nitz

I was at the LPS yesterday and noticed they had gold rams in a tank along with blue rams. Of course in the store everything looks like it gets along with its tank mates but when you get it home, that's not necessarily the case. So I was just wondering if it would be a good idea to get one blue ram and one gold ram (1 would be a male and 1 a female) to put in my 29 gal?

Also, what would be the best way to sex the gold ram? I was finding it kind of hard to sex the blue as well so is there some sure fire way of sexing all rams?

Slug

The most sure fire way to sex blue rams, assuming they are good quality, is to use the black dot and blue spangles on the side. If there are no spangles in the black dot its a male. Females have blue spangles inside of the black dot.

Gold rams are harder to sex. I'd probably just guess by looking at the dorsal fin on these. Males usually will have a longer first and second dorsal spine then females. This is evident in both color forms, but golds generally don't show much of the black dot and blue spangles so an alternate method would probably be best.

And yes it'd be ok to mix the 2. As they are the same species, just different color forms.

nitz

Thanks Slug. Ya I noticed there were no dots or spangles on the golds. They're both gorgeous fish and would love to have one of each. Thanks for your help.

Lucy

nitz, thanks for asking this question, I'm looking at the blue rams too.
Dking has a way of sexing them, it's in this thread:
I Just Fell In Lovvvvvve! Rams/GBR

nitz

Oh thanks Lucy. That sounds like an easy way to sex them. I only knew the dorsal fin way of sexing them as Slug had mentioned but was finding it pretty tough. The GBRs at this lps are bigger than the ones at the other store I went to so I could notice a slight difference but it was still pretty tough to tell male and female apart. Dking's method sounds pretty fool proof, but then again, I might turn out to be the fool that gets 2 males...

(Btw, I fell in love with the GBRs and all other rams for that matter when I stumbled upon them one day. I'm planning the stocking of my 29 gal around them. Probably going to be a month or so before I get them just so I can get all the other fish in first and ensure there are no mini spikes in ammonia or nitrite to give these guys a better chance of survival.)

Lucy

Good luck and don't forget to post pics!

nitz

Sure thang. haha

I love how everyone wants to see pics. Makes you feel like part of the gang.