Blueberry Gouramis

[SarahBravo]

I saw some 'blueberry gouramis' at my lfs this Sunday. They weren't very brightly coloured, a tint of purple under the dorsal fin. Are these dyed or are they just a gourami I haven't heard of?

Thought I'd better find out before I go and kick up a fuss!

I've never, ever seen dyed fish in there before, hence wondering if it's just a fish I'm ignorant of.

Thanks!

Sarah

 

[Fish_Mike]

Does it look like a blue honey gourami? If it does, it MIGHT be a dyed fish, i'm not sure, but i read it on http/www.deathbydyeing.org/.

 

[Weaver]

Ive been googling and cant see any reference to a blueberry gourami.Any article mentioning blueberry fish have all been dealing with dyed fish.However I recall a thread a few weeks ago where someone created a dust up in a shop and it turned out the fish wasnt dyed at all.So Id advise caution.
On the other hand if it does turn out to be dyed fish then remember--jab with the left and protect your body with the right!!!!

 

[sylvia]

Do you happen to know what species the fish at your LFS actualy are? Can you get the scientific name?

The gourami mentioned as being dyed on Death By Dyeing is not actualy the 'honey' gourami but colisa labiosa - the thick-lipped gourami.

I have heard of honey gouramies (colisa chuna/sota) being injected under the dorsal like you've described with a blue dye. However, there's also a natural color morph of the dwarf gourami (colisa lalia) that has a very similar marking on the dorsal. Still, I'm sure they could try to dye dwarf gouramies as well (surely with incredibly high mortality rates that don't make it a profitable thing to do but you never know).

Seeing as they've been called 'blueberry' gouramies ('blueberry' being very commonly used to describe dyed fish) I would assume that the fish in stock at your LFS are indeed the dyed honeys and not the natural dwarf morph. On the other hand, I've seen dwarfs called all sorts of ridiculous names as well.

You say they only had the purple marking? What about the body color? The dwarf morph has a red-orange base color with the blue near the dorsal. A dyed honey would also look yellow/gold/red with the marking but they don't develop the body color until they mature somewhat so maybe this acounts for your discription seeing as you haven't mentioned any characteristic background color.

You should probably just ask the LFS itself what they are and if they are natural or dyed. THEN you can kick up that fuss I'd tell you to post a pic but I don't know how useful it would be in determining whether the fish is dyed or not.