This is a discussion on male and female? help me find out... within the Cichlids forums, part of the Freshwater and Tropical Fish category; -->
Is it possible to find out the sex of these two blue rams?
two rams web.jpg
close up pics (sort of...)
female ram.jpg
male ...
The easiest way to sex rams is by looking at the black mid-lateral blotch. In males, there are none of the bright blue spangles inside the blotch, whereas in females, there is. Hope this helps!
I also think they are both female. If you check our profile of this fish--click on the shade name Mikrogeophagus ramirezi to see the profile--it mentions sex differences and also has a photo of a pair spawning so you can see the differences better.
Their behaviour toward each other is often a clue; two males would constantly be "challenging" each other. A pair (male/female) would be obvious by their interaction.
The photo caption says it is a male, but I couldn't swear to it; the black markings on the shoulder are washed out too, either from stress or this may be one of the artificial colour morphs.
Well since this is the only possible male I have found so far (and I drove 40 minutes just to take alook at it) I bought it. Surprisingly one of my females immediately swim with this one, and I've noticed that the female became a bit of aggressive towards the other tankmates. I have been watching them and the two seems bond to each other immediately. Swimming together or just following each other. I hope they really pair, the other female is being bumped by the other female everytime she tries to go near the male.
On the last post, no, that is her response to the male. Fish can change the intensity of their coluration quite significantly due to interaction with a mate or other fish, environmental conditions (darker over dark substrate, lighter over light substrate) or stress. In this case it is interaction.
And I would agree it sounds as if they are forming a pair. I had identical behaviour when I introduced a female Bolivian Ram to my male, and within 3 days they spawned.
male and female? help me find out... 
