Rams (Blue, Gold, Bolivian...)

[theeyrietrainer]

Well, I was wonder (I'm a newbie at cichlids, never kept, i dont know if i will ever keep em unless i can get a perfect pair of rams) how do you sex a ram? i know you sex them by the pink patch on the females, but if they dont show, how do you know if they are male or female? i saw some gorgeous golds today but the blue rams didnt look blue and when i saw a pink patch on the golds and blues, it looked as though it was natural on their scales, is there any other way to sex a ram besides the belly? would the face of a male look different from a female?

 

[wayne]

For blue rams, blue spangles in the central black spot are a good indicator of being a female. Golds are a colour mutt of blues, and are harder to sex as the gold masks a ot of other colouring. Females have a more round body shape, or get 6 and wait till they spawn.
Peruvian rams are a separate species, males have longer body shape, longer fin extensions.
There is also a 3rd species I've never seen, and reputedly now a 4th, a double body spot peruvian...