should I get a male or female gold ram?

[stingray4540]

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I have a really small female german blue ram a little over an inch. And I want to get a gold ram that is about 2 inch. Should I get a male or female? I want them to get along that's all. I also have two dwarf gourami's and some white clouds, and cory's in the tank. Oh yeah and some otto's.

[mooman]

How big is the tank?

[stingray4540]

it's a 29. I got a male (I think) last night, and it was doing fine with everybody, but it didn't survive the night. I don't know what happened. my blue ram is fine inmy tank, and I acclimated the gold for an hour adding water every 15 min. Nobody picked on him that I know of. It just died.
Also, how do you sex gold rams? just by there dorsal fins?
Thanks

[mooman]

IMO blue/gold rams are more trouble than thier worth. If you can get locally bred ones that's great, but your standard LFS rams are not too hardy. Kick the temp up (80-81) they like it warm. Very frequent water changes, low nitrates, soft slightly acidic water might help, but even then they usually drop after a day, a week, or a month. Golds and blues are the same species, just different color varients, so sexing should be the same (pink belly is a dead giveaway on females). If they don't last look into bolivain rams or better yet Apistogrammas. Much hardier, almost as colorful, and in the case of apistos much more interesting to watch.