Dyes/hormone injected fish

[Mcgolg76]

Just heard about this horrible practice of dying and injecting fish with hormones to get better colors. How common is this practice? I am looking to purchase a dwarf gourami tomorrow. A non chain lfs as the most brightly colored flame dwarf gouramis. In fact most of the fish have beautiful colors. Should I be worried this store buys enchanced fish?

 

[brennae]

I can't speak for the buying practices of your LFS but there is a store near me that had fish with heart shaped tattoos! It was so awful!

 

[Goldfish loach boy]

Gouramis aren't normally dyed, but a pic of one would help to determine one
Glo fish are a horrible example, they are injected with jelly fish genes to make them glow, the ones that are died go through a horrible process, their slime coat is removed and they are injected with the dye, thousands of fish die a year because of this, that is why I never buy Glo fish or any other modified fish

 

[Mcgolg76]

This gouramis are gorgeous. There blue rams look awesome. Store is very clean. Owners not super knowledgeable though. Extremely expensive. But don't mind paying a few extra dollars for a flame gourami that will be my centerpiece. Just don't want to support barbaric practices.

 

[Alyxx]

Gouramis aren't normally dyed, but a pic of one would help to determine one
Glo fish are a horrible example, they are injected with jelly fish genes to make them glow, the ones that are died go through a horrible process, their slime coat is removed and they are injected with the dye, thousands of fish die a year because of this, that is why I never buy Glo fish or any other modified fish

Glofish were made by injecting eggs with the genes and they breed true. The glofish in stores just got the genes from their parents - the actual modification was pretty cruelty free and happened generations ago. That being said I still think they are ugly fish and wouldn't buy them.

If a fish is dyed, you would know. They would be one unnatural color all over or they are tattooed with patterns like hearts. I've never seen dwarf gouramis dyed. However, it is possible they were given hormone laced foods to improve their growth and coloration. There's really no way to tell if the fish were hormonally improved.

 

[Mcgolg76]

So my next question is if these gouramis were fed a hormone enchanced food, would it lose its colors in a few weeks.

 

[Alyxx]

So my next question is if these gouramis were fed a hormone enchanced food, would it lose its colors in a few weeks.

Probably. However you can feed pigment enhancing foods to keep the reds bright. I feed omega one super color flakes. Not hormone enhanced but they have the pigments that naturally keep colors bright.

 

[bettaowner]

Dark substrate can really bring out colors

 

[Goldfish loach boy]

+1 I put black sand in my tank, and my fish all got their colors out, especially if your fish has a dark body with colorful markings

 

[Fishfur]

Fwiw, you should know that dwarf gouramis are rather fragile. They are gorgeous, and I used to keep them. I wanted to breed them. But I finally gave up because they kept dying. No reason could be found, other than perhaps inbreeding. Females did slightly better than the males, but not much.

They need a lot of plants, floating and planted, quiet water, no bright lights if there are not floating plants they can be shaded under. Quiet tank mates, not fast swimmers, and very clean water. If you have more than one, the planting is really important to prevent fighting, by breaking up sight lines.

Even given all that, they can die without warning or very shortly after showing symptoms, such as lying on the bottom, or draped over a plant. I wish they were tougher, I would love to have them again, but they aren't.

But their colours are for real. Achieved by breeding, not chemicals.

 

[Mcgolg76]

Flame gourami I got

 

[Cynic]

Looks normal to me.

 

[rbeland]

A flame gourami was one of the first fish I put in a new tank recently and he looks exactly like yours. I bought him at Petco for about $6.

 

[Fishlover3578]

The honey sunset gourami is in own tank and the regular and flame gourami share a tank so far good