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Some new blue and golden rams


mayphly

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I made it down to the Aquaforest today in the city. I came home with 2 blue and 2 gold German rams. I've wanted these since forever. These pics don't even come close to how beautiful they look in the tank.

 

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German Blues (regular/wild), Electric Blues, Gold, Electric Blue w/ Gold Face, Balloon/Angel rams (and long fin strains) are all just selective bred German Blue Rams of the same genus and species, so they would interbreed. Not particularly sure what offspring would result when interbreeding them, pretty sure they will just be ratios similar to CRS x CBS.

 

Beautiful fish, definitely one of my favorite colorful freshwater fish. They have such curious personalities too.

If you wanted help ID'ing their genders, just more pics of each individual, they actually can be a bit tricky to ID, with male and females nowadays containing traits that normally (or were thought to) belong to the opposite gender.

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1 hour ago, Vpier said:

Very nice. I have two pairs of German Blues. Mine are horrible parents and nasty egg eaters. Nothing gets Rams to breed faster than blood worms.

 ...usually very good parents...

+1 for bloodworms and LIVE BRINE.

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Those are my favorite fish.  back when I first started with tanks I tried to breed some but I think I didnt understand tank chemistry enough yet.  They never "bonded'   I have heard you can have a male and female but some just dont bond.  Once they do they bond for "life"  whatever that means to a fish lol

 

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Very nice. I have two pairs of German Blues. Mine are horrible parents and nasty egg eaters. Nothing gets Rams to breed faster than blood worms.

+1. They enjoy live brine too, if you can hatch some out.

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I borrowed this pic from Tannin, but I thought this was a golden ram?

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Soothing has a point. The first two look closer to electric blue Rams, and the last looks like a fem blue.

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I got two blue Rams and two electric(yellow/orange). I saw this chart but have no idea how it relates to the yellows. Hopefully they'll breed. I had a breeding pair of oscars when I was a kid. Haven't done much with breeding fish since then. If they do end up breeding I'll set up another tank for the babies. I'm excited to see what the offspring would look like. I would imagine if the yellow mated with the blue there's a chance of both yellows and blues showing up. I'll have to read up on these guys some more. 26a991940f368d9747eefd610a2001f5.jpg

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There's a bunch of gender indicators, but like I said, nowadays the supposed gender specific traits have been seen in the opposite sex. Not entirely sure if that is from lousy breeders using hormones (I know some males with pink bellies are a result of hormones, usually done by overseas breeders), or if it's just from there being so much inbreeding. The massive amounts of inbreeding rams have resulted in the rams becoming more sensitive/fragile than they used to be.

 

First 2 pics are Gold Face Electric Blue rams. 3rd pic is a German Blue ram. The one Soothing posted is a Golden ram. All the same genus and species, just selective-bred color variants (German Blue is wild/natural color).

 

Some visual identifiers are:

Male:

No blue in Black side spot

Elongated spines on dorsal and pelvic fins (sometimes on caudal fin as well for Long Fin variants)

Have a humped head

Elongated body

Anal fin reaches past peduncle (base of tail)

Trailing edge of dorsal fin ends in a sharp point

 

Female:

Blue scales in Black side blotch

Can have pink bellies

No humped head/more streamlined

Short/non-elongated spines on fins

End trailing edge of dorsal fin is round

If you see an ovipositor, it is a pretty sure sign it's a female (males may have an extended vent, but it more "V" shaped rather than round like a "U")

 

Again, I must stress that these are the common indicators, but if you have been around rams enough, it is known that they can have opposite sex physical traits (pretty common!). So positive ID isn't always guaranteed, but if enough indicators match more to one sex, you have a better guess. Some males won't even have elongated spines! Some males will have blue specs in their black blotch, some males can have pink bellies (hormones), some females can have elongated spines, etc, etc. It's pretty crazy.

 

My guess from the pictures provided, all 3 pics show females. Most notably the last pic of the German Blue shows a ovipositor peeking (means she can be ready to breed!). 2nd pic has slight chance of being male, but I am pretty sure it's a male (if 1st and 2nd pic are of the same fish, then it's definitely female).

 

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Thanks shrimP for that info. Very helpful. The first two pics are of 2 different fish. Here's a pic of the fourth one. If I compare it to what's been said than I'm guessing is also a female. afb1f032b65ae21a2757e9eef5231ee7.jpg

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Heh, I actually might say that 4th one is a male. Elongated spines on dorsal and pelvic fins, anal fin looks to reach a bit farther than the other 3, head looks a bit humped. Cant' see the trailing edge of the dorsal fin if it's pointed or rounded, and from what I have seen, the black side blotch, the area where there is or isn't supposed to be blue scales in it, is more of the center edges (seen plenty of males with blue scales on the outskirts of the black blotch). Like I said though, it can be a little tricky, but if more signs point to one gender then it is more likely to be that sex, so I'd personally say male, but there's always been others who may say it's the other sex (I'm not always right :P )

You will get a better idea if they pair off or not.

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hehe!! I'm going with your prediction! I was judging by the black on the pelvic fins.I guess time will tell. I placed a few pieces of slate in the tank in hope that they will lay eggs on them.

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Oh, that thing about there being "no black on the male's pelvic fins" is far from true.  Most males do have black (spines) on their pelvic fins.

Try your hand at sexing any German rams on some Google images, you will see what I mean about males/females having opposite sex physical traits! (German Blues are "easiest" since they have more indicators than the other color variants, but sometimes more indicators can cause more confusion haha)

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  • 2 weeks later...

When I started getting interested in fishkeeping, GBRs were the fish my spouse and I both agreed were must-haves. We now have a bonded pair, though being in a community tank (with a big, open filter intake) they've never gotten more than a week or so past the free swimming stage with the babies.

 

I don't throw around the "favorite fish" stuff very often since I so intensely like many of the fish I have, but these are near the top of the list.

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