2 Male Honey Gourami's

[noodles]

Hi , I bought what I thought was a pair of honey gourami's, but now I think the 'female' was actually a young male, while slightly less colourful than the definite male, and slightly bigger, it now has black on its fin, and a yellow dorsal fin and a slight blue head, but still has a faded brown stripe. Whats the best thing I can do? Do females still have colouration like this? They seem very happy together, swimming around together without becoming agressive at all, but should I separate them or get them some true female company? I hadnt planned on getting any more at all, but dont want them to destroy each other if left together.

I think my tank could take a couple more honey's, but I had planned on getting something else instead.

Any ideas?

 

[sylvia]

Stick to these two. If they are both males, just make sure there's plenty of hiding places and add some floating plants so each can establish a clear-cut territory. You don't realy have room for more gouramies.

Also, they are best kept in a ratio of 2 or more females per male in mixed-sex groups - so it may actualy turn out for the better if you have males only as you won't get the typical male chasing female to death scenario (the male's constant attention can stress the female to the point of making her very highly susceptible to disease). I

f it turns out one of the is a female, add one or two more girls so you end up with more females ant the male's chasing will thus be split between them all.

All (wild-type) juvenile honeys have the brown/stripe coloring/pattern. Males grow brighter, lose the stripe etc when mature and develop the dark ventral coloration when in good (or breeding) condition.

 

[noodles]

Stick to these two. If they are both males, just make sure there's plenty of hiding places and add some floating plants so each can establish a clear-cut territory. You don't realy have room for more gouramies.

Also, they are best kept in a ratio of 2 or more females per male in mixed-sex groups - so it may actualy turn out for the better if you have males only as you won't get the typical male chasing female to death scenario (the male's constant attention can stress the female to the point of making her very highly susceptible to disease). I

f it turns out one of the is a female, add one or two more girls so you end up with more females ant the male's chasing will thus be split between them all.

All (wild-type) juvenile honeys have the brown/stripe coloring/pattern. Males grow brighter, lose the stripe etc when mature and develop the dark ventral coloration when in good (or breeding) condition.

Thanks for the info, they seem happy enough, so I will stick to these two and see how it goes. They have plenty of plants to hide from each other in so should be able to sort each other out.