# Bolivian Ram behaviour



## steveMc (May 19, 2016)

Hello All! Just recently found and joined this forum. Had a question about behaviour of my Bolivian Rams .. I bought 2 of them a couple of weeks ago, hoping for a pair but hard to tell in Big Al's as there were a lot of them in the tank. The guy there seemed to know a bit about them and went with two he felt were the "best chance of being a male and female". In my tank now, I believe I can see one is clearly a male based on the shape of his vent and the fact his red tail extensions are getting long. The other one shows no tail extensions but also the vent shape is not clear, so I am not sure.

My question .. yesterday the (I think) male starting building a hollow in the gravel under a crypt plant, using his tail and physically moving the gravel with his mouth, piece by piece. Today he is still doing it, in another location of the tank. Pretty cool to watch. So is it safe to assume the other is a female and he is provoked into doing this? Or do they sometimes do this even when not paired up?

They are in a community tank, 33 gallons. A pic of the two is attached, the one I think is the male is the lower one. The other one that I am really not sure about is the top one.

Thanks,
Steve


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## steveMc (May 19, 2016)

Okay then ... I guess IDing these two is as tough as I thought!


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## j.thomson (Mar 28, 2014)

could be wrong but i believe but do you have lots of caves and hiding places for them? could be trying to make an area where it feels protected. Go to nofrills grab a coconut drill a hole cut it in half hallow the fruit out...make some caves for a couple bucks see if that solves ur problem. look to be both males to me. No pink belly but cant see the front dorsal fins..


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## jeanniebabie (Mar 1, 2015)

One on the bottom yes I would say male but the one on the top...... hmmmmmm could be female or young adult too early to tell.
I found with my rams the males like to claim territory and build shallow holes in the gravel irregardless if they are paired up or not but it's a good sign &#128077;

Keep watching them and you might see spawning behaviour then you know &#128522;

Oh and Bolivian don't get pink bellies like Germans although the males colour up beautifully &#128522;









Males is on the right and female on the left.

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