My Kissing Gourami's

[chardonnay1000]

Hi, i hope someone can help me out.

I recently bought a 'pair' of kissing gouramis and have happily watched them kissing on a regular basis, after reading some of the posts on here, it wood seem that i have 2 males as they kiss.

My concerns are this, as they get bigger will this result in agression in the tank? also will i need to get a female?

Thanks

 

[richchappy]

i was told, not sure if its true but when they kiss they are locking jaws to fight, probs wrong tho as my gourmai knowledge is low lol,

 

[chardonnay1000]

So could a female lock jaws with a male, or do they not do the agression thing? Is there a way i can tell what sex they are?

 

[sylvia]

What you are seeing is already aggressive and you should return at least one to your LFS as this is indicative of an inadequately sized tank or unsatisfactory (in their opinion) environment. Kissers grow to 10" at least and for them to be fighting so early on means they are not happy with each other's company.

Whether they are male or female would be impossible to know. They are more likely to be male because they tend to be the most aggressive but mixed sex pairs and females will also 'kiss'. Adding a single female (if it were possible to identify one!) would make matters worse - not better. For one, the males (if they are males) would have more reason to fight with each other. They'd also be likely to chase the lone female around endlessly and stress her. Strees can lead to disease, disease to death.

Kissing gouramies, if you haven't already gathered , cannot be sexed visualy. males will ultimately be ever so slightly larger and females look plumper when ready to breed but, short of watching them spawn, sexing them reliably is impossible.