Blue ram pregnant?

[spd7143]

I bought 3 blue rams from the lfs for my tank the other day. When I bought them, they were all the same size but 1 had drab coloration (assuming female) while the other 2 were brightly colored (assuming males). Today I was looking at them and noticed that the drab colored one has a BIG belly now. I'm not noticing any changes in behavior for any of them except the drab one seems to be "mouthing" water about twice as fast as the other rams. Water levels are all good so that's not it. I think she might be pregnant! I'd post a pic, but my file size is too large and I don't know how to change it. Anyone know about rams that could help with this question?

[spd7143]

Well, today I'm positive she was pregnant. Her belly is almost back to normal now. I can't find any of the eggs though. Of course there was plenty of time for the fish to eat them today while we were gone. Drats, was going to use the baby fish as an excuse to the wife to buy another tank...

[PumaWard]

If she's breathing twice as fast... I would suspect constipation. Try adding 1tblspn of epsoms salt/10g and see if that helps out.

Also, males and females should be equal in their coloration except that females have pink bellies. Females are also generally smaller and have blue speckles in their black dots.

Once your sure you have at least one male and one female, see which 2 hang out the most and remove the other one. The odd man out (so to speak) will be harassed to no end if you end up with a pair.

HTH

[spd7143]

Thanks pumaward, I had wondered if this one was really a female after reading that most sold are males here. All I know for sure is that this one definitely has much less coloration than the other two. I hadn't paid much attention to their bellies before this one swelled but then it was pinkish. Of course now it's back to normal and whitish like the others. I'll have to keep an eye on them a little closer and see what I find. Are the blue specks in the black dots on their sides a pretty good reference mark for the future to see what I'm getting?

[tire]

i have been told that blue rams can change sex if they are in a same sex environment, and then breed. i'm not sure how accurate that is and under what circumstances.

[cattlegrid_79]

The easiest way to sex blue rams is to look at their spines on the dorsal fin.

On the males, the second spine from the front is elongated, compared to the rest. The older they get, the more apparant this becomes.

[lostris]

I'm no expert about rams, infact i just today bought 2, i hope they r male and female, but they r still too small to identify. However regarding fish eating ram's eggs, I don't think it can happen, I read this in all of the articles regarding rams, they r good parents, and protect their eggs.

[PumaWard]

Many ram pairs eat their own eggs however ;). But you are right, they defend their eggs against other fish quite well.

[spd7143]

Thanks for the info on the dorsal spines. The two most colorful ones are definitely males by this standard. THe other one is hading out in the back of the tank right now so I'll have to check later.