Sexing gouramis?

[vik_luvs_fish]

Impulse buy ) ,
bought 2 gouramis, one is a Blue Gourami and one is a Golden Gourami, just wondering if there are any obvious differences in the sexes for future reference.

Thanks.

 

[sylvia]

Impulse buying this species is not a good idea... If you have two males, once mature, they'll begin to fight and one will end up dead - either from his injuries or indirectly from diseases brought on by stress. As such, once you have sexed them, if they're both male you'd be well advised to seperate them.

Blue and gold gouramies are both color morphs of the same species - trichogaster trichopterus - the three-spot gourami. They are also one of the more aggressive gourami species with males being especialy nasty.

Sexing them is simple - males have an obviously pointed and elongated dorsal fin while the female's dorsal is shorter and rounded. Females also appear deeper-bodied and, when viewed from above, quite clearly wider. In contrast, males are slimmer and appear to have a more streamlined shape. The differences become more obvious with maturity and you'll be able to spot them easily with some practice.

If you have 2 males, like I said earlier, no matter how friendly they are now, you should seperate them. If you have a male/female pair and a tank under 30 gallons you will still experience some difficulties with keeping the peace. The male will eventualy dominate the female and start chasing and harassing her. Obviously this is stressful. With 2 females you'd be lucky as they usualy get along with minnimal clashes.

Here's a link with lots of three-spot pics. You can compare the males/females in these photos with your own fish to make sexing them easier: http/www.aqualandpetsplus.com/Gouramis,%...ichogasters.htm

I hope I've helped

 

[vik_luvs_fish]

At the moment from the pics that site has I am thinking they are both females, I'm keeping my fingers crossed

And thanks

 

[vik_luvs_fish]

Took numerous pics of the 2 gouramis, trying to get a clear shot of them, here they are, do you think they are both female? I think I will find it easier to tell if I look at all the gouramis at the LFS and compare them next time lol.

This yellow one looks washed out after I applied a photofix tool to the pic hehehe.

 

[sylvia]

How big are these fish? They are apparently females (which is exceptionaly lucky) but they may not yet have developed if they are young fish. I'd also comment on the gold looking rather skinny if it's a mature fish. Watch that fish carefuly if it realy looks like it does in that picture in real life (not the color BTW - it's the shape) as it may not be entirely healthy and care must be taken not to stress it.

 

[vik_luvs_fish]

They are a little bit smaller than the blue pic so aren't full grown..

Thanks for the info and all the help.