Another Honey Gourami Color Question

[Doc7]

Hello all,

First off, I am running a 20 gallon high tank, which is filtered with an Eheim 2213 (according to a fish-stock calculator out there on the internet it is way overfiltered even for this, admittedly overstocked tank)

- 7 Cardinal Tetra
- 7 Cory Sterbaii

- 2 Honey Gourami I added yesterday a little over 24 hours ago (they called them "Firetail Honey" in the LFS)

I am concerned about the stripes on the gourami which I don't think were present in the store. I hope my fish aren't stressed out.

I just ran a check and the stats are 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite, and 20-30 ppm nitrate. I perform a 6-gallon water change every 5-7 days and the last one was 3 days ago.


Here are two of the better pics I could get, the one nibbling algae off the heater shows the stripe I am speaking of:



the other one looking at his reflection in the glass:




Here is a picture of the tank shot - please note - I am changing out the fake log for a real piece of (way too large!) driftwood which I currently am soaking in a pail, and also have requests in to two separate LFS to give me a call when they get some Riccia. Planting up this tank, specifically with riccia for the gourami comfort, is my next goal.





And lastly, here are a couple tankmates:



Thank you...

 

[Essjay]

The honey gourami with the stripe is a female. The wild coloured ones show it more, but the yellow ones do too. Not all all females show the stripe, and the ones that do don't show it all the time. It is usually more visible when they are stressed - and she will be a bit stressed since you only just got them. When they've settled in, the stripe may fade but maybe not go completely.

This is my female

As you can see, her stripe never faded completely.


Edit - just noticed the one in the second pic has a hint of a stripe - most likely a female too.

I find these fish like plants that reach the surface, and floating plants.

 

[Doc7]

Wow - I actually was hoping to get a male/female pair, and was told that they were "Males Only" - so I guess that was wrong...

Wow - I actually was hoping to get a male/female pair, and was told that they were "Males Only" - so I guess that was wrong...

Also I have also read that about the plants they like and want to get riccia, right now I am only running a single 17 W bulb so I plan to upgrade all of that stuff to start planting up this tank later this week or ASAP. I have a large piece of bogwood to add and am hoping it's not ridiculously too big.