panicFREAK Posted October 21, 2007 Report Share Posted October 21, 2007 So i picked up 2 Bolivian Rams today. The LFS assistant said they were a male/female pair. But im beginning to think that i have 2 Females. Niether fish has extended caudal fins like the discriptions for male bolivian rams. They seem to be locking lips alot. And the fish in the 2nd pic seems to chase the other one away. Any ideas :dontknow: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bettarazzi Posted October 22, 2007 Report Share Posted October 22, 2007 I always try to gauge an LFS staff member's expertise before I listen to anything they say. After all the aquarium hobby is really quite a big subject area and you can't expect everyone in the LFS to be the expert on everything. I kept some Bolivian rams many years ago. My memory is a litttle hazy on the gender differences but I think my pair were quite distinct from each other. I wasn't in doubt about gender. Your guys look quite similar in those photos. It could just be that they're a bit young and haven't yet developed adult finnage and colour. If it was me I'd be going back to the LFS and having a chat with them. Presumably you indicated to the shop assistant that you wanted a pair. If that's not what you got I would expect them to exchange the fish. And really press them for info. Straight out ask them how much they know about dwarf cichlids. Have they ever bred them before? How expert are they at sexing young fish? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brettc777 Posted October 22, 2007 Report Share Posted October 22, 2007 Yeah some staff that work at pet shops are so silly. I was in LFS and I was overhearing a conversation between a customer and a staff member about Bettas. These bettas were kept in containers about 600ml and were really depressed sitting on the bottom. The customer asked "so what do I need to do to take care of them?" The Staff member responded by saying that "bettas are not an active fish and pretty much just sit around all day" I was pretty tempted to jump in and give the staff member a slap because if she had seen any bettas in housing that was bigger than a drinking glass she would see them swimming around being very active! I had a male bettas in a 2ft tank by itself and it would be constantly playing in the filter current going back and forth in the tank all day long! Really annoys me when sales people pretend to know what there talking about and is plainly obvious to anyone with a small amount of knowledge that they have no clue what there talking about! So yeah in effect I was agreeing with what mike had to say haha :dontknow: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brettc777 Posted October 22, 2007 Report Share Posted October 22, 2007 Forgot to say... they do look like young fish as the colour doesnt look as intense as it should be plus the tail fins normally have a lyre tail effect to them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tuataress Posted October 22, 2007 Report Share Posted October 22, 2007 ok here's my guess, the bottom one looks like a male, there are 4 dark antenna's, the top being female has 3. I have read you can tell by their mouths, they are different in m & f, I have been studying mine and I'm not too sure. As Brett and Bettarazzi have mentioned, the dorsel and tail fins need to develop a bit more. Butterflies aren't like blue rams, they don't pair off, females are quite solitary until they wants babies, then they start courting - but only until they get want they want.... you go girl!! {but you have probably read about that already} sometimes it is so annoying when the store get the sex wrong, I wanted 2 f blue rams, they are really tiny little specimens but already I can tell one is defintely a male - but he is so cute I can't take him back, so now I have 3 males & 1 female in the tank Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daniel Posted October 23, 2007 Report Share Posted October 23, 2007 the fish in the top picture may be male, if you look at this pic http://s48.photobucket.com/albums/f233/pho...=P1010032-2.jpg and compare he has "male bits" in your pic as well, i realsie this is not the easiest way to ID them, the females is more triangular and pointed. Its much easier to tell with the dorsal and caudal extentions. Lip locking is quite common, i wouldnt be too worried. They look pretty young from the photos. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
panicFREAK Posted October 23, 2007 Author Report Share Posted October 23, 2007 Well i took the fish in the top photo back and swapped it for another bolivian ram which im pretty sure is male. The new fish has got dorsal and caudal extentions. Though the 'original' fish pictured in the second photo seems to be chasing the new one, not as much as it did with the returned fish though. I think it might just be territory issues and behaving as most cichlids do. The new one wont stay still long enough for a photo. But they've both coloured up nicely. Hopefully (if i have a male and female) they will pair up and i'll get some little baby bolivians :rofl: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bettarazzi Posted October 23, 2007 Report Share Posted October 23, 2007 I made an impulse stop at Blackburn Aquarium today and they had both German blues and Bolivians. The Bolivians were huge. I thought of you but didn't bother testing the shop assistants knowledge on sexing young rams. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sara Posted October 24, 2007 Report Share Posted October 24, 2007 oh i picked up what i think are two females at Subscape i thought or i hoped i had a pair but they do the same lip lock and chase each other away and both look like they have a egg tube lol, so im guessing as they look almost identical that they are females, shame blackburn is on the other side of town for me Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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