Blue Ram

[tropical_adam]

Simple question, maybe not so simple to answer! I have two blue rams and was just wondering how you define whether they are male or female.

One has a black markning striked horizontally across its body. is this an indication?

 

[Cian McLiam]

The sexes are very hard to distinguish before they are sexually mature, but the female may have blue spangled scales in her large black dot behind the gills and a red to purple tummy. Males wont have the blue scales, and have a longer dorsal first ray.

Ken

 

[fishgeek]

the female may also have an obvious white ovipositor , around about vent region, should have quite a broad silhoutte

ken it seems you and i have smilar interest's

andrew

 

[Auratus]

Good luck. My males and females look exactly the same. The biggest one with the brightest coloration and longest dorcal spike is my female! She has laid 6 batches of eggs in 3 weeks! None were fertile though.

 

[Cian McLiam]

ken it seems you and i have smilar interest's

So it would appear, and that aint no bad thing!!

Ken

 

[fishgeek]

rams will have trouble fertilising in harder waters
do you definitely have a male

andrew

 

[Auratus]

There are five and she always picks a different male to guard her eggs for her. Unless another female is guarding the eggs... then I have a male!

The water is hard and most of the time they turn white in 1-2 days. It's fine though because I'm really not ready for fry! But I guess that's going to happen now that I have mollies... I don't know why people say they are sensitive to water quality. They do really well in hard water. They are pigs though!

 

[fishgeek]

they would be happier in softer water

if say you added r/o water or peat or blackwater extract you would see a difference, the colours just look more vivid

most fish are tank bred and hence acclimatised to differing water than the orginal source waters
so there's probably no reason th change what your doing

andrew
unless you want them to spawn succesfully