Joined: Jun 14, 2011 Posts: 267 Location: Bangalore
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Posted: Tue Jul 31, 2012 10:17 pm Post subject: Re: Identify the gender of this fish
Thanks Vinod. I'm confused as sometime back people had said that males can be distinguished when the black spot is free of the blue spangles & there's no pink belly. This one has both, but the finnage is bolder?!
Posted: Wed Aug 01, 2012 2:10 pm Post subject: Re: Identify the gender of this fish
ShankarB, u heard right. the blue spangles cover the large black spot in females and do not cover it in males. finnage, other colour are exactly the same in both genders. i had three pairs who were all breeding, so i know what i am talking about.
the black rays in the start of the dorsal fins used to distinguish males too, but then, in farm breeding, this trait appeard in females too, so that can no longer help.
the best way to sex is to feed a lot of live food, microfex, tubifex, grindals, earthworms. the fish come into prime shape. then the pink bellies are FEMALES. best and only reliable way, because i noticed when i gave my males away (did not want to breed releated fish ,and having fry all the time tired me out), the females lost the blue spangles in the dark spot, looking exactly like their former mates, except for the pink bellies, which thank god, are a sure sigh.
cant tell from the pics, is it really a pink belly?
Joined: Aug 31, 2008 Posts: 495 Location: Bangalore
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Posted: Wed Aug 01, 2012 4:51 pm Post subject: Re: Identify the gender of this fish
A pink belly in a mature Ram indicates a female. In juveniles the pink belly will not be prominent and you find it difficult to sex them.
Your ram in the above pic seems to be a female to me.
Joined: Jan 07, 2010 Posts: 519 Location: bengaluru
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Posted: Thu Aug 02, 2012 8:21 am Post subject: Re: Identify the gender of this fish
if u have bought it from an aquarium shop u will never get any females of any fish except mollies and other easily sexable fish, the feamles are over stocked by breeders to breed them ,they use only a single cichlid male to fertilize many females,evne i have doen it my self, if u buy it directly from a breeder u will definitely get females ,
i had sucess in angels , they started to breed llike guppies infact more than them , i got bored and gave them all away, the trick is to get it froma breeder, u will know what females look like ,once u get to know em, u catch em every where in aquariums but very sparingly by what i have seen once in 10mnths like that in bangalore aquariums
another distinguishable fact is if there are females in the brood that aquarium sells, there will be constant lip lock fights happening ,even in aquarium shop and at your home ,if no lip lock fights only chasing then it will be only males
if u have bought it from an aquarium shop u will never get any females of any fish except mollies and other easily sexable fish, the feamles are over stocked by breeders to breed them ,they use only a single cichlid male to fertilize many females,evne i have doen it my self, if u buy it directly from a breeder u will definitely get females ,
i had sucess in angels , they started to breed llike guppies infact more than them , i got bored and gave them all away, the trick is to get it froma breeder, u will know what females look like ,once u get to know em, u catch em every where in aquariums but very sparingly by what i have seen once in 10mnths like that in bangalore aquariums
another distinguishable fact is if there are females in the brood that aquarium sells, there will be constant lip lock fights happening ,even in aquarium shop and at your home ,if no lip lock fights only chasing then it will be only males
i have bought female livebearers, female rainbow fishes, female tetras, female ramirezis, regularly for the last decade in Delhi. the only fish species that i found was sold with males available is guppies, and even in that case, once in 10 visits, i found females too.
over a year ago, i bought 6 ramirezis, and out of 6, 3 turned out females, laid eggs, had fry! i have made a thread of this in Aquapetz, you can see it if makes u incredulous.
Joined: Jun 14, 2011 Posts: 267 Location: Bangalore
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Posted: Fri Aug 03, 2012 9:30 pm Post subject: Re: Identify the gender of this fish
The pink belly is there, but its not a bright, bright pink. The body to me looks more roundish, so I think its a female. But the tail fin is long, flowy with a deep cleft/ divide and I wonder. Thanks for the pic juanico.
Vidhyasagar, with rams, I often see a lot of females in the LFSes here. I guess its because, like us, even the breeders find it hard to distinguish gender :)
OK, am going to get a male. Now, I need to really find a Ram without any pink belly!!
Posted: Fri Aug 03, 2012 9:38 pm Post subject: Re: Identify the gender of this fish
Shankar, breeders don't find it hard to distinguish gender, they are masters at it.
They will only ship females to a city in a batch, and they keep note of all their shipments,
city wise.
The Males will be shipped to the city more than a year later, if not longer,
and they will be nuked. Lovely and colorful and all, priced higher, but will not breed.
The breeders too have to survive in this bad world. The most honest ones openly admit it,
the less will say I don't do it.
You need to get in touch with a good breeder or hobbyists to be able to get both males and females.
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