move some decorations around a bit so that the 2 males at least could have something in the tank that would allow them to have a bit of separate territories to claim. That eased up on the confrontations a lot, but didn't totally stop them. I wouldn't worry about them hurting each other. My biggest fear was that they'd end up getting wounded and getting lip fungus but it never happened in the several weeks they were all together. The little rams are a joy to keep, and so interesting to watch. Mine come up to the front of the tank to greet me (looking for food I guess), and have their own unique little personalities. I have them in with some neons & white clouds and they never bother each other - the Rams are usually in the bottom half of the tank and the others in the top half. My big cory gets "rammed" once in a while but no harm done. I'm not sure about the betta though.

 

[Jozlyn]

Ooops made a mistake, I was sure I posted this in the Cichlid section, then copied and pasted it into a new topic in the TFF, but I can't find the post. Odd!

I'll just keep a close eye on them and move some plants to "divide" the tank up a bit.

So I'm guessing they're either two males or one male and one female, but not two females.

 

[tmack]

Not sure on 2 females doing the liplock. I know you can have dominant females, so who knows? I guess anything is possible.