If you bought electric blue rams locally ...

[nacra99]

I've been talking to a couple of my buddies in the industry in Singapore and discovered something interesting. So it seems like they have been intentionally shipping only either all males or all females to different importers here in the U.S. This is to protect their market for as long as they can. If people start breeding them and flooding the market, their prices will plummet. For that same reason, they are not even selling these locally (in Singapore) but exporting most of them overseas. Hence it is more difficult to get them in Singapore (their country of orgin) than here in the U.S.

With that, here's what i noticed while talking to some of the guys who bought them from locally from both stores. FR II seems to have gotten a shipment of large males only. HAW seems to have gotten a shipment of females with a couple of young males that could easily pass as females (or vice versa).

I got some from both and seem to have had 2 pairs develop from both groups. Within the pairs, the males came from FRII and the females came from HAW.

This is just my observation and may be totally wrong. Does anyone who got them from only one local source notice this as well? If this is truely the case, perhaps we can work out some way of trading among oursleves to mix up the sexes.

[nacra99]

BTW.. in case you are having difficulty sexing them (which i have). What i learned today was apparently the only reliable way is to have a look at their papilla (i.e reproductive tubes). Females are broader than males (which are pointier).

Because electric blues don't have the black spot on their sides nor do females show a red belly, the only common (albeit not always reliable) way is to look at the first 2 dorsal spines. Males typically have a super long 2nd dorsal spine although not always the case. Females tend to be smaller and have a visibly rounder belly when they are full of eggs.

Male (note dorsal spine):


Another Male :



Female (note dorsal spines)


Another female. This one just laid eggs for me. You can see remnants of her ovipositor sticking out her behind.

[Navarro]

Thank you for the info!

[Darbex]

Great research man

[Zulaab]

One other thing you can see "barely" is the females body will show a little bit of red showing though. The dorsal spine you are correct is longer on a male. Venting will for sure show you, as the male is pointed and the female is oval. The red in their belly is like convict females red in their belly.. These are the std traits from the regular German Ram.
Excellent post Nacra

[Rico]

i noticed this when they 1st came in. i told Mike that we only had males because they dont want them to breed. luckily there are females locally so it wont be long before the price drops. good luck with your pairs and good job on your research. :emt_thumbs:

[HoustonAquariumWarehouse]

Dan just received an order of 20 pieces. (He sold out his first batch) While still small, several exhibit the elongated dorsal spine, whie several do not. Im inclined to say he has a mix of both.

Each came individually bagged and so weathered the trip quite well. They are all eating well and are aclimating quite comfortably in their tank. We are open this weekend 12P-7P so come on by and take a look at them.

[Rico]

we just got 5 more ealier today

[myjohnson]

Seen them to day in real life for the first time when I was at dan's almost picked some up. Nice looking fishes.

To bad I only keep trophs and petros.

If I seen them back in my apisto days....I would have gotten everyone of them!

[MexicanFish]

Great info! I bought a pair of german rams from FE II (great place and excellent service) and I think I'm gonna get a pair of blue ones soon.

[dxiong5]

Do you know at what age or size the fish are when the dorsal fins become more apparent to distinguish the sexes?