Honey (honey Dwarf) And Dwarf Gouramis

[wcohen]

Just curious...

Are Honey Gouramis and Dwarf Gouramis close enough species that they will attempt to breed with each other? If they attempt, will they actually have offspring?

Probably related to the first question...
Would male Honey and Dwarf Gouramis act agressively toward each other, as would two males of the same exact species?

Thanks and regards,

Wayne

 

[sylvia]

Honeys are colisa chuna/sota and dwarfs are colisa lalia. They can hybridise and produce healthy offspring but are unlikely to do so unless they have no other choice and both male and female are desperate to spawn. Also, I personaly wouldn't reccomend hybridising gouramies. The offspring of this cross usualy look like dullish orange dwarf gouramies and realy aren't anything special to look at. They also pose many problems when sold as people mistake them for one species or the other.

With aggression, things become trickier. Male dwarfs are larger than honeys and tend to focus on their own species more whereas honey males will chase other species away as well. When you have both in a tank, the larger will usualy dominate purely due to size but they'll both guard their territories - arguably the honey a little more aggressively. They don't realy act towards each other as if they're the same species unless you add females of only one species but it does depends on the individuals a lot. If you are looking to mix honeys and dwarfs, I suggest you treat them as if they are the same species but provide every male with his own couple of females of his own species. That'll hugely reduce aggression as each male will focus on his own-species females and leave the others alone.

 

[wcohen]

Thanks for the reply, Syvia.

I definitely do not WANT to hybidize them, but was wondering how they'd do in the same tank.

Based on info from a separate topic (on which you were also very helpful), I'm considering establishing another tank, building up to four females Dwarfs, then adding my two remaining males. I never had Honey's before and was considering some of them too (1 or 2 males and 2 or 4 females) if I can get a big enough tank.

Thanks again,

Wayne in CA

 

[sylvia]

That sounds like a good plan - good luck and I hope to see some updates on how it goes