Sexing Rams?

[CSnyder00]

"Male Ram 1" and "Female Ram 2" are actually your FEMALES. "Male Ram 2" and "Female" are both MALE.
 
I'm focusing on two factors for my decision. Fins unfortunately don't show much sometimes. If you look on the black spots of "Male 1" you'll notice the blue that is on the black spot is very sharp and "pointed" where it almost seems to be lit like a star. She also has a pinkish hue on the very bottom just below the black spot. Very female. "Female 2" Shows the same characteristics. She has very pointed blue on both sides. The pinkish hue isn't there as strong, but it is present.
 
"Male 2" has what looks like at first on the non-heart side pointed blue spots, but a look at his heart side confirms male. If you look at the blue shading on his heart shaped side black spot, it is very cloudy and faded. Also no pinkish hue on the underside below the black spot to speak of. Same goes for "Female". He has very cloudy blue all through his black spot and he has no pink to speak of.
 
You have two very clear cut males and two very clear cut females. Very nice fish. Would love to own some again someday. May want to rethink the names. lol

 

[guppiegirlie]

Wow that's great!

And also makes sense as they seemed to have 'paired up' and loveheart and my other "male" which, obviously now I know is female seem to have settled at one side of the tank, and the others at the other side!

Thank you for your help, I picked a good bunch!!

 

[CSnyder00]

Yup. Sounds like they paired up. That's good luck!

 

[CSnyder00]

RobRocks, I agree that males tend to be easier to pick when talking cichlids, but it depends on the species. I am working on breeding Jack Dempseys and EBJD's right now. The female blue gene carriers look like normal jacks and have coloring almost like males. It makes it really hard to spot a female until they pair up or until they get much larger. I've bred a lot of different types of cichlids and kept a lot of different fish.
 
Like you said in your post above, it takes a trained eye and research before you can go around claiming you can sex fish. I will tell you in guppiegirlie's case, this sexing I've done is 100%. There are more factors than the spots and the pinkish hue that will do it, but those are the easiest to see for anyone looking for a short tutorial. The pelvic fins on both females are very dark black out front where both of her males have faded or nonexistent black on the pelvic fins. The extensions are not showing up as easily on any of them, nor is the pointed rear of the dorsal. It comes down to small clues that you can put together. In GBR's, the spots and pinkish hue on the bellies make it easy, even in smaller fish. Some of the fish will not have blue on the spot at all. Then what? Now we look at the belly, the fins, and all the other clues.
 
I love fish keeping and breeding!

 

[RobRocksFishTank]

You might be right about this group of fish. Behavior verifies one pair. I don't think you can guarantee the other two though, considering the age and that they are not established in the environment. I do agree that they could be another pair. I see the differences but I've been fooled more than once.

 

[CSnyder00]

I'm telling you 100%. There have been some that have gotten past me. These were easy compared to others I've seen. And these fish are actually further along that most that I've been asked to sex before on other sites. This was easy.

 

[AmtotheBurr]

Do you have rams in with the killi's or replaced the killi with rams?

 

[guppiegirlie]

No the killies were taken to the LFS and my rams were the 'replacements' if you like! The killies beating on my male guppies! But only ever at night when the lights were out, that's why it took so long to work out who was being the meanie!

But my dad had gotten them as eggs (the killies) and grew them, they were very beautiful little fish but just didn't do too well in the community tank.

My dad had some in his big tank 300l and they went absolutely mental on my moms gourami, poor thing didn't stand a chance!

So my LFS took them for us and as a good will gesture said I could pick some replacement fish, killies are quite rare where I live, they certainly aren't fish readily available in most LFS, they definitely aren't something you come across every day.

But my rams have settled in nicely. Two pairs, one at each side, and what little characters they are! Absolutely wonderful fish to watch and stunningly beautiful, they are by far my little favourites in the tank

 

[AmtotheBurr]

I accidentally got a killi from a molly tank. Noone knew what he was