Trying To Find Female Pearl Gourami

[Glod]

Ok, I have a pair of Pearls ( I'm 90% sure ). The Male has red colouring on his chest and a pointy dorsal fin, the female has no colouring on her chest and her dorsal is much shorter and rounded.



So, using these pointers I went to the local pet shops to see if I could find a couple more females. Every pearl I find seems to have the red/orange marking on it's chest. They're also somewhat smaller than my pair, mine are 3" excluding tail most in the lfs seem to be about 2 inches at best. What are the best pointers to identify female pearls ? Do some females show the red colouring ? Is there something I am missing ?

 

[sylvia]

Lol - I know exactly what you mean

First let me say that you shouldn't get a female that's smaller than your existing two unless you only just got them and they haven't settled in yet. Otherwise, she may get bullied a little until they all even out in size.

Young females have orange-yellow ventral fins and anal fin (just as adults do) and some do have a little yellow (usualy faint however) on the ventral region. A lot can depend on what they are being fed.

Anyway, I've tried to find a clear picture of a large group of juveniles on google but it seems hopeless

Basically you need to look for body shape - this can be quite different as small as 2" but differences become increasingly obvious as the fish mature. If you can look down at them from above, pick the 'fattest' looking fish and they'll probably be female. Similarly, deeper-bodied fish tend to be female. Do watch you aren't confusing 'full' fish with hungry ones though (The 'bulge' you see in female gouramies is realy very characteristic. You may be familiar with what I'm talking about from your own but here's a pic of a nice pair: http/users.interblock.pl/~dimat/akwarium...i_mozaikowy.jpg ).

Fin shape is also usualy different at this size but the ray extensions that make males particularly obvious haven't always developed yet. Still, if the majority have their extensions, it's usualy safe to assume the fish without are female (if they are the same size of course). The short/long fin difference still applies at this stage but you'll need to look more closely to find shape differences. The length is a pretty safe indicator though (ignoring shape).

What I would do is pick a fish that has the right body shape and fin shape to be a female and ignore the color (within reason obviously). If it turns out to be male, you can always replace him with a female - pearls don't cause a crisis if they are kept in incorrect ratios in the manner of three-spots You'll have time to correct the problem

 

[Glod]

My current pearls have been in the tank for about two weeks, so I guess they're pretty settled. My problem boils down to - the only place I have seen comparably sized pearls is the place I bought these ones, they are about an inch larger than I usually see. Since these ones also introduced whitespot to the tank I'm seriously not keen on buying more fish from the same place.

The only other places around here I can get them are Acorn or Dobbies or Pets @ home or my local pet shop and in all those cases they only get small fish in. I'd like to add one or 2 more females simply to distract the male a bit from constantly harrassing the female I currently have. And of course the pearls are a nice centerpiece in my tank and I think 4 would be a good total number.

 

[sylvia]

If you are going to add two at once, it would be ok even if they are slightly smaller as any initial aggression will be split between them. I was worried because I thought you only wanted one more female

 

[Ristof]

If you are going to add two at once, it would be ok even if they are slightly smaller as any initial aggression will be split between them. I was worried because I thought you only wanted one more female

I have tried breeding them once before with a pair I had for about a year.
No luck, the male built the nest but the female just never seemed interested - I guess she was the being hounded but this hormonal male

I have sadly lost those two in the ich wipe out of late 2004

I got another male and have had him for around 12 months and in the last couple have added a female. She seem fine when I first put her in - giving him what he gave her but now she hides at the back of the tank. By the sounds of things it may be best for me to get another female so that the female I have in there doesn't cop all his crap

How bigs your tank by the way

 

[Glod]

How bigs your tank by the way

My tank is 4 feet long, 80 US gallons. Much like yours my female currently gives as good as she gets, the problem is I've even seen him annoy one of my platy females. I think he just caught sight of her in his peripheral vision and acted, rather than intended to go for her. Funniest thing was watching a 3 inch gourami get chased by the 1.5 inch platy male in retaliation, lol. That was a one off from what I've seen tho.