Pictures

[TammyLiz]

Hi, I got some pictures of my fish I was hoping someone would help me sex them. I think I have all females but one, but since I have no breeding experience I am not sure how round and short the dorsal fin needs to be in order to be sure it is a female. They are now in my 55 gal tank and it is bare bottom with some plants just floating around while my substrate is being shipped. I bought two others and added them when I moved the opalines over. One is gold and the other is mostly white. So here they are:

http/i50.photobucket.com/albums/f319/tam...k/gouramis1.jpg
http/i50.photobucket.com/albums/f319/tam...k/gouramis2.jpg
http/i50.photobucket.com/albums/f319/tam...k/gouramis3.jpg
http/i50.photobucket.com/albums/f319/tam...k/gouramis4.jpg
http/i50.photobucket.com/albums/f319/tam...k/gouramis5.jpg
http/i50.photobucket.com/albums/f319/tam...k/gouramis6.jpg


The opaline in photo number 1 is kind of sickly looking. It's is the smallest of them all and the size difference seems to be increasing. It is eating just as much as the others.

These pictures were taken Monday night. They were moved on Saturday. There has been an ammonia spike in the tank even though the filter was seeded. I just hope it goes down quickly. I'll be doing a water change tonight to give the fish some relief. Ammonia .25 Nitrite .5 PH 7.0

Thanks

 

[Chill]

Picture number 1: Blue gourami looks like a female, and the 2 gold one appear to be female to.



The other seem to be female to, but some look male to

 

[sylvia]

How many do you have?

I assumed the rest were of the same 3 fish and only realy closely looked at the first photo - which seems to be of 3 males (you're going to have to do something about that before they mature). I may be wrong considering the angles on the first two (though, unless they are still quite young, the body shapes are also male) - I'm only deffinite about the opaline.

Here's a female for comparison: http/www.andras.net/images/fish/blue_gourami_female_5.jpg
Another: http/www.malawicichlidhomepage.com/other...ichopterus.html
One more: http/www.aquahobby.com/gallery/e_tricho2.php
And these also: http/pictures.naturspot.de/images/24-14.html

 

[TammyLiz]

How many do you have?

I assumed the rest were of the same 3 fish and only realy closely looked at the first photo

There are 5 total. Three are opaline. The second picture has a better view of the white one, the third picture has a view of the opaline that I was certain must be a male, and the last picture has a better view of the gold one along with the third opaline. The opaline in pic #4 is the same as the one in the last one and might be a better view as the dorsal fin is being held upright.

The reason I am so much in doubt is that I hear that long and pointed is a male, but mine are mostly short and a little pointed or long(ish) and rounded. Keep in mind that these fish are already almost half their full grown size (except for the one smaller opaline).

I reallly hope they're not all males. If they are then maybe the pet stores around here don't sell females. When you look at a group in the pet store (which I am assuming usually come from the same batch of fry), are the males or females usually bigger?

 

[sylvia]

You need to consider the fact that their not fully grown yet with this. You can't expect males to have super-long, flowing dorsals with a truly pointed tip until they are relatively large. Because I only looked at that first pic, I immediately assumed they must be rather young males because they don't compare to anything else. Now, looking at the other pics, it does look like only that opaline you've pictured in the 3rd pic is male. It's also rather difficult to judge the others based on their fins though. I know the second pic of the gold (white one) shows that one must be female and it looks like the 4th picture of the opaline must also be a female but the rest are not pictured anywhere without slightly clamped fins and, at this age, body shape won't be as reliable as I hoped it would. The dark gold does have a rather long dorsal but, unless you get a picture of it with its dorsal up, it's difficult to tell. Considering you've seen them in person though (obviously), if the rest look substantialy different to the 'known' male, they are females (assuming we are talking about fish of a similar size).

 

[TammyLiz]

Great. Thanks so much for taking the time to check those out sylvia. It is a shame their fins were clamped in the pictures. They are even worse now as they have ich! I hope they will be OK. I am going to post something about it in the emergencies section (I guess thats the best place to put it) I would be so upset if I lost one of them!

 

[Paradise_Gourami]

the one in the third pic looks like a male but ill need a better pic to be sure the rest look female