Gender of my rams?

[Elisabeth83]

I bought a pair of rams the other day. They were sold to me as male and female. I know one of them is for sure a male but the other one looks to me it might be a male as well. Today was the first day I've seen them struting their stuff to eachother. I can't tell if it's the male showing off to the female or if they are both males trying to intimiate eachother.

I know females are meant to have pink bellies but my so called female doesn't have a pink belly. On most occasions "she" is more pale than the male but when they were showing off to eachother "she" became almost as bright as he was

At the moment "she" keeps backing down and he keeps showing off to her and chasing her a bit too.

Here is a picture I took last night. The "female" is on the left. Is she really a she?

Edit: This is with flash on so they look a lot bluer in the pics. In real life the supposed to be female is not that blue.

 

[wwestar2000]

she looks like a female 2 me

 

[Elisabeth83]

How can you tell? I've never kept rams before so am having a hard time telling the differences between male and female.

 

[wwestar2000]

Pretty much a guess but this is why i guessed.
1)The size difference
2)The coloration is less than the right one
3)The dorsal fin end is more curved and the other ones pionted.
Get a better pic of the left handed one fully displaying the dorsal fin. Will help much more.

 

[Elisabeth83]

Ok here are 2 more pix

this is a pretty good shot of the supposed to be female. She's the one on top.

and here is the male

 

[abstract]

yup, looks like a male and a female to me

 

[Elisabeth83]

fewww...I was worried there for awhile that I had 2 males and I'd have to take one of them back

So the chasing that's what rams do or is it a courtship thing? They have started chasing the gouramis and diamond tetras too but thats only if they are in their little area

 

[abstract]

yep, perfectly normal...what you should be seeing in the future:

1) digging holes/ditches in the substrate
2) chasing away of any other fish in their area
3) going into "ramming" position where the two face each other then back away and sometimes go at eachother head on, sometimes they both back away
4) then coming together in a T shape
5) the male constantly following the female around
6) pecking at their favorite spot on a decoration (to clear it off) if they want to lay eggs
7) the female sometimes goes really pale (at least 2 of mine out of 3 do) when she doesn't want to mate but the male does, but she should be fine - they are pretty tough once they are settled in

hope that helps! if one of the two keeps getting forced to the top corner of the tank, then you can be sure they are both males...otherwise, if there is minimal chasing, following, pestering going on, they are perfectly normal

 

[fishykisses]

are those german blue rams?

 

[abstract]

are those german blue rams?

[snapback]862669[/snapback]​

yes

 

[pseud]

Looks very much like two males to me. Here's why:

The dorsal fin doesn't look more curved in the one on the left. If anything, it looks pointy.
The 'female' doesn't have a pink tummy.
The coloring doesn't look any less on either of the fish.
They look pretty much the same size.

The main difference between males and females is a) the pink tummy in the female, and B) the longer first few spikes on the male. But that isn't saying much, when I bought my male, his spikes were all the same length, and sometimes I even thought the first few were shorter! It's only as he got older that they grew longer.

Elisabeth, can you post some more pics?

 

[pseud]

It would also explain the constant chasing behaviour you mentioned in another thread.

 

[Elisabeth83]

I just took a couple just now that I'm uploading to photobucket.

1 sec

Ok heres another pic. She is being chased constantly and is trying to take refuge wherever she can so the angle of the pic is kinda weird because I had to take it on the side of the tank (squeeze between the fish stand and tv stand).

 

[pseud]

Still kinda hard to tell.. more pics! lol I know how hard it is to get good ones. Check out these pics, just look at the rear of the dorsal fin. The first is the male:

Now this is the female:

Notice the male has very sharp contours in the rear of his dorsal fin, the female is very smooth and curves around, almost like a bubble on the end of it.

(also, I just noticed, even the females first few spikes are longer than the rest slightly, but she's sure as hell a female...)

EDIT: The pics aren't working, chekc out this link, the first two pics on the page are the ones I mean... http/www.cichlid-forum.com/articles/m_ramirezi.php

 

[Elisabeth83]

you want more pics or your sure she's a female?

edit: I was reading that they only get the pink tummy when they are ready to breed? Is that true or should they always have a pink tummy?