Sexing A Ram

[Waterbox]

Yeah its pretty tough to sex these things, but i just go on a gut feeling. When I got mine, I first bought one that I was SURE was a male. He had the longer black dorsal rays, and a little longer finnage than the other fish, and he just acted more like a male, flaring at me and showing his color a little more than the others in the LFS which was what I mostly went off of. When you are looking for a female, you have to look to see if the fish has all of the things that distinguish a female.

Shorter black dorsal rays

The black spot is not as dark as males, and you will notice blue spots surrounding it or inside of the spot

Lavender or pink colored belly, and it also may be rounder, this is more noticeable if you look at the fish head on, facing each other

Fins are noticeably shorter. In males the dorsal fins can be a lot longer, and sometimes the dorsal, caudal, and anal fins will all slightly touch each other or come close to touching, and the dorsal fin as a whole will have a much taller look to it, looking more like a sail when he flares his fins. I think you can see this in the pic of the male Benauld posted.

This is just what I have experienced, I hope it helps people since I know I had a lot of trouble sexing them when I first started looking for them.

 

[stargirly1208]

I hear the females also have a protrusion on their belly right in front of the bottom dorsal fin. Males have a smooth belly. This is at least true for bolivian rams.