Please help ID the gender of balloon rams

[Kinokunya]

Hi allOptimized-Photo 2013-04-01 04.30.55 PM.jpgOptimized-Photo 2013-04-01 04.31.00 PM.jpg,

Appreciate if you could help identify the genders for my pair of newly bought balloon rams. The LFS uncle caught the 'female' for me. Just wanted to confirm these 2 are a couple. Thank you very much.

[stormhawk]

Second pic is upside down. I cannot tell the sex from the current photos. You need them to flare to be able to sex them with any degree of accuracy, as finnage is the easiest way to tell the male from the female.

[Kinokunya]

Sorry Stormhawk, attached are some of the pictures I took.
2 individual shots, and 1 shot of the 2 rams together after what I thought might be territorial aggression.

Biting lips whenever they see each other.
Please advise, thanks!

1.jpg2.jpg3.jpg

[AhVy]

Sorry...can't help here. Just wanted to say they are a beautiful pair.

[stormhawk]

I think you have 2 males. Female Balloon Rams have shorter pelvic fins and a violet belly just like normal Rams. However, only time will tell. It's fairly easy to pick out a female on your own actually. I've seen them for sale at places like C328 etc. This is a link to a pic of a female Balloon Ram, if you want to know how to identify one on your own:

http://i279.photobucket.com/albums/k...male-Misty.jpg

[astro]

I tot male will have a darker black dorsal tip while female has a pinkish body?

[stormhawk]

Both male and female will have this dark black dorsal tip. Some females will show a longer dorsal spine, especially in the 3rd ray, when usually only males show this.