honey gouramis - sexing?

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willowthepoet

Aquarium Advice Activist
Joined
Sep 6, 2005
Messages
183
Location
NJ
Today I just bought a pair of honey gouramis and I have a couple questions.

First of all, the darker of the pair has been continuously rubbing against and harrassing the other, which was my first clue that I may have been sold a male and a female, even though I know that females are rarely sold. They do look very similarly-coloured, but if you look carefully, one is a lot darker than the other.

How do you tell the males from the females? Are these like other gouramis where the males have pointed top fins and female have more rounded ones? If so, how much of a difference is there?

If you can't tell, I'm very excited at the prospect of having them breed, as I've never had any successful breeding happen before (besides a couple guppies but really... that doesn't count; most of the fry were eaten anyway)


Second, they've been digging in the gravel since I got them, and they're seeming to go a little lopsided or disoriented after being vertical. I doubt it's a problem, but I feel bad being amused by something that may or may not be dangerous. (I'm still in paranoid-new-mommy mode, so you'll have to excuse this question.)


Last, what kinds of gouramis would be safe to put with a male betta? I'm interested in starting a larger tank of assorted gouramis and I definitely want to put my bright emerald green betta in there. (He's the only betta I've ever had that was anywhere near this beautiful and I'm so proud of him!)


Sorry for the novice questions, I just want to make sure I'm doing everything okay. I've had too much bad luck with aquariums when i was left entirely to my own devices.

Thanks in advance!
 
Welcome to AA!

Usually, the male is darker colored and the female can appear grayish. They are more than likely getting accustomed to their surroundings so if they upright themselves without a problem, there probably isn't one.

Unfortunately, Bettas and gouramis don't really like each other, due to the fact that they look so similar to each other. There will definitely be some aggression if you did.
 
.....I was told at the local pet shop that bettas would be fine with medium sized (6" or so) gouramis because bettas are actually a type of gourami. I know that the latter is true (er... right?) Oh well, back to the drawing board.

And the "female" is still definitely pink, just a little more washed-out with greyish tail, while the definite male has more of a vibrant blue on the tail and top fin. I'll experiment with different lights as i have an incandescent bulb in there and colours are a little distorted in that light as opposed to neon or flourescent bulbs.


Also, would it be better to feed them betta food or generic tropical flakes?
 
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