Honey Gouramis

[Wegus]

Howdy all, I'm new in the fishkeeping game and gourami's have caught my eye. Having only a 15g tank, I'm thinking that the only gouramis I'll be able to keep will be the smaller sort - dwarf, honey, sparkling etc. From what I've heard, Dwarf can be a little on the aggressive side so i've decided on Honey gouramis. Plus I'm hoping they'll make a good centre-piece fish (I'm planning to keep a few cories and some ember tetras in there!).

I have been looking around but it seems there are many different looking honey gouramis out there! Some are orange with bits of white, white with orange fins, pale yellow or bright yellow etc. I assuming some of these look like this because they're stressed but i've also heard there are lots of colour morphs or they're even dyed to look like this.

So, my question is, are these weird looking honey gouramis colour morphs or just stressed fish, and which one's are the natural colour? Also, I know that when honey gouramis are in breeding condition they'll have a dark blue stripe on their underbellies, but do they keep this normally, or does the fish just look yellow? Pictures would help immensely too!

Oh, one last question, I've read that male dwarfs should be kept with at least 2 females due to their overtly agressive nature, but can honeys be kept with a single female? This is mainly due to my smallish tank size and I don't want to end up overcrowding the other fish.

Thanks guys!

 

[Luketendo]

I thought honey gouramis could be any colour yellow-red, I had some red ones and i've seen yellow ones on here.

 

[madgap]

I've got a paisley one!

 

[Wegus]

I just realised some pictures might help with what i'm asking

http/www.aquaticcommunity.com/fish/honeygourami.php

See how the thop one has the dark blue underbelly whereas the bottom one doesn't? I'm going to make a guess and say that the bottom one isn't in breeding condition hence the lack of dark blue markings. But do all the colour morphs have this underbelly marking during breeding? Or is it only the natural colour morphs?

 

[¬wicked¬]

yes you're right, male honey's get a blue/black stripe when breeding