Do female GBR usually look this different?

[Carlos_421]

About a month and a half ago I went out and bought one GBR (apparently) and one Bolivian Ram. I intended on getting each males but upon further inspection when I got home, decided I had accidentally brought home females.

Here is the female GBR:



Well, neither of them seemed to be showing much color. So I decided I would try again getting a male of each and hope that they'd pair up and show more color.
They only had one male Bolivian and I didn't care for the looks of him so I decided to pass on him but I did get a beautiful male GBR.


I noticed though that he looks just like all the internet pictures of GBRs (very striking colors) but not much like my female. Her black markings are not nearly as bold and distinct as his.

Is she possibly a slightly different variety of ram or maybe a hybrid? Or do females often look like this?


Side note: I also raised the temperature a couple degrees as I heard this can help them show more color. The female and the Bolivian seem to be showing a little bit more color today but I'm not sure if it's due to the temperature change or the addition of the male GBR.

Thoughts?

 

[TheCommunityCichlid]

It really depends on the mikrogeophagus ramirezi genetics. Some come from good genes others from bad. This is how you get a variation I'm appearance

 

[Lady_Alia]

Maybe she's stressed...?

 

[Carlos_421]

Maybe she's stressed...?

That could be. She does show her stress lines a lot and she was more colorful at the store if I remember correctly. The thing is I don't know what would be stressing her after this long. All the fish seem to get along fine without any aggression issues or anything.