My Fish Has Tricked Me!

[PrairieSunflower]

I've had my yellow honey gourami for a few months now... and only today have discovered.... SHE is a HE!!! 

 
(Aside, further to my other thread about "her" being sick.... all recovered now)
 
Well... so... it turns out I have two males and not one of each like I thought.  The weird thing is... this yellow one has had an orange stripes with a sort of dotted greyish line that appears down the middle the whole time... that is the reason I chose this one and main reason I thought it was a female... that and it is less bullet shaped than the definitive male that I do have.  Well... today.... first time ever... the grey appeared on the face and a bit on the bottom fin... not a lot but enough to give me no doubt it isn't a female after all.

So... the question is now what?  They get along... do I leave it at the two of them or should I add some females... or is adding females if I have two males a bad idea?

 

[DreamertK]

Pics?
 
If they're fully grown, then they likely have a peace treaty. If not, they may become more aggressive as they age. If you have the space, you can put a few females in, but hopefully they dont turn out to be males again!

 

[PrairieSunflower]

If I decide to add females I will add the brown variety, they are far more obvious.  LOL
 
I will try and get a picture later.  Problem is the yellow one ALWAYS hides behind the plant when I am close to the tank.  My first male I ever had was also a yellow and I was able to tell right from in the shop that it was a male.

When I bought this current yellow one both me and the man at the shop examined the fish in the bag and both decided it was a female!  (This is the one shop with the one employee who has offered excellent fish advice and suggestions over the last few years).

 

[PrairieSunflower]

Here is the absolute best shot I could get.  Soon as I took out the camera it was like I only had one fish!  The other honey gourami is a nice and sociable fish (watches tv from the corner of the tank in the evenings too)... my other one and all the norman's lampeye's hide.
 
It doesn't show the whole body shape but it does seem to show a tad bit of the coloring on the face that hadn't been there ever until the other day.
 
 

Also, up until last month... this fish was also completely yellow with only the silvery white bib.  Last month the back side turned orange.  There had always been an orange stripe along the middle though.... which is most of the time more hidden now since there is so much more orange in general.

 

[DreamertK]

That's definitely a male....He's pretty though.
 
A lot of times a fish's gender will be suppressed because of all of the fish hormones in LFS tanks. I was in the same situation with two gourami where I thought one was a female but then all the sudden ended up a male. Just depends on the size of your tank if you have enough room for them to have their own territories, and the personalities of the fish themselves if one is always hassling the other.

 

[PrairieSunflower]

They don't show any signs of having any squabbles so far.  I've had the yellow for about 2 months or so... maybe since September... I forget exactly how long.  All that time and I didn't doubt it was a female then bang, the other day.... not a female.  LOL

My tank is 36 inches long and I have plenty of zig zagging plants.

I kind of wanted some females but I don't want to introduce something that might make these two fight either.

 

[DreamertK]

Females wont make them fight - females will distract them.

 

[PrairieSunflower]

That is what I'd hope.  You sure it wouldn't make them want to be dominant over each other and claim the females as just theirs?

 

[DreamertK]

The yellow one from the OP sounds like the beta male who doesn't get to pass on his genes. But these honey gourami are not typically ones that fight to the death like larger gourami, they'll just display at each other and maybe have at a chase to show dominance.

 

[LilyRose Tank]

Just one thing to think about, when you are not near the tank does one of them hide all the time like the lamp Eyes? This may be because he is hiding from the more dominant male....just keep an eye out...it's just a thought

 

[PrairieSunflower]

One had been hiding and lethargic (as per another post in this section) and I treated it and thought that wasn't working then the third dose really worked and all is fine now.  Previously to that illness there was no hiding at all except the yellow one when I came up close.

No fish hide at all when I am across the room.

 

[Meeresstille]

The same thing happened with me. Had one male gourami and wanted to get some female companions for him. They all turned out to be male. It seems as they are young they tend to look like females. (I'm speculating it has to do with looking less threatening to other males)
Then as they mature the orange colouring appears. The dominant male will display a small dark grey or black line in the anal fin.
 
I ended up re-homing two of my males, keeping the other two. They pretty much each stayed in their own territory with the occasional chase. [SIZE=14.4444446563721px]If you have lots of plants and structures in your tank so they can hide then you will be fine. There was n[/SIZE]o fighting that I ever witnessed and I never noticed any injuries. The older gourami died recently. Maybe I'll try again to get those females.

 

[PrairieSunflower]

I have gone and bought three females... I bought all the common variety so they are brown with the very obvious stripe as not to make another mistake. One is quite small and the other two are the common sizeor honey gourami in the shop... Now... it is like I have 3 honey gourami!  LOL  Two males and the tiny female... the other two females only swim at back behind the thinkest plant and come out for food.
 
M males have established obvious territories over the weekend and seem to only chase if one crosses the line (Which appears to be the very center of the tank).  Nearly all fish (the 3 females and the norman's lampeyes) all would rather hang out with my  than the yellow one.