Gourami sex?

[Kirsty90]

Can anyone help identify the sex of these 3 gourami for me please. From what I've read it's to do with top fin shape but someone else said colour and now I am unsure?

 

[Colin_T]

All 3 are males

Females of this species (Colisa lalius) are silver and males have the bright colours. The only exception to this is cobalt blue females who are a paler blue than the males. But your fish are all males.

 

[Kirsty90]

All 3 are males

Females of this species (Colisa lalius) are silver and males have the bright colours. The only exception to this is cobalt blue females who are a paler blue than the males. But your fish are all males.

I have smaller pale females. I know this as bought from my local fish stockist. What is a good group size male to female ratio for this species please?

 

[Kirsty90]

Female just to make sure?

 

[Essjay]

With dwarf gouramis, 1 male and several females. Unless the tank is huge, males will fight over territory.

 

[Colin_T]

The silver one in the picture is a female.

I prefer to only have 1pr (1 male & 1 female) per tank otherwise the males fight. If you have several females in a small tank, the females sometimes fight.

 

[Essjay]

I was always told to have several females as male dwarfs can kill a female who isn't 'in the mood'. Do females really fight that much?


(Though having said that, I had more trouble with female honey gouramis fighting and no problems at all with a male/female pair even though they are different species)

 

[Kirsty90]

So am I better moving two pairs to my smaller tank? Or even one pair? The three males were in when I bought the tank and no females. They don't seem to bother each other at all tbh. Once a blue moon one might nip at the other if they get really close but doesn't happen much at all.

 

[Colin_T]

If the tank is big enough they might be fine together. Just monitor them and if they start fighting, then separate them.

 

[phishshis]

Yes agree with other people. Look like males to me.