Female Honey Gourami Questions

[windandfire12]

I need some help . I have 2 Female honey Gouramis and no other fish in my tank. The big female tends to chase the smaller one. Why is she doing this? Should I separate them?

The bigger female honey gourami is about 2 inches long and is a light orangey color and the smaller one which I got a few days ago is about 1 inch and is a little darker. Can anyone tell me if there is a difference between honey and honey dwarf gouramis?

If I do separate them, I don't want them to be alone. Are there any peaceful tank mates I can get them? Or should I just leave them together?

Is it true that female honey gouramis have dorsal and anal fins that are rounded and the males have a point on them? The reason I'm asking is because the dingies at my LFS couldn't tell me which were male and which were female. I had to look it up in a book.

 

[sylvia]

First off, what size tank are we talking about?

Honey and honey dwarf are misleading common names as both are used to reffer to two different species interchangeably. One of these species is the actual honey gourami (colisa chuna/sota) which grows to around 1.5" and is quite hardy and the other is the honey color morph of the dwarf gourami (Colisa lalia) which grows to 2" and is highly susceptible to disease. When I reffer to 'honey gouramies' I am talking about Colisa chuna/sota NOT the dwarf gourami variant (Colisa lalia).

Sexing juvenile honey gouramies is tricky. Males are usualy brighter than females but this depends on exactly which morph you are looking at (the wild-type color is easiest to sex). As they mature, males do end up with longer fins, often pointier, than females and they develop a dark blue-black evntral coloration when in breeding condition. Females stay pale and look plumper than the more streamlined males when mature. Sometimes the differences are most obvious if you look down at the fish from above (in terms of body shape). Males usualy end up a little larger than females and are more territorial.

Dwarf gouramies are easier to sex as they are rarely truly juveniles when brought into the LFSs. Males are colorful, females are not - it's as simple as that. Males, when mature, have longer and quite 'bulbous' anal and dorsal fins. Again, females should be plumper and males end up a tad larger.

The reason you have this aggression problem is because of a number of things. Firstly, one fish is larger than the other and the larger, therefore, is clearly dominant over the smaller. Secondly, you allowed one fish to settle into the tank and then introduced the other. the new one will have been viewed as an intruder by the established fish and it'll take a while for them to settle their hierarchical positions and for the old fish to accept the new. Even then, you'll have some chasing and aggression. There are a couple of thigns to do - firstly, re-arange the tank and get some floating plants and lots of hiding places. If your tank is around 15 gallons or more, get another couple of females (never add gouramies singly unless you area dding a dominant male to a female group) of the same species. This should solve the problem permanently.

If the two fish you have turn out not to be the same species, I suggest you return the dwarf and keep the honey and then add another female and one male. A trio like this (1 male, 2 females) usualy works out great. If 9it turns out you have two of the same species but different sexes, get another 2 females.