male or female honey gourami?
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phinly phish
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Looks male to me ,They have a pointed Dorsal fin if they are male and a more rounded one if female.
Is this a red honey gourami or a beige one with the light shining through it?
Red honey gouramis are the hardest to tell the sex. You have to go by fin shape which is not always reliable. The dorsal fin of your fish doesn't look quite pointy enough for a male, though a juvenile male won't have finished growing yet.
The natural colour of honey gouramis is golden tan male and beige female. When mature, the male has a yellowish dorsal fin and a black throat extending down under his belly. The extent and depth of the colour depends very much on his mood. Females don't usually have any colour, they have a beige body and usually a dark brown stripe down the side from nose to tail. This stripe is variable - some females always have a dark stripe, with others it fades in and out depending on mood. The edge of the anal fin in some females does have an orange tint, but that is the only colour I've ever seen on a natural coloured female - and your photo does seem to show this orange tinting on the fin edge.
There is also a yellow colour morph of honey gourami but the fish in the photo doesn't look like this colour.
You say that your fish changed to black and white when you moved it - do you mean it went pale and developed a dark stripe from nose to tail? That sounds like natural coloured female showing a stress reaction to being moved.
Red honey gouramis are the hardest to tell the sex. You have to go by fin shape which is not always reliable. The dorsal fin of your fish doesn't look quite pointy enough for a male, though a juvenile male won't have finished growing yet.
The natural colour of honey gouramis is golden tan male and beige female. When mature, the male has a yellowish dorsal fin and a black throat extending down under his belly. The extent and depth of the colour depends very much on his mood. Females don't usually have any colour, they have a beige body and usually a dark brown stripe down the side from nose to tail. This stripe is variable - some females always have a dark stripe, with others it fades in and out depending on mood. The edge of the anal fin in some females does have an orange tint, but that is the only colour I've ever seen on a natural coloured female - and your photo does seem to show this orange tinting on the fin edge.
There is also a yellow colour morph of honey gourami but the fish in the photo doesn't look like this colour.
You say that your fish changed to black and white when you moved it - do you mean it went pale and developed a dark stripe from nose to tail? That sounds like natural coloured female showing a stress reaction to being moved.
Now that my tank lights have turned on I have studied my trio of natural coloured honey gouramis. The body and fin shape of the fish in the photo look more like my females than my males.
What is the behaviour of the fish in the photo? Males tend to be more 'up front', swimming round the tank. Females tend to stay more near the decor, and are often to be found picking at bits of food on the substrate.
What is the behaviour of the fish in the photo? Males tend to be more 'up front', swimming round the tank. Females tend to stay more near the decor, and are often to be found picking at bits of food on the substrate.
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