My German Blue Ram
- Thread starter Jakezori
- Start date
Thank you for correcting me. I am just so used to seeing the nitrates at less than 20 and mine are always zero..scared me for a moment!
Your nitrates should definitely be under 20 ppm for rams, whoever tells you otherwise is crazy. You don't need a low GH for rams either. My GH is 300ppm or more, pH is 7.8-8.0 and my rams spawn for me all the time. One of my last batches I had about 125 eggs or slightly under but there was only a single unfertilized egg, so pretty much 100% fertility in those params.
Young fish, but not hard to sex. It's definitely a female. First, you can see that the pelvic fins don't extend past the start of the anal fin. This method has been bulletproof for me in sexing rams. Second, the first few dorsal rays are the same height as the other dorsal rays, indicating female rather than male, which would show prominent 1-3 dorsal rays. Lastly, look just forward of the anal fin. Notice anything? I see the ovipositor. Provide her with a male of similar size and my guess is she plumps up and drops eggs within 3 weeks.
EDIT: I just noticed that the fish in the bottom picture looks different than the one in the top picture. It actually looks like it's a male in the bottom picture. I'm 100% certain that it's a female in the top picture. I'm also 90% certain that it's a male in the bottom picture. Isn't this the same fish??? I noticed because the amount of yellow on the fish in the second picture seemed to extend further back thatn that in the top picture. I couldn't see the pelvic fins so that was my backup method in sexing the fish in the bottom picture.
Young fish, but not hard to sex. It's definitely a female. First, you can see that the pelvic fins don't extend past the start of the anal fin. This method has been bulletproof for me in sexing rams. Second, the first few dorsal rays are the same height as the other dorsal rays, indicating female rather than male, which would show prominent 1-3 dorsal rays. Lastly, look just forward of the anal fin. Notice anything? I see the ovipositor. Provide her with a male of similar size and my guess is she plumps up and drops eggs within 3 weeks.
EDIT: I just noticed that the fish in the bottom picture looks different than the one in the top picture. It actually looks like it's a male in the bottom picture. I'm 100% certain that it's a female in the top picture. I'm also 90% certain that it's a male in the bottom picture. Isn't this the same fish??? I noticed because the amount of yellow on the fish in the second picture seemed to extend further back thatn that in the top picture. I couldn't see the pelvic fins so that was my backup method in sexing the fish in the bottom picture.
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That's why I wanted more pics!
I agree, I think the top pic is a female - the bottom one is a little confusing... The spot on the side looks like a females (the shiny blue dot's covering the side black marking) but I do not see black on the pelvic fins (this is my bulletproof sexing sign) hopefully we will get some additional pics (showing both fish together with the sides of both fish clearly visible would be the most helpful)I retract my statement about the bottom picture now that I'm looking at it from home. I was looking at it quickly at work and thought the yellow stretched back further on the female in the bottome picture. Yes, I said the bottom is female too. I thought initially that they were the same fish and then looked at it quickly later and thought it was possibly male. Now I see that it's female. You have two females!
That's what I thought but the lack of black on the pelvic fins was confusing to me.
darn... the guy at the pet store got it wrong. I asked him for a male and a female... oh well. I will trade my lfs my female for a male.
