Black ram sexing?

[K_lawns]

Not sure if I have any males in this group of 5. They keep laying eggs but then keep eating them, has happened twice now in a week. so not sure if they are unfertilized and just all females maybe?  Any help would be great
 

Edited February 12 by K_lawns

[NOLANANO]

You have at least one male depending on if these pics have repeats in them. The last pic looks like a mated pair with the male on the left and female on the right. Second and third from the bottom looks like 2 females. fourth and fifth from the bottom looks like 3 females. 6th from bottom looks like a male. 7th and 8th from the bottom looks like 1 male and 2 female. top pic looks like a male in the front. Can't see the fins of the other ram in that pic but I'd guess female.

[AllFishNoBrakes]

On 2/12/2024 at 10:11 AM, NOLANANO said:

The last pic looks like a mated pair with the male on the left and female on the right.

Agreed. Also, while I’m not expert, it’s pretty easy to spot a pair in a tank as they’ll stay together. I bought a pair of black rams from the LFS a couple of years ago, and it was super easy to spot the pairs in the tank compared to the non-paired fish. 
 

I brought them home and didn’t QT them cuz they were the only fish in that tank. They laid one spawn, and I got them to wigglers, but failed after that. Unfortunately, the rams fell apart super quickly on me and I lost them. All that is to say, I know I had a pair because the eggs were definitely fertile, and they were pretty easy to pick from the tank as they were huddled up together vs. the other fish in the tank that were all over the place. 
 

Young pairs also take time to become good parents, if they ever do. Some people on here have said that after 6 or 8 spawns the parents finally stopped eating the eggs. Others gave up, and started artificially hatching the eggs. 

[Lennie]

Hello there.

I can show you my pair to give an opinion. Tho as juveniles it was pretty hard to sex. Normal rams are easier to sex because you can see the pink belly on females and there can be other potential signs too but they are not guaranteed, like the sheen on the black dot on the body, top fins, pelvic fin.

 

The differences I see between my m and f are: male pelvic fins go longer, first top fins are long, and in size it is bigger, although blacks seem to grow a bit late.

Female; shorter pelvic fins, short top fins, smaller in size,

the glasses are covered by algae (which I think it makes the pair feel comfier, so I leave it be) in the picture, I just screenshotted these from the video I sent to @Guppysnail

male on left, female on right:

male again:

 

[Lennie]

When I got them as juveniles: 

Male:

Females:

 

If any pairs up, DEFINITELY seperate any others from the tank. After keeping 1m:2f juveniles, they grew up and paired, killed the other female in a 100x40x40 tank.

 

[K_lawns]

Some of the pics have a repeat. The really dark one with the longer dorsals is the same fish in a couple of them. Currently have 5 in a 20 long so that was my thought for next time they lay to remove the eggs. I just not sure which ones were laying them or which the male was or is. Thanks a lot everyone. Really helped. 

[NOLANANO]

The long fin one is a male. That doesn’t necessarily mean that none of the others are males but that one is definitely a male.