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its impossible, it follows no rules and makes zero sense.

everyone says the Male should have a taller 2nd ray on the dorsal, more color, no pink in the belly.
the female should have shorter rays, have a pink belly and be less colorfull.

now get this..i got 2 one is more colorfull then the other...but has a pink belly...has a longer 2nd ray...but shows less agression protecting territory.

the less colorfull one has no pink belly....a shorter ray...and protects the area tooth and nail.

neither fight with each other over space and ive even seen them rush the same fish protecting thier territory together. then they swim off together and nibble the substrate side by side.

it makes NO sense!~!

I feel the same way, i have tried for so long with so many different methods. The best way is to probably just buy a pair.

The easiest way, is to buy 5 Rams & let them pair off on their own. Just like Angels, very difficult to sex.



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What about the fin filaments. My 2 males look totally different but they both have long fin filaments.

"now get this..i got 2 one is more colorfull then the other...but has a pink belly...has a longer 2nd ray..."

"the less colorfull one has no pink belly....a shorter ray"

Dorsal rays are the fin filaments.

Rams are getting harder and harder to sex because of all these new captive forms coming out of the fish farms. The rams are being churned out in different color, fin, and body variations, and are bred to maximize these traits. The "normal" or "blue" German rams are being bred mainly for color, regardless of sex or parental skills. As such, their dorsal fins are getting ignored, and the pink bellies which once were almost only found on females can be seen on male fish as well.

I've seen photos of wild male rams. Their dorsal fins are stunning, and the spike is huge compared to that of the captive rams. I always hate to see naturally-beautiful fish being "improved" by humans, who often ruin good traits. Take angelfish. They usually suck at hatching their eggs, and eat them a lot of the time. Most angels look nothing like the wild P. scalare, and new forms come out all the time. The fish are basically all man-made now, and lack the majesty of their wild counterparts.

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And when he gets to Heaven, to Saint Peter he will tell: "One more Marine reporting, Sir! I've served my time in Hell."

Personally, I think that the red belly is the best way to sex them as I've had males without the ray extension on the dorsal fin. Some males just don't have them for the reasons Sirbooks stated, and some males are just young at the shop and have not developed them yet. Females will also sometimes have sparkling blue dots on and around their black spot, while males should not have those, but again, not in 100% of the fish. Other reason why it might be hard to sex them is all those hormones which Asian breeders are supposedly give to the fish, but I've never seen Asian bred rams as most of the stock here in Britain is from the Czech republic.

Last edited by untitled at 01-May-2005 02:11