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[westwood08]

Sex that cichlid!!

I just got three Ram Cichlids and haven't a clue which are male and which are female... I thought I did, but I really don't! Any help would be appreciated! I read that females have a blue speckling, but I don't understand really what this looks like :/

Fish one

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y238/flawlesserr/biocube8/_IMG_9624.jpg

Fish two

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y238/flawlesserr/biocube8/_IMG_9632.jpg

Fish three

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y238/flawlesserr/biocube8/_IMG_9638.jpg

[westwood08]

I've discovered the answer myself :( Sadly... all three are males... which means I'll be making another trip to the LFS.

Dorsal fin: Taller in the back, extends past start of tail
Anal fin: Extends past start of tail
Blue spangling: present on entire body

[Rbishop]

Some nice looking rams.....whatever they are... :thm:

[dirtydawg10]

Great looking fish. I agree they look like all males to me too.

[Fish-Addict]

I thought the first one was female at first. Nice fish!

[westwood08]

Thanks guys... Yeah, I thought the first one was a female too! But in all the pictures, all three Rams have blue 'spangling' on their entire body. Their dorsal and anal fins also extend past the start of their tails :(

I took the Ram in the first picture back to the lfs today and asked if they could possible place another order for them this week. I was told they could and that when they come in they never know what they are going to get... it's just a bit surprising that with 12 fish they didn't get a single female in :/

[dent20]

Are you sure fish one is a male? I don't know, but it's not as colorful. All of the fins do look the same.

[westwood08]

Yeah, when Rams are being bullied they'll change their color. I took the first one back and now only have two (both males) ... for the most part they peacefully co-exist... however, every now and again the bigger of the two will challenge the smaller one and the smaller one will make his markings go away and will look almost exactly like the fish in the first picture.

The first time I saw it was when I got back from returning the first fish to the lfs... I came home and looked at the aquarium and noticed one fish had no dark spot and was very light... I thought I had netted and returned the wrong fish until about an hour later they were both swimming around with a dark spot and dark markings.