Are these Ramirezi Gold's man/female?

[Larska]

Hi all,

 

I asked to my LFS 1 month ago to give me a male and female Ramirezi Gold, but to be honest it's so hard to see. What do you think?

Sometimes they're chasing eachother so I do want to buy another female tomorrow.

 

[Fish Folk]

These can be very hard to sex. If you can, upload a short video. I’ll try to upload one for you that points out some differences between  male and female gold rams. 

Edited December 11, 2020 by Fish Folk

[Bsharrow]

Great looking rams! 

Males chasing females can be part of normal behavior. Or it could be a that you have 2 males that aren't getting along.

Do you notice them hanging around close by each other? This could be another sign that they are a male female.

Do you have a picture of the smaller one from the side? I can't tell from the shot you posted. Females are usually smaller, have a pinkish belly and as they get ready to breed you will see them become a little more plump.

 

 

[Fish Folk]

Bsharrow is spot on. Because Mikrogeophagus Ramirezi have been selectively bred for various colorations, even comparing one pair of rams with another can produce some puzzles. 
 

As Bsharrow says, the key features to look for are pinkish coloration on the belly for females. And given time, males do grow larger. Our gold males tend to get a darker orange head... but that is not determinative. 
 

To get your females to color up, try feeding a diet rich in carotenoids. Xtreme krill flakes, live baby brine shrimp, Bug Bites “color-enhancing” flakes should all help. It is the consumption of brine shrimp and carotenoid-rich micro life from estuaries that turns Flamingos pink. (Random trivia)

Some females tend to retain a bit more jeweled spangling across their mid-section, whereas males are more color-uniform. 
 

In photo attached, male is on left / female is on right.

[Fish Folk]

And for more reference, another photo here: male is in upper right, two females facing away in lower left.

Edited December 11, 2020 by Fish Folk

[Larska]

Great, thank you for the information, really helpfull!

They both don't have a red belly unfortunately, but maybe they're still to young to show those, is that possible?

 

I made a movie of 5 minutes long, hopefully you can try to seks them. But if I do see your pictures and see my Ramirezi fish I de believe that I have 2 males (just cause of the body texture).

 

I did see today that on the bottom right corner of my tank, there's being played with sand. I can't say if that's from the Ramirezi or from the pleco's in the tank. I've made a photo of it.

 

 

Edited December 11, 2020 by Larska

[Fish Folk]

First off, WOW! You have an absolutely gorgeous aquarium! Well done! I could watch that all day long. Everything looks fantastic. 

I tend to agree . . . they look like two male rams. If you've seen them sparing, that's normal until one establishes dominance. After that, they usually settle into a groove. 

Those are really nice looking rams. 

If you're still looking for another opinion on them, I'd shout out for master breeder Dean Tweedle to weigh in. He's probably raised and looked after a hundred thousand rams . . . I'd bet the farm on his opinion. 

Keep up the great fish keeping!  

[Larska]

Hahah thaaaank you for the compliment! I'm actually not of the aquascpaing so I'm glad to read this.

 

Ok, let's hope that my LFS will look with me and will swap one of those. 2 Females in an aquarium won't keep on going without on of them being harmed I think.

 

I saw a lot of videos of Dean, great guy with lots of experience! Do you know if there's anyway to get in contact with him to ask such a question?

[Fish Folk]

Dean may sometimes contribute to this forum. Aquarium Co-Op staff keep an eye out for things. He's active on instagram at deansfishroom

[Larska]

Oke thanks! I did send him a message on instagram with the info. Hopefully he sees it and does have the time to take a look. I saw that Cory is around on this forum too 😀

[Colu]

More Difficult to sex golden rams

[Larska]

Well, I got a reply of the master himself, Dean. He said that he think that both are males cause he didn't see the pinksih belly.

I went to the LFS and bought another Ramirezi Gold Female. I can say it's 100% sure a female cause of the pink belly she has and she's allready dancing with one of the males in the aquarium. Let's hope this will be a good love story.

 

Thank you all! You guys really helped me a lot including Dean! 😄