New to the forums and new to GBR's and have a few questions
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My son works for a water garden supply store and recently got me back in to having an aquarium, because he wanted one. In years past I had an African Cichlid tank (Lake Malawai)... my son wanted a community aquarium, so I am getting my fix from the purchase of German Blue Rams in the community tank. I've read the sticky on sexing and purchased 2 GBR's after observing them for a while. There were no obvious pairs in the tank, but definitely some personality. I picked two I thought were a M/F but now am wondering if they are both male. The larger of the two appeared very male in characteristics and the smaller of the two definitely did not have a spiky top fin and the bottom was also shorter and "she" appeared to have blue spots on her black spot (sorry not very technical). Please look at the attached picture and tell me what you think. They get along great, follow each other around the tank and are separate at times as well. I wanted a pair and would consider getting two more females but I don't want to disrupt the peaceful tank. Any suggestions?
Your GBR's may be a little young to sex definitively for now, and I've no experience with them, but IMO looks like a male (left) and a female (right)....if the "female" begins to show a pink belly, then you know for sure...the blue sheen on the black spot is usually a dead-giveaway that it is female
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Agreed congrats on the pair :) They look so cute following eachother around. As long as they are getting along, I would leave it as it is. They are not looking ready to breed yet, but with good nutrition and proper water params, they probably will. I know you're not necessarily wanting them to breed, but introducing more will disrupt this cute relationship.
I will say I keep 1 male GBR to 3 females, but that is because my males have been arseholes. I needed more females to spread his energy lol. But if yours is chill, good for you!
The female has a reddish belly and rounded anal fins. The male's body is more elongated and bluer. That's not the only reasons, idk, they just scream male/female pair. Why were you wondering if they were both male?
Last edited by angelcraze2; 01-26-2019 at 07:13 PM.
I do believe the one on the right is a male. He is definitely bigger than the one on the left, has spikier top and bottom fins. He does have blue around his black spot though it doesn't appear to be extending into the black spot. When I picked them out, no one in the tank was paired up, maybe too young? The left seemed to be more dominant in the tank with the others. The right one now seems to have spikier fins and more pronounced black areas on the fins. We purchased the belly was a lot more pink... if it's a pair thats awesome, exactly what i wanted. I also wanted to get a second pair of dwarf cichlids to add too the tank. I love cichlids. We have mollies, tetras, cories and loaches in with them. Every one is very harmonious, we've had the tank up and running for about a month. The GBR's were the last 2 fish we added and I wanted 2 more dwarfs to complete the community. The first picture I posted was from last evening. The bottom pic of them by the side of the tank was two weeks ago when I first brought them home, and the top picture was 2 days later. The smaller one has changed a lot that is why I am questioning if the are M/F or both male. Thanks for all the responses and information, I appreciate it!
How big is the tank, and how is it filtered?...did you guys do a fishless cycle, or one with fish?
What kind of tetras and corys?....and hopefully all male or all female mollies, unless you want lots more of them, they breed easily and abundantly
In the top pic of this post, sure looks like a male above a female, to me anyway
How about getting us a FTS (full tank shot) pic, or a short video even better
10 Gallon Beginner Tank... Journal
40 Gallon Breeder: ... Journal
29 Gallon: ... Journal “If there are no dogs in Heaven, then when I die I want to go where they went” - Will Rogers
A school of Neon tetras, 6 Panda corys, 3 Molly (all female but one of them had babies 2 days ago), 5 kuhlie loaches(these are the coolest fish to watch), 2 GBR, and I forgot about the 4 Bumble Platys (I believe these are all male), 2 orange volcano snails, planted with Jungle Vail, Java Fern, moss balls and Ludwigia in a 55 gallon with an Eheim canister filter. We did a fishless cycle with filter media from a sponge filter from where my son works. We cycled and performed water changes for 6-8 weeks before adding fish. All the water parameters were where they should've been before adding any fish. We do 25% water changes weekly with a little more, 30-35% once a month. I'll have to get back to you on the size and maybe a video. I'm happy to hear you guys think they are M/F pair!! I do have a pic of the tank set-up!
Forgot to add, in addition to the baby mollies in the tank, I also have more snails than I started out with... new plants of Jungle Vail sprouting, spiky things growing from my Java fern, which though reading forums I believe is new Java fern growth and some kind of eggs? stuck on the front glass in 2 separate places..., I feed a mix of flakes, frozen brine shrimp and frozen bloodworms.
New to the forums and new to GBR's and have a few questions
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