Honey gourami normal behavior?

[missmonday]

So as far as I can tell, my honey gourami Mr. Mango shows no outward signs of any illness. But at times he is quite leisurely in his swimming, and will stay in one spot for a pretty long time. Usually he hides in some floating plants at the top of the tank, or hides in more plants near the bottom of the tank.

Lately however, he likes to sit on the bottom right corner of the tank, upright but rather still. He still moves his feelers around and looks around when he sits like this, but when he's "comfy" he doesn't like to move much.

He swims around the tank no problem, doesn't have any clamped fins or other fin problems. He seems to be kind of a fussy eater, most of what I try to feed him he spits out at least a few times. At least hopefully eats it? He's kind of slow when it comes to feeding, so the other fish will sometimes eat what he's swimming towards :c

I'll include a picture next time. But does this sound like normal gourami behavior (aside from the eating thing, I just have to find something he likes!)

 

[fishliker]

I am answering you without knowing important info. Such as what are your water tests, ammonia, etc. and how big is your tank and what are the tank mates.

Honey gourami are a shy fish and will act as yours is if it doesn't feel secure. Last year I had a 29 gallon tank which was a species tank with 7 honey gourami. Only one male. They were all over the tank and and interacted with each other. The they started getting sick and now I am down to one who acts like yours. I'm not suggesting 7 of them but if you have the room, adding 2 or 3 more might help. Only one male or all females though. Males fight.

Honeys can get a disease where they bloat and stay at the bottom. This can be treated with an antibiotic if caught early. If they are sick their color will darken and they will begin to breathe too fast.

So there can be several causes for this behavior. Tank too small, or they don't like fast moving tank mates either because they are slower swimming fish and they get intimidated. Honeys need to come to the surface on a regular basis to breathe as they are a labyrinth fish.

Hope this helps.


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[missmonday]

I'll test my water parameters when I'm home and include a picture of Mr. Mango as well! I assume he's male because he has a nice golden coloration, but because I only intended to keep one gourami, I didn't overly concern myself with sexing them.

Currently, he's in a cycled 29 gallon tank with 3 mickey mouse platys and 9 gold mountain minnows. The tank is kept at 77F. And I do have a fair amount of plants, but I wouldn't consider it heavily planted, I'm looking to add more plants though.

If Mr. Mango is in fact female, would it be a good idea to add another female? I'm not particularly interested in breeding honeys and I've heard males get very territorial when spawning.

 

[fishliker]

If yours is female you could add a couple of more females. Glad you have plants, especially the floating ones. I found Amazon swords to be the easiest to grow in my tank.


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[missmonday]

Haven't taken a picture yet because I can't seem to upload pictures on my phone, but water params are: temp 77, ph 7.4, ammonia 0, nitrite 0, nitrate 5

So everything parameter -wise looks okay to me? Mr. Mango seemed pretty lively when I got him from a tank of only honey/dwarf gouramis so needing a buddy does make sense. I hope Mr. Mango is actually a girl xD

 

[fishliker]

Sounds like things are fine. You are a good observer.

I love gourami fish. I have 5 pearl gourami in my 55 gallon tank and I really enjoy them too.


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[missmonday]

Here are some pictures of Mr. Mango.

I got him to eat some frozen brine shrimp, so that's a small victory. He doesn't swarm like the rest of the fish do when it's feeding time, and can be pretty slow to notice. When he swims to the top, I try to feed him separately.

Not sure if it's related or not, but I saw what appeared to be him trying to thrash his head against the tank wall He didn't injure himself, and he only did it for maybe 20 or 30 seconds...My temp and parameters are okay, so what's up with that? I have NEVER seen him do that before.

If in fact Mr. Mango IS female, would getting just one more female honey made her feel more comfortable?? I have plans later down the road to add 5 panda corys, 5 kuhli loaches and a few amano shrimp, so I don't wanna overstock my tank too bad, you know?

 

[brennae]

I don't know about gourami behavior but that is a pretty fish! When I need to spot feed certain fish I either use a baby medicine dropper or a turkey baster. I squirt food to the main group and then really quick spot feed then give the main group another squirt so they leave the slower fish alone to eat.

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[missmonday]

Thanks, Brenna! : D I think honeys have much better color than dwarfs hehe
And thanks for the tip! What I did today was use a tea spoon (a literal tea spoon, not the baking measurement) and got a bit of the thawed brine shrimp and placed it on the surface. Since Mr. Mango comes to the surface periodically to hang out or to breathe air, it's usually the easiest way to feed him.

 

[biondoa]

I have two honey gouramis and they were extremely shy when they were in the quarantine tank and would only eat blood worms , but once they got into their community tank they were fine and ate the pellet food that I fed to the tank. Your mr. mango does not look like a honey gourami to me. He might be some sort of hybrid.

 

[missmonday]

Oh really? :0 What does he look like more then?? He was kept in a tank of dwarf gouramis and other "sunset" gouramis, as he himself was listed as a "sunset" gourami. I asked the lfs guy, who is an aquarium hobbyist himself and runs the shop in his spare time, his business also runs a maintenance service so I trust his advice, if there was a difference between honey and sunset, and he said the vendor he gets them from uses the terms interchangeably so I assumed they were the same thing.

 

[biondoa]

Well he looks like some sort of gourami, and he does have some color, but his body shape is a little strange. The honeys are more rounded both on the top and bottom, and not quite as long. They are also more gold in color. I don't know if different gourami types interbreed, but his shape and coloration are not typical of the honey gourami. That is why I thought maybe a mixed breed. Just a guess. Please let us know how he is doing.

 

[missmonday]

Well I got him to eat a little more, yay! He's easiest to feed when he comes to the surface, and still swims around and hangs out in his favorite spots no problem. But now that you've mentioned it he seems...lonely? He doesn't bother the platys or the minnows but sometimes isolates himself. I think he's still shy.

Any definite confirmation on gender? I can get another gourami from the same place if he's a hybrid, or I can try to get a true honey (or at least I assume so because it's a high quality place) too. Once I know Mr. Mango's gender, I'll look out for a female.

With honeys does gender ratio matter too much? Would I have to get 2 females to prevent stressing them out (if Mr. Mango were male) or could I just get one female? I do enjoy gouramis but I just don't wanna overcrowd my tank with the fish I'm planning

 

[biondoa]

I honestly don't know how to tell the difference between male and female honeys. I have 2, but I have no idea what their genders are. They get along just fine though. Very pleasant and peaceful fish.