Gendering blue gourami?

[biofish]

I’m looking at blue gourami as a potential addition to my 55g now that my water params are getting under control.

But as I’m looking at the blue gourami tanks throughout my various LFS, almost all of them look identical. No color marking differences like the Pearls. Their top fins all seem to come to a point, I thought female gourami were supposed to have rounder ones?

I asked the employees at different stores if they’d be able to gender them but they said no (and only one said why: the fish were too young)

If I’m able to, I would much rather have ladies than men and wouldn’t like to take the gamble just in case I accidentally get too many men. But the one employee that gave me the reason why they couldn’t be gendered mentioned that they tend to sell out before they get big enough to accurately tell. Which honestly, makes sense. But still figured I’d try for tips to see if y’all have any!

 

[outofwater]

AFAIK most/all gourami can be gendered by the dorsal fin. If its pointy, it's a male, if it's rounded, it's female. And yes, when they're young it's hard to do it and somewhat easy to get it wrong because the fins are still developing

 

[Colin_T]

If you can post some pictures of the fish you are interested in, we might be able to point out the differences.

 

[biofish]

I don’t have any close pictures but I snagged some distance ones. Not too sure how well you’ll be able so see… you can see a few though with some super pointy top fins. I didn’t get any from this shop because the fish really weren’t that healthy. And me and my mom were digging through the driftwood pile and disturbed a nest of cockroaches and my mom screamed and absolutely none of the workers even looked our way

 

[itiwhetu]

Most of them look like males to me, and may I say they all look like trouble. These guys are not great community fish and come with personality, some good some bad.

 

[DoubleDutch]

To be honest : If the employees aren't able to tell what the genders are they are amateurs.
The shown fish are matured and the differences are quite clear.
What worries me is that especially the females in the pics are too thin (by far)

 

[itiwhetu]

What worries me about these fish is that they look like adults, and in my opinion it is not a good idea to buy adult fish

 

[biofish]

Yeah… none of the fish were very healthy in the entire store. It was my first time there and needless to say, I was not impressed. They had some mice and I think some of the empty tanks had previously held reptiles… but the a lot of the mice had scabs and were missing chunks of flesh. I wasn’t in there very long.

I have a nicer fish store close by and I think they had a couple female. I’ll be sure to double check!

 

[biofish]

Most of them look like males to me, and may I say they all look like trouble. These guys are not great community fish and come with personality, some good some bad.

That’s why I’m trying to get ladies and only ladies since lady fish in general seem to be much more reasonable

 

[Colin_T]

There's a couple of bodies in the tank.

There are females and males in that tank. Most of the blues are males but there's at least one female. And lots of the yellows are female.

I have put a pink dot on some of the females and a red dot on some males so you can see the difference in the dorsal (top) fin.

 

[Colin_T]

Yeah… none of the fish were very healthy in the entire store. It was my first time there and needless to say, I was not impressed. They had some mice and I think some of the empty tanks had previously held reptiles… but the a lot of the mice had scabs and were missing chunks of flesh. I wasn’t in there very long.

I have a nicer fish store close by and I think they had a couple female. I’ll be sure to double check!

The mice probably had mange mites. it happens if they get contaminated mice in or let the cages get really gross.

 

[itiwhetu]

@Colin_T you are a little wizz on the computer I wouldn't even know where to start to do that trick

 

[Colin_T]

@Colin_T you are a little wizz on the computer I wouldn't even know where to start to do that trick

Windows 10 software is crap for image editing, even tho that is what I used. I just used a pen on the graphics to put a pink or red dot on the fish. I have much nicer graphics editing software on my old pc that runs Windows XP.

Long Live Windows XP

 

[biofish]

Went to my nicer fish store and after spending an awkward amount of time scrutinizing the blue gourami, I snagged the only one that I think is female

 

[Slaphppy7]

Went to my nicer fish store and after spending an awkward amount of time scrutinizing the blue gourami, I snagged the only one that I think is female

That's an opaline gourami, or "three spot" gourami...be very careful...as they age, they can become quite nasty and aggressive

See "Behavior & Compatibility" here: https://www.seriouslyfish.com/species/trichopodus-trichopterus

Sorry I didn't see this thread sooner, I would have advised against it in a community tank