Talking About Sex ?

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Amerce

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I've had these two gourami's in my tank for over a year now (a present from my kids), they have always proven to be peaceful and lovely creatures but I have never bothered to find out if they are male or female.

I did read that you had to check out if they were round or slender tummied and so I've always thought that these two were males (which is why I'm surprised they have never fought, but are close buddies).

Can anyone prove me right or wrong ?

If they are male and female would they ever breed, and if so why have they never bothered ?

Yellow2.jpg

Yellow.jpg

Blue1.jpg


:/
 
They are female. So naturally they can't breed! :lol: The dorsal fins on them all is short and rounded and they all appear quite round around their middles too. Males are markedly different. Usually slightly bigger, their dorsal fin is noticeably longer and pointed and, short of a very large meal, they don't get round tummies.
Hugs,
P.
 
Ahhhh and there I was thinking they were boys, if I now put the cat among the pigeons and buy a boy will there be problems in the tank with two females ?

The two I have get on so well I don't want to upset them just cause I'm greedy and want to see baby gourami's.
 
Well that depends on the tank setup, size and other members of the tank. It also depends on how planted it is. I have a gourami tank where breeding goes on regularly but alot of people don't keep the males and females together, have a seperate spawning tank or the mix simply don't breed.
I have a thread with plenty about my gourmies in here. Some say mine are obviously well adjusted that they can all live together and not eat the young either. I do have a fry grow out tank in the kitchen (it's a 20-25g long) where alot of fry are growing up now but there are still alot of them in with the parents.
But do tell us what else lives with them and the tank size and dimensions, which does make a difference with them.
Hugs,
P.
 
What size tank do you have? What else is in it?

I would begin by saying that three-spots are an ideal gourami to begin breeding with because they are the easiest to spawn and quite prolific. They are also very hardy and forgiving. However, they are also one of the more aggressive species.

Miss Dib Dabs is lucky with her fish, but she also has what's mainly a species tank. You won't be able to breed your fish in a community. Besides the fact that the male would be highly aggressive, the other fish would eat the eggs and fry.

Gouramies also are nothing like livebearers or cichlids where the fry are quite large and can usualy be fed crushed flake, you need minute foods - microscopic infusoria or liquid egg-layer foods to begin with, microworms, newly hatched brine shrimp or vinegar eels for later. In a heavily planted set-up, some fry may be able to find naturaly occuring infusoria and survive, but most perish quickly.

Strong currents or powerful filtration also present a problem. They suck up younger fry (though they are soon strong enough to out-swim currents) and destroy bubblenests. Having said that, raising fry is messy. This is one good reason to breed in a seperate breeding tank and have an even larger grow-out tank for the fry when they are older. Younger fry do better in smaller tanks as they can find food more easily without you having to pour in huge amounts and dirty the water.

Three-spots do best when either kept in a female-only group (as yours are) or in a large tank in a large group consisting of a single male with several females. Males can be incredibly violent if they feel like it and females and other fish will often get chased, nipped and stressed as a result. Unless you are desperate to breed and have done your research, stick to your two females.

Which brings me to research - do a google.com search. Search the forum, look at the pinned articles. Consider that a large spawn can consist of hundreds of fry - what will you do with them? How will you grow them out? - More importantly, where? Get the foods ready - you won't have time later. Appreciate that the parents have to be moved out (the female once spawning is complete, the male once the fry are free-swimming) - do you have somewhere to put them? Remember that the male, especialy, wiull become extremely aggressive. He is capable of killing most tankmates - including the two females you have right now. He may also, indirectly, kill them by stressing them out through too much chasing or defending of his territory - even when they aren't breeding.

Not only do you need to first consider all the above, you should also realise that, unless you get a male the same size as your current females, a younger, smaller fish is likely to get bullied for a while when first introduced to the girls (though later the tables will turn as he catches up and overtakes them in size).

Just so you know, all trichogaster and colisa species breed in a similar manner. If you can't find much on trichogaster trichopterus, look up the others.

If you still want to breed, just make sure you've done your research first :).

Sorry about the lecture BTW :p
 
I don't think I will breed from them cause my community tank which is a Rio 125 - 35gallon is fairly stable and happy with the below colony -

2 x Gouramis
1 x frog
2 x horsefaced loaches
3 x guppy's
1 x apple snail
4 x croaking gourami's

plus I have my hands busy with the killi fish I breed and then the betta's that I recently acquired.

I'm also raising some endler fry which I bought in an auction ready for sale to the local lf's,so breeding gourami's isn't an option at the moment, plus whilst I have spare tank's my husband ain't too happy with putting anymore tanks up in the house and the fish house is busy at the moment.

I go down there to feed them (5 mins tops you'd think) but I end up spending an hour without realising it just checking the water and ensuring the air pump etc etc are all working to the max !!

Ah well at least the mystery of the sex is now resolved, it always puzzled me, and the girls are fairly big now, blue is at least 4 inches and yellow is at least 3.5 inches now so finding a male big enough for them just isn't going to happen.

Thanks for your help though, much appreciated.

:rolleyes:
 

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