German Blue Rams - Female?

[Chris]

Hey guys!
 

I've had a heck of a time trying to get a male and female GBR. I bought four, wanting them to pair off naturally so I could see the other two - all 4 ended up being female. So I sold the other 3 back to the store, and picked out what I'm positive is a male - it's got some pretty ridiculously long streamers on the 2nd ray of its' dorsal fin and on it's pelvic fins.

After introducing the male into the tank with what I'm pretty sure is a female, I'm seeing more aggression than i was expecting. No contact, but the male will chase the female into the corner, and keep her pinned there. He does turn sideways towards her, but I don't see him "flare" very much like what I've read online. This behavior seems different than what I'd describe as "indiscriminate aggression" since there's no damage being done, but it'd make me feel better to know if this is definitely a female or not.

Thoughts?

[Fish Folk]

On 6/13/2021 at 1:13 PM, Chris said:

Hey guys!
 

I've had a heck of a time trying to get a male and female GBR. I bought four, wanting them to pair off naturally so I could see the other two - all 4 ended up being female. So I sold the other 3 back to the store, and picked out what I'm positive is a male - it's got some pretty ridiculously long streamers on the 2nd ray of its' dorsal fin and on it's pelvic fins.

After introducing the male into the tank with what I'm pretty sure is a female, I'm seeing more aggression than i was expecting. No contact, but the male will chase the female into the corner, and keep her pinned there. He does turn sideways towards her, but I don't see him "flare" very much like what I've read online. This behavior seems different than what I'd describe as "indiscriminate aggression" since there's no damage being done, but it'd make me feel better to know if this is definitely a female or not.

Thoughts?

Looks too juvenile / or stressed to make a good call.

This video might be helpful...

 

[Chris]

Nice video! I don't know that it helped me too much, though. This "female" does have some blue speckling around her gill plate, but doesn't seem to have much in the way of dark spots. They're low quality fish farm rams, but I'm just wanting to breed them for the fish club credit and for fun.

 

Maybe these videos will help?

 

 

I realize the video is poor quality - this tank has a pretty dim light over it, so getting anything resembling useful footage is hard, even with a decent camera.

 

The chasing has slowed down today, and they seem to be getting along better.