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I'm having a tough time sexing my German Blue Rams, and the characteristic lists that I've found aren't helping much, so I thought I'd just post links to pictures. I hope nobody minds....

Fish 1:

http://img13.exs.cx/img13/1989/runner1.jpg

http://img13.exs.cx/img13/1352/runner2.jpg

Fish 2:

http://img13.exs.cx/img13/1563/hider1.jpg

http://img13.exs.cx/img13/3792/hider2.jpg

Since the time of these pictures, both fish have started to get much more apparent coloration in their blue spots - I hope because they feel like they're in good conditions! It's become apparent that at least one of them has a lot of violet spots in the large black spot at the front of the dorsal. The other doesn't have nearly as many. Other than that they look totally alike. I tentatively named them Runner and Hider, but I can't really tell them apart....

Can anyone help? Thanks a lot!

EDIT: Got "dorsal" and "pectoral" confused.

[span class="edited"][Edited by Silverlight 2004-08-18 18:22][/span]

Fish 2 looks definately like a male....I can't really tell from the pic on Fish 1.

The best way to tell is the length of the first few rays of the dorsal fin. They are much longer in the male.

My avatar is a male. BTW beautiful fish!

Actually, techjack, I disagree. To me fish 2 looks like a female. It's hard to tell about fish 1 from those pics, but judging by pic 2, i'd say that one is also female.

The 2 easiest ways to tell are
1. (as mentioned) the black part of the dorsal fin is longer on males
2. the females have a bit of red/pink on their belly which is brighter as they are ready to breed

Here are a few sites I found that all say basically the same thing:

http://www.aquahobby.com/gallery/gramm.html
http://badmanstropicalfish.com/profiles/profile3.html
http://mike-edwardes.members.beeb.net/Mramerizi.html

EDIT: Maybe this should be changed to a poll

[span class="edited"][Edited by gartenzwerfe 2004-08-18 23:45][/span]

1. Male
2. Female

I think they may both be female.

I guess this isn't helping much!

They are both gorgeous fish, you're obviously taking good care of them!

The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it. - Oscar Wilde

Thanks, JB.

I'm kind of leaning female/female at this point, myself. Pretty much all the external characteristics seem to be female; it's just the behavior that threw me off. I guess I'm more willing to believe that female rams will squabble a bit, than that male rams will look just like females.

Well on pic 2 of fish 1 I think I see that his top fin filament is slightly longer/taller. This is what leads me to believe its a male.

well im not certain, but males normally have darker/more bold colourung on the body. Also the male has an extended second ray on the dorsal fin, which can be seen when the male extends his fins (when fighting). Females are usually smaller and have a more rounded body shape, and have a reddish belly (despite males tending to have very slightly coloured bellys aswell). Another way to find out is to monitor their behavior. By watching them you would be able to see the behaviour they both have and you can then Distinguish if they are male or female. If they were two males they would tend to fight each other a bit, if thay were a male and a female you may see the male tend to follow the female around, and if they were both females they will peacefully swim around not fighting etc.

Well that is all i know so i hope this will be able to help you.
,Jeremy

I think its 1. male 2. female my self

I think the first one is a male and the second one a female as well. They look very young though. So i wouldnt expect them to show breeding or territorial behavior quite yet.

1 male
2 female

dorsalfin on 1 is pointed and dorsal on 2 is very rounded, should be dead on.

chris

I'm thinking female/female aswell. Fish 1 has quite a few blue spots in and around the black spot. Fish 2 looks to have a reddish belly in pic 2.

I personally think the first one is definately male (the side of the dorsal fin closest the tail is pointed and the black spot is devoid of blue spangles). . . The second one looks female to me with the more rounded dorsal fin, but does have some male characteristics, again the black spot is also devoid of blue spangles in this case so it COULD be another male. As was stated earlier they are quite young and they will be much easier to sex as they get older. The dorsal spike on the front of the males' fins is very ounced in mature adult rams and is the easiest way to sex them IMO. Sorry I couldn't be of more help but it's hard to sex juvies from pictures.

I think both are females. The second one I would say is a definate. The first one is 50/50. Reason is that both have the red bellies and no male rams would have that present.