Sexing Honey Gouramis

Hi all I picked up 3 Honey Gouramis (sold as ‘Gold Honey Gourami’) over the weekend. I was hoping someone could tell me whether I have males or females or a mix, as the guy in the shop was pretty clueless. Thank you

I think they are all female. They all have a darker stripe from nose to tail which is characteristic of females in this colour variant. Males of this colour also tend to have a more orange tail, extending slightly into the body.
But they are new to your tank, so give them a few more days to settle. If any of them develop a darker tinge to the throat, its a male.

But I found the behaviour to be the more revealing factor. Females just swam round calmly, spending some time searching the bottom of the tank for missed bits of food. Males had a much more up front attitude to other fish.



I've attached photos of the pair I had a few years ago for comparison - they'd been in the tank a good few months when I took the photo so they were well settled.

Male - no nose to tail line, blackish throat



Female - broken nose to tail line, no black throat

Essjay said:

I think they are all female. They all have a darker stripe from nose to tail which is characteristic of females in this colour variant. Males of this colour also tend to have a more orange tail, extending slightly into the body.
But they are new to your tank, so give them a few more days to settle. If any of them develop a darker tinge to the throat, its a male.

But I found the behaviour to be the more revealing factor. Females just swam round calmly, spending some time searching the bottom of the tank for missed bits of food. Males had a much more up front attitude to other fish.



I've attached photos of the pair I had a few years ago for comparison - they'd been in the tank a good few months when I took the photo so they were well settled.

Male - no nose to tail line, blackish throat
View attachment 353150


Female - broken nose to tail line, no black throat
View attachment 353154

Click to expand...

Thank you so much! So are Honeys different to the larger Gouramis where you look at the dorsal fin to determine male or female?

These 3 certainly have the female characteristics, in that they’re a little shy but come out and calmly swim around picking at the decorations in the tank and just mind their own business really. Absolutely lovely little fish and have wanted them for a while now

Possibly a clearer photo of the 3 of them!

middle one could be a male

Matt posted while I was typing

With those new photos it is possible the middle one is male.

Fins are not as good a way to tell with honeys as they are with other species. Looking at your photos, the middle one has a slightly longer pointier dorsal fin than the other two fish (the fin on top of the body) which suggests possibly male.
I did read once to look at the way the fin underneath the body (anal fin) joins at the tail end. The top and bottom photos the edge of the anal fin is attached to the body, then it slopes towards the tail before curving round and back towards the head. In the middle photo, the edge is vertical coming away from the body, then round towards the head. It is that angle which is said to ID the gender, the edge sloping backwards (female) or vertical (male)

Let them settle in for several days. If the one in the middle photo starts to develop black on the throat you'll know for sure it's male.

Apologies @Essjay, you explain things a lot more thoroughly than I do

I kept honey gouramis years ago, both yellow and natural. The naturals were easy to distinguish - except for the very first trio - but I had to learn how to tell the difference with yellows. After having kept them for a while I could usually tell them apart in shop tanks by their behaviour.

The very first trio, I bought 1 tan coloured fish and two beige. About 3 weeks later I got up to find I had two tan fish and one beige.