How To Tell Male Or Female

[Sailfin Zach]

I have 2 Bullivon rams was just wanted to know how to tell male or female

 

[Essjay]

How old are your rams, are they old enough to have their breeding tubes visible? These are small protrusions on the underside just in front of the tail. The male's is quite small and goes to a point while the female's is the same width all the way down.

If you've only just got them or they are young, the breeding tubes won't be visible, and it's harder to tell. Things to look for are:
first few rays on dorsal fin tend to be longer in a male
pelvic fins of male tend to go to a point
male's head tends to be a bit lumpy, female's is smooth

These do not prove that a particular fish is male or female as some females show some male-ish characteristics, and young males won't have developed them yet.

 

[Sailfin Zach]

The people at the fish store when i got them said that if they had more spots they are the male and least spots are the female but we use to have a bully that was bulling my other ram so we put him in another tank and got a differnt ram and now its working great so and i just wanted to know which one was the female and which one was the male

 

[Essjay]

There is no way to tell males from females by their spots. The only certain way to tell is by their breeding tubes. I bought 2 bolivians a few years ago, I got the two most different ones in the tank - and they both turned put to be males. They were young, so no visible breeding tubes. A few months later in a different shop they had some bigger (that is, older) ones, and the males and females were quite obvious as their breeding tubes were visible.

If yours don't have visible breeding tubes, you'll have to wait till you can see them to be sure.

Forgot another sign before - look at the underside between the anal fin and the tail. If the shape is a nice curve continuing from the mouth to the tail, that's a female - unless she's been underfed at the shop. If the curve from the mouth flattens off at the anal fin to tail region that's a male - or an undernourished female.

 

[Sailfin Zach]

there about 3-4 inches long

 

[Essjay]

If they are that big, they should be mature. How long have they been in your tank? If they are new-ish, it can take some fish a while to settle down.

 

[Sailfin Zach]

1 month and cant tell right now because the lights are off and they turn on at 7pm

 

[Sailfin Zach]

well my father reminded me its 2-3 months

so that means i have 1 female with one male and one male by itself

thank you for the info

 

[Essjay]

There is another thing about bolivian rams. Even if you have a male and a female in a tank, they may not like each other. They can be very choosy. It is possible that if you have a male and a female they won't breed because they don't like each other.
I told you I got 2 that turned out to be both males, then found another shop where you could tell the males and females apart - I got 2 females from the second shop. When I put the females into the tank, the males attacked each other so badly I had to move one into the quarantine tank. During the next 3 or 4 days the male that was left spent a few hours with each female in turn then he chose one, or maybe she chose him, and they both attacked the other female so I had to take her out as well. Exactly a week after I put the females in the tank, the pair that was left spawned.

 

[Essjay]

Zach - have a look at the thread by ninja dave. It has some pics of a ram, and they show what a female breeding tube looks like.

 

[Sailfin Zach]

okay thanks

 

[Sailfin Zach]

i see the females have a square kind of breeding tube and the males have a pointing one