Honey gourami gender and behaviour enquiry

[Islandinthesun5]

We have just added 2 honey gouramis to our 65 litre tank. We are new to fish keeping.

Can anyone tell me if they are male or female? I have attached pictures

They have pretty much constantly been following each other around and tapping each other with their ventral fins since introducing over the last 2 days. They are both eating and follow each other. They flay their fins at each other and circle at times.

Is this normal behaviour or anything to worry about? Could it progress into something more aggressive? It does not seem very aggressive atm, more playful maybe, there is no charging or nipping but it is pretty constant.

Thanks in advance!

[Andy Sager]

These appear to be color morphs of the honey gourami so coloration alone is not going help. Female honey gouramis usually have a shorter rounded dorsal ( top) fish while the males have a longer more pointed one. Yours appear to have short pointed ones but since they are not fully extended, the pointedness could just be from the collapsed fin.

You need to have a lot of cover in the tank so that the fish can get away from each other. The circling can be a preliminary spawning routine as well as trying to establish dominance in the tank. Your tank is on the borderline of being too small for 2 non sexed honey gouramis. Unless you can get definite sexes, you are going to have to rely on their behavior as to if they can remain together. If you see any damage to one or both fish, they will need to be separated.

[Islandinthesun5]

Ok thank you 😊

Wish the fish store had told us this, they said we could get more than 2 in our tank! We have some Java ferns, drift wood and rocks for hiding spots and to break sight but we will get some more plants to help.

I have attached a better photo of the dorsal fins, if you could have a look, would much appreciated!

Thanks again!

[Andy Sager]

Originally Posted by Islandinthesun5

Ok thank you 😊

Wish the fish store had told us this, they said we could get more than 2 in our tank! We have some Java ferns, drift wood and rocks for hiding spots and to break sight but we will get some more plants to help.

I have attached a better photo of the dorsal fins, if you could have a look, would much appreciated!

Thanks again!

In this pic, they look like a male and female but it's still not a guarantee. Sadly, the changing of the fish's natural colors have made identifying genders with this specie very difficult. Natural ones are very easy to tell just by color. ( The same has happened with the Dwarf Gourami- Trichogaster lalius. )
I'd still add more frilly leaved plants ( real or fake) for the fish to hide from each other. The more you can break up the sight range, the better for these fish.