Gourami Help ID and sex

[Guest]

I went to walmart and bought 3 dwarf gouramis, two are blue and one is orange, i think they are all males because they all have pointed dorsal fins. Any tips on sexing them? i know the females are supposed to be pale silvery blue with rounded dorsal fins.

also, any idea on how to sex the blue paradise gouramis? do the females have shorter fins? one of mine looks like its less colorful than the other, and im thinking the fins are a little shorter, but other than that i can't tell.

Im going to the LFS next week to try and get some females because i don't think wal mart has any... but when i buy from wal mart i feel like i am "rescuing" the fish.

Edit:
not even sure what they really are.. stupid walmart, anyway, here are some pics from my camera phone, i apolagize for the quality, but its all i have digital. i think the red one is a bloodred dwarf gourami becuase he has no blue whatsoever. I think the other two are powder blue dwarf gouramis. because they are blue with some orange

 

[Guest]

anybody?

 

[RoK]

If they have pointed dorsals they are males. I can't really tell the gender of first one but the 2nd one is definitely a male. The first one is a flame (aka fire red) and the second looks like a neon.
Info on the blue paradise, you should be able to find out how to sex them here: http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/prod_Display.cfm?pCatId=1007

 

[lmw80]

the bottom one definitly looks like a male, the top one is hard to tell from the pic.

 

[Guest]

so they are both dwarf gouramis? just different colors? neon blue and red
does that mean as long as i buy female dwarf gouramis they will live together ok, i don't really want spawning, i just heard if you have males and females they get a long better.

i think both of my blue paradise are males, this morning they were head to tail and swimming in a circle... no harm was done, but it looked very threatening.

 

[krap101]

yes the top one is a flame gourami and the bottom is a neon blue gourami (i think)

 

[lmw80]

yes krap101, that sounds right - and yes, they are both dwarf species.

 

[Guest]

awesome, thanks everyone.. gotta get some females though, they have been picking at each other

 

[RoK]

so they are both dwarf gouramis? just different colors? neon blue and red
does that mean as long as i buy female dwarf gouramis they will live together ok, i don't really want spawning, i just heard if you have males and females they get a long better.

i think both of my blue paradise are males, this morning they were head to tail and swimming in a circle... no harm was done, but it looked very threatening.

Yes, they are both dwarf gouramis. They may or may not bother each other. It's best to have a 1 male to 2-3 female ratio to lower aggression with gouramis. It is always best to have 1 male per tank though. You'll just have to watch over them.
It is a bad idea to have two male paradise fish together. They will most likely kill each other. You can have a bunch of females I think though. Did you read the info on them on liveaquaria?

 

[Guest]

Yes, i ve read the info now.. a little late, the paradise aren't really bothering each other, just every once and a while one will nip at one of the dwarfs. I think one of the paradise is a female because the tailfin is shorter and the color isn't as brilliant. I read that the males can fight just like betta's. Thanks for all the info.

 

[Guest]

ok, i can't find a pic of female blue paradise gourami's anywhere, anyone have any luck finding a pic? If i could just see a pic of the female, i would know for sure if i have 2 males or one male and one female

 

[Guest]

http://www.aqualandpetsplus.com/Gourami, Paradise.htm


found one, definitely both males...I found out they are not really gouramis, they are cousins of the betta. now what am i gonna do? lol, think walmart will take one back?

 

[Toirtis]

yes the top one is a flame gourami and the bottom is a neon blue gourami (i think)

Correct, and the neon blue is quite emaciated....feed on frozen, and watch it carefully for signs of internal parasites.

 

[Guest]

Correct, and the neon blue is quite emaciated....feed on frozen, and watch it carefully for signs of internal parasites.

They all looked really sick when i "rescued" them from wallmart and i noticed while they were in QT they had white poop.. so i dropped in some fizztabs to treate internal parasites. I left them in that tank for 3 days and now they are in my 55 gallon. I figured if they had anything it was cured and now they are healthy and active... doing much much better. I thought one of the blue's almost died the first night i put it in my 55 gal, he was actually laying on his side, but now i can't tell which of the two was sick because they are both acting normal... yay a successful walmart rescue!

 

[Guest]

got some better pics, definitely all male, but i went to the LFS today and bought 2 females. I also took the paradise back to walmart because they were both attacking my other male gouramis. No problems since i returned them.

 

[Blucat]

My Flame dwarf gourami like to eat zuchini and carrot by the way. In my experience, it improves their health and carrot makes them colour up nicely. You might need more females.

BTW: what kind of females did you get? Neon females or flame females? If you could post pictures of each of your females that would help me alot as i suspect one my males could actually be a female.

 

[Guest]

i will try to get a pic of the females... they don't like to sit still, its like as soon as i try to take a pic they start swimming back and forth.
According to the LFS, the dwarf females don't come in color... all the females are very pale colored, kinda silveryblue with rounded dorsal fins.

 

[Guest]

Well here are a few of the females

Together as a pair:

one by herself:

 

[cJw]

In my experience, it improves their health and carrot makes them colour up nicely.

Out of curiosity and for future reference, how teh heck do you feed a gourami a carrot? Do you shred it up first? No mention of anything like that in the infamous 'veg feeding' thread. . .

 

[smallfry]

Nuke a 1-2 inch long piece of carrot in some water for 2-3 minutes or until it is somewhat tender. Attach to a veggie clip if you have one...or anchor the carrot under a decoration/in a plant to hold it down. Most veggies float but gourami tend to be scared of "moving" food (anything that large anyway). You can leave the veggie in for up to 12 hours or so....but remove before it starts to smell/disintegrate.
HTH