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Sexing German Blue

LukeB

New Member
Messages
10
Hi All,
We have a German Blue, just wondering if someone could tell the sex as we would like to get a mate.
Getting a bit confused as it seems to have traits both female and male to my newbie untrained eye.

Thanks
 

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FishEZ

Member
5 Year Member
Messages
49
Location
Brampton, Ontario
Hi. Nice photos to work with, so thanks for sending those. In the black spot area, it's obvious missing a lot of the blueish iridescent spots that are all over the body. This also suggests a male. The females tend to have spots evenly distributed through this area while the males do not. That is my understanding. It's been many years since I've had some Rams but that was the sure fire way to tell years ago.
 

LukeB

New Member
Messages
10
This is a problem with domestic strains - females often show male features. This is a male. I can see the pointed genital papilla on a couple of the photos.

Thanks for your feedback Mike, we will try and track down a female as a tank mate.
I have tried looking at the photos but can’t really make out the papilla myself. Is the papilla visible on the male all the time or just if he’s ready to mate?
Thanks again
 

LukeB

New Member
Messages
10
This is a problem with domestic strains - females often show male features. This is a male. I can see the pointed genital papilla on a couple of the photos.

Thanks for your feedback Mike, we will try and track down a female as a tank mate.
I have tried looking at the photos but can’t really make it out the papilla myself. Is the papilloma visible on the male all the time or just if he’s ready to mate?
Thanks again
Hi. Nice photos to work with, so thanks for sending those. In the black spot area, it's obvious missing a lot of the blueish iridescent spots that are all over the body. This also suggests a male. The females tend to have spots evenly distributed through this area while the males do not. That is my understanding. It's been many years since I've had some Rams but that was the sure fire way to tell years ago.
Thanks for your reply, we will try and get a female as a tank mate for him. He’s a pretty easy little guy to photograph, very interactive and will come up to the glass to check us out. Gets along with the other fish in our community tank, no aggression at all.
 

LukeB

New Member
Messages
10
Genital papilla appear when the fish is ready to breed.
Hi Mike,

I have been looking everywhere to try and find a female German Blue Ram and think I may found one at a pet store near me, hoping to get your opinion on the sex. I managed to take a couple of photos, hope they are good enough. She is very young, maybe 1.5cm. I thought it may be a female as the blue speckles look like they are inside the black dot on its side and to my eye there seems to be a bit of a red blush on its belly.

Do you think this one may be a female or is it a bit too early to tell?

Thanks
 

Ade205

Active Member
Messages
172
Location
Swadlincote, England
Imo female. Don't go 100% of the black spot and blue iridescent as sign of a female as it's far from accurate with some strains. I've bred and reared literally thousands of gbr's and I've found the pinkish belly far more succesful way of sexing when fish are still young although this also is no guarantee. If you rear Rams you'll be amazed at how young and small they will start spawning!
Screenshot_20190623-233413.png

The male guarding eggs in picture above is under 5 months old not even an inch in size, the female was significantly smaller. Note the eggs are not fertile, this may have been due to age or inexperience. One month later this pair were hatching and guarding fry successfully.
Here's a link to a adult pair of mine spawning clearly showing adult gender differences.....
Finally, if your planning to breed get a culture of vinegar eels going, they are by far the best food for Ram fry for the first 2 or 3 days untill they are big enough to take bbs.

Ade.
 
Last edited:

LukeB

New Member
Messages
10
Imo female. Don't go 100% of the black spot and blue iridescent as sign of a female as it's far from accurate with some strains. I've bred and reared literally thousands of gbr's and I've found the pinkish belly far more succesful way of sexing when fish are still young although this also is no guarantee. If you rear Rams you'll be amazed at how young and small they will start spawning!
View attachment 8557
The male guarding eggs in picture above is under 5 months old not even an inch in size, the female was significantly smaller. Note the eggs are not fertile, this may have been due to age or inexperience. One month later this pair were hatching and guarding fry successfully.
Here's a link to a adult pair of mine spawning clearly showing adult gender differences.....
Finally, if your planning to breed get a culture of vinegar eels going, they are by far the best food for Ram fry for the first 2 or 3 days untill they are big enough to take bbs.

Ade.
Thanks for the great info Ade, I will head back to the store and pick her up this afternoon.
Just watching how they rub against the plants while spawning in your link. The male in my tank has been showing this behaviour and I thought he may have been sick, I couldn’t work this out because he’s showing no signs of illness, is very active and still eating. In one of the reply’s above Mike Wise notes that his papilla is present at the moment. Starting to all make sense.

Great looking tank too!!
 

Fish Folk

New Member
Messages
23
Looks like a female. Slight pinkish in belly plus the gems in the black spot lean me in this direction. All other things considered, better quality water. better quality food (not quantity mind you), and a low-stress environment will bring out colors beautifully. Our male & female photos below. We found that feeding live brine shrimp really brought out certain colors on our fish.
Male GBR.png
Female GBR.png
 

Uncle.Ned

New Member
5 Year Member
Messages
10
Hi All,
We have a German Blue, just wondering if someone could tell the sex as we would like to get a mate.
Getting a bit confused as it seems to have traits both female and male to my newbie untrained eye.

Thanks
germsn blue rams all have a dark patch in the middle of the body, FEMALES have a shiny blue spot in the middle of the dark patch
 

LukeB

New Member
Messages
10
Looks like a female. Slight pinkish in belly plus the gems in the black spot lean me in this direction. All other things considered, better quality water. better quality food (not quantity mind you), and a low-stress environment will bring out colors beautifully. Our male & female photos below. We found that feeding live brine shrimp really brought out certain colors on our fish. View attachment 8564View attachment 8565
Thanks Fish Folk!!
We picked her up the other day, been in the tank a couple of days now. She is very young and small, so was a bit worried how the other rams would accept her but all seems good at the moment. For now we will let her settle in and see if nature takes its course.
I will look into getting some brine shrimp.
 

Chromedome

Member
5 Year Member
Messages
98
germsn blue rams all have a dark patch in the middle of the body, FEMALES have a shiny blue spot in the middle of the dark patch

If you look at the post directly above yours, you will see that this is not true. I've had pairs where both sexes had blue spangles in the black spot, and I've had pairs where neither one had them. As noted by Ade205, that is not a dependable characteristic.
 

Mike Wise

Moderator
Staff member
5 Year Member
Messages
11,201
Location
Denver, Colorado, U.S.A.
Yes, both sexes have blue spangles in the humeral spot. In wild females they have more spangles and distributed throughout the spot while males have fewer and mostly found along the borders of the spot. Domestic strains can change this.
 

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