Trichogaster Trichopterus Color

[TammyLiz]

Hello fellow gourami fans!
A couple weeks ago I got a new gourami to replace one that was smaller than the others and getting picked on. I bought her because she was just the right size and I thought she was cute but to be honest I am not sure if she is a valid gourami color. She doesn't seem to fall into any of the categories. She's just, well, brown. I have links to a couple pictures on here here. The first is with flash and the second is without.

http/i50.photobucket.com/albums/f319/tam...ouramiFlash.jpg
http/i50.photobucket.com/albums/f319/tam...rownGourami.jpg

I realize she is looking a bit stressed but thats a different story. You can check my post in the emergencies section, entitled "Oh no!" if you want details. Its a little lengthy, though.

So has anyone seen a gourami that is this color? I know its hard to tell with a photo but maybe between the two you can get an idea.

 

[Miss Dib Dabs]

She is brown. One of my girls is also brown although she has a stripe of lavender through her bottom fin. Normally the spots tend to be more apparent in this colour but yours is not. I'll go read your other thread.
Hugs,
P.

 

[TammyLiz]

She is brown. One of my girls is also brown although she has a stripe of lavender through her bottom fin. Normally the spots tend to be more apparent in this colour but yours is not. I'll go read your other thread.
Hugs,
P.

Thanks. Your brown girl sounds cute, too. I sometimes notice her spots are more apparent, like you say. It may be that they were light because she was just not happy when I took the pictures. Since she was added alone she started at the bottom of the pecking order. She has since pushed her way up a couple of positions.

 

[sylvia]

Your fish is a lavender. She simply won't show the coloring until she is in a good mood - possibly only if she breeds. Take a look at the lavenders in breeding condition here: http/www.aqualandpetsplus.com/Gouramis,%...ichogasters.htm Now imagine yours slightly brighter
Actualy, I'm not 100% shure but, with what Miss Dib Dabs said about having a female with similar coloring but more of a lavender sheen, I'm almost certain. Before I looked at the pics, my reaction was to assume you'd stumbled upon some of the 'wild' olive-colored fish that were initialy used to produce the, now familiar, 'blue' three-spot. But your fish, particularly looking at that first pic, seems to be a mixture of both yellow and blue and she looks just like the pic on that site I posted of the poor female with ich.

BTW, as all these color morphs are of the same species, there is no such thing as a 'valid' three-spot color besides the wild olive one You get all sorts of shades - ranging from very pale golds and platinums to dark opalines and lavenders and pale blues, olives and dark golds. All were derived from the same wild fish and don't have clear-cut distinctions. It's not like different dog breeds or guppy strains that are fixed or breed (relatively) true. So what I'm basicaly saying is that, while making distinctions is interesting and makes it easier to describe your three-spot, don't think that it's less valuable or whatever because it doesn't fit into a color category. I may well have misunderstood you though I think it's equaly likely you simply wanted to know what color fish you have

 

[TammyLiz]

Yes, Sylvia I was mainly wondering what color I should call her. I like her anyway. You would think that brown or olive was a far cry from lavender but in the case of these fish it does seem that they are similar. Even though I am looking right at the fish I can't decide what I should call her. She has yellow along the bottom of her lower fin, but nothing about her looks blue at all. She otherwise really does look brown. Do you know of any pictures of the wild strain that you called olive? As you said, we will see what happens once she is feeling more comfortable. I would like to see those wild ones.

 

[sylvia]

There's a 'wild' picture on fishbase.org if I remember correctly- I'll go find it now. Unfortunately (again, if I remember right), it's out of water so isn't the best thing to compare to.

Here's the one I meant: http/fishbase.org/Photos/PicturesSummary...75&what=species It's not the best example. The picture's very 'yellowed'
Here's another (but this one's female): http/species.fishindex.com/photo_1940tri...ue_gourami.html I don't know whether this one's actualy a wild fish as, being out of water, the color is lacking. Still, it's less blue than most

Honestly, finding a picture is ridiculously difficult. There aren't many (if any) 'wild' three-spots in the aquarium trade as it makes no sense to import the wild counterpart of the, now-familiar and extremely easy to spawn, 'blue' version. It's unlikely that you have one of those. With other fish (say cories), the wild fish can be more brightly colored or have some other quality that makes them worth capturing - with three-spots, it seems pretty unlikely that there would be any demand for a wild fish.

 

[Miss Dib Dabs]

Awwww so like my remaining lil fry. I kept my single wild lookalike from the tank full of golds. The only testament to their heretidge is the gold stripe running the length of their anal fin. And yes the colouring is cleaner and generally nicer then that first pic. I'll have to try and get a piccy of the lil mite sometime.
Hugs,
P.