Honey Gourami Sex (gourami noob)

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Yea, I'm not trying to get them into breeding condition, at all. I was just reading on why he was maybe flashy when he first went in, and then wasnt later. However, today, he has shown his breeding colors off and on.

I dont think the girls are teaming up on him, at least not from what I see. It's more like the wild male and female like each other, and the yellow is jealous, and furiously chases the silver wild one whenever she sees her, except at night, they are both sort of near each other, but not RIGHT next to each other.

The male hasn't tried the twisting, turning, wiggling, bumping, courting, whatever thing, with either female since the first day. He does seem to prefer the silver female, and tends to color more around her, than the yellow. No one has received any damage whatsoever, and I havent seen any physical contact, other than the swords touching on the females, and the females have bumped the male the first day, but nothing destructive.

I do however, see an otocinclus with some weird fuzz on him, and am going to make a post in the emergencies section right now... ugh... :/

... but gouramis seem to be doing great! :cool:
 
Yea, I'm not trying to get them into breeding condition, at all.
You big fibber. If you didn't want them to breed you wouldn't have asked the lady at the petshop for a male and female :)

The yellow gourami is older than the silver and wants to breed but the male is intimidated by her. It is also instinctive to only breed with your own kind and the male could be having some concerns over the yellow female because she looks different. Yes he's racist, but only because he has thousands of years of genetics saying only breed with species that look like me. The female is yellow, he is silver, so she looks different. The silver female looks more like him so he might be more inclined to prefer her.

If the Otocinclus is in the same tank as the gouramis, and you didn't quarantine the gouramis before adding them to the tank, they might have introduced something like a protozoan infection. I will go to the other post and add my response there. :)
 
You big fibber. If you didn't want them to breed you wouldn't have asked the lady at the petshop for a male and female :)

NO! I told her I wanted TWO FEMALES! See?!:p

So, I tell her I want two females, (just in case mine is a male) and she asks which ones. ...

Like it says, I thought mine could have been a male, and I didnt want there to be 2 or 3 males, cuz everything I see about gourami says no more than one in a tank. If they breed, ok, I'll figure out what path I'm gonna follow at that point. I have been looking up some guides and information on feeding gourami fry, in case I do cross that bridge.

But I never purchased more with the specific intent of breeding them, it was more like "OH! They so cool! They so pretty! I wonder if I has a boy or girl at home? Wait! I know how I can see! Buy two girls, and I either have a sorority, or my yellow one is a boy and gets a menage' ! BUY NOW! Ask questions later!" And that's what went through my brain, and I impulse shopped, which honestly, is not me, except it seems when it comes to fish... I seriously cant even choose a candy bar at the store in less than 7 minutes and a mental list of the pros and cons and whether I REALLY need it, and whether I wanna spend the $0.59 on it. Lol.
 
Colin_T said:
You big fibber. If you didn't want them to breed you wouldn't have asked the lady at the petshop for a male and female :)
Click to expand...
NO! I told her I wanted TWO FEMALES! See?!:p

Yeah yeah, I went to the petshop and the lady said which ones do you want. So I picked one that looked like a boy and 1 that looked like a girl and ta-da...
That's what I read in your comments anyway :)
 
In my defense, they honestly all, every single one of them, looked pale brown, with a dark brown stripe down the middle. No joke. Despite being a great shop, and local, it has gone down a little since the owner of 40 years passed away last year, and his son hasn't been there as much since. So the one girl there, isnt an expert. That combined with it going downhill equipment wise, the lighting is very, very dim. I even asked again "those are two girls right?" She said "yup" and they still looked like two pale brown, with dark brown stripe, when I got them home in the bag.

Oh well. 1m/2f is supposed to work anyways right?
 
It's all good, I'm just messing with you coz it's late at night and you are an ocd insomniac :)

Young Honey dwarf gouramis in a shop tank are virtually impossible to sex so you did well getting 1 male and 1 female. It's actually the best combination you could get having 2 females and 1 male.

Keep the tank conditions good and feed them well and see what happens. As the male matures he will start to keep his colour and choose which female he prefers. If he is smart he will jump out now and commit suicide but if he isn't, he will stay with the 2 women and become hen pecked :)
 
Just so you can recognise it if you do see breeding behaviour.....

Male swims in front of female, nose upwards. Female ignores him so he chases her across the tank. Eventually female decides to see what he wants and starts to follow him towards his bubble nest, gets part way there then turns round and swims off. Male chases her half way across the tank. Female is eventually enticed all the way to the bubble nest, then swims off. Male chases her half way across the tank. Finally they spawn. They wrap round each other and turn upside down. The eggs are released and fertilised and start to fall. Both fish are in a sort of stupor, the male comes out of it first and starts collecting the eggs in his mouth, then spits them into the bubble nest. They spawn again and again, then the male has had enough, chases the female away and stands guard. He will catch any eggs that fall out of the nest and put them back. The eggs will hatch into tiny black things with tails which won't be able to swim so he'll still look after them. Once the fry can swim, it's every fry for itself.

Photo is a honey gourami fry still in the 'bubble nest' (actually just a few bubbles amongst plants). To give you an idea of scale, the big leaves are salvinia, the small leaves are duckweed. I've outlined the fry so you can find it :)
 

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If you watch the gouramis, they will use their pelvic fins (feelers) to check each other out.

Once your Gouramis settle in and realize you are the source of food and trust you, stick your finger in the tank and the Gourami will touch your finger with its pelvic fins (feelers) I call it shaking hands
 
Once your Gouramis settle in and realize you are the source of food and trust you, stick your finger in the tank and the Gourami will touch your finger with its pelvic fins (feelers) I call it shaking hands
The gourami starts rubbing itself up against your finger. Oh baby, that's it human, just leave your finger there. Oh yeah, that's a good human :)
 
The gourami starts rubbing itself up against your finger. Oh baby, that's it human, just leave your finger there. Oh yeah, that's a good human :)

ROFLMAO! :rofl:
I LITERALLY burst into laughter at this, my wife gave me the oddest look, my son said "what's wrong with daddy?"

@essjay those are SOOO tiny! Like baby shrimp fry! Holy cow! How do they survive? In either case, thank you for all the GREAT info on breeding behaviours! I built a floating ring, to hold the floating plants in one spot, out of some bendy straws, and it also helps keep that portion of water super still, but the male still hasn't built a nest. I have seen him go blow one or two little tiny bubbles, and watch them for a minute, then he just swims away.

@NickAu I dont know if my gourami will EVER be comfortable enough to shake hands. My golden honey still gets skittish when she sees me, although she did used to just bolt when she saw me, now she just kind of turns sideways, and eyeballs me. The other two run away if they see me, or anyone. I think this is largely due to my son, who is 5, doesnt have volume control on his voice, nor does he seem to have control of his wildly flailing limbs, and is SOOOOO excited when he sees the fish swimming and eating and pooping and EVERYTHING, and shrieks at them, kisses the glass, and puts his tablet screen against the glass, to show them his YouTube favorites. Lol!
 

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