Sexing German Blue Rams

The female is the one that lays the eggs.... seriously, Carlos is correct for some rams, but this trait can sometimes be reversed in imported stock as the level of selective breeding in these beautiful fish has taken its toll.

According the archives on the krib, the species should not be considered sexually dimorphic... thats not to say you can't find a trait in your strain thats consistently male or female, but this will vary from breeder to breeder. Despite being labeled German Blue these fish are almsot always from SE Asia (price of a german dwarf cichlid ~ $30-35US a piece to give an idea if it actually came from Germany).

Great fish though! ... remember, these guys need higher temps and soft water to make it more than a year. IME, they really really like to eat a lot, 2x or even 3x daily feedings are best. If you are set on breeding, its best to purchase your stock from a local breeder thru a service like aquabid, its the only way to be sure you actually have a mated pair...

Jeff

I got my two from the LFS. They always take the best looking pairs and keep them for their planted tanks, which I think kinda sux. The pair I have will hopefully color up more when they get a bit older. I have no idea if I have a male/female or male/male pair.

I've recently added a few new different rams to my aquarium... I started out with simply a pair of German Blues' And in the past 2 days I've picked up a pair of bolivians' and two more female blues'.

The german's I've bought (all from the same place) Ran me about 15 a piece and are some of the most AMAZING colors I've ever seen.

So my silly and most obvious question would be:

When they've bred and I remove the fry to my other breeding tank, would it be best to take it's parents' with me? Or at least the one that appears to be caring for them?

In the past I've only bred jewel cichlids and I never moved their parents with them and they matured just beautifully... So I'm hoping to keep up a good streak with these lovely new little rams of mine.

I will honestly say they're are the best fish and they've just got so much personality. And such amazing color... I just can't get over it. (It's amazing what good food can do! *New Life*)

Anyways, thanks in advance for the help.

The best and most consistant way to sex rams, german or bolivian, is to examine their sex organ on their underside, which is easily visible. This method becomes more easily determined in mature fish, just as with other methods. The male's organ is slimmer, and faces at a sharper angle towards the rear, while the female's tends to be thicker, and points almost straight down in most cases. Once you figure it out examining a few fish, it becomes alot easier than most believe as it isn't a very well known method. From my experiences with keeping and breeding rams, the dorsal fin method is more consistant in Bolivian rams rather than German rams as they have a consistant body and fin shape between the sexes. Color differences the other hand is more prominant in Germans than Bolivians. All in all, both sexes can exibit the coloration and fin characteristics of the other sex. So again, in my experience, the examination of the sex organ is far more accurate and consistant than the other methods. If you still have trouble sexing your fish, post up a good shot of the fish from the side and I'll do my best to help!