Ram ID and sexing.

[Kaosu]

Im upgrading my 40 gallon to a 70 gallon this month. I have been looking in to getting a small group of rams. Well this payday me and my other half had been out window shopping and ran across this little guy/girl.. lovely little fish in a pet shop that should not be selling fish.

Anyway...bought it and brought it home..it is now in QT in a 3.5 gallon tank..i think it is a bit cold for it so im going outside to look threw my bins for a small heater..soo got it yesterday(12/10/11) love its fines!

any Idea on sexing?
or what type it was? It was in a tank with allot of golden rams..but a few were the blues...could it be a mix of the two?

It paled out every time i pulled the cam up..so this is the best i can get for the moment.. maybe it will color up more with some heat and a few more days of good clean water and lots of food...it seems a bit thin to me.
(video to come soon as i can get it off my cam)

 

[probassfisher010]

Male, looks like maybe a stressed bolivian ram. I love ram cichlids, have fun with this little guy.

 

[Kaosu]

Male, looks like maybe a stressed bolivian ram. I love ram cichlids, have fun with this little guy.

thank you!
what makes you say male?..
Iv been looking up sexing them but im just not sure how to tell them apart
He is stressed at the moment but seems to be settling in a little better now.

Its only about 2 inches max, ..looks like a long fin to me?

 

[probassfisher010]

Bolivians tend to have longer fins like that, but it might be long finned dunno. You can tell it is male by the dorsal fin. If the first "spike" is taller then the rest, or if all the rays are the same size, it's female. If the first couple are obviosly longer then the rest, then male.

 

[GOSKN5]

I dont think it is a bolivian ram....

looks like a gold ram to me... do a google search on bolivian and gold rams... you will see the difference IMO.... does look male though...

 

[probassfisher010]

could be a stressed/low quality gold ram, normally they don't show the horizontal stripes especially the one through the eye. Maybe some updated pics of it settled in?

to me the pectoral fins say 100% bolivian but it may be some type of long finned variant of a gold ram...or maybe some type of hybrid. This species has been inter-bred through so many generations that it's hard to tell a lot of the time.

 

[JustinDavis]

These guys are labeled as "Gold Rams" or "Gold Dust Rams". It's a female also, see the sparkles by her eye? Since you can see the sparkles it's a female, if you cant see the sparkles then it's a male

Here's a set of pictures to help you out, the left is the Male and the right is the Female. I know these are German Blue Rams but the same rule applies.

 

[probassfisher010]

It's a female also, see the sparkles by her eye? Since you can see the sparkles it's a female, if you cant see the sparkles then it's a male

No, that is not a 100% method of sexing them, also this method I have never heard of.

Here's a picture to prove you wrong, an obvious male gold ram, and guess what, it has spangles under the eye!

 

[JustinDavis]

I didn't mean directly under the eye but on their sides, if I'm still wrong I'm sorry and thanks for enlightening me

 

[probassfisher010]

Here's a set of pictures to help you out, the left is the Male and the right is the Female. I know these are German Blue Rams but the same rule applies.

View attachment 726666

Uhh no it does not apply, this works some of the time with german blue rams, most gold rams don't even have this spot or the horizontal bars. The best way of sexing rams is by looking at the rays in the dorsal fin, as I said above. Spangle location is not a positive method of sexing.