Sexing Blue Paradise Gouramis

[Kiara]

I was wondering if anyone had a picture of both a male and a female. I have two BP Gourami's and am trying to sex them as one keeps antagonizing the other and I think it's because they both might be males. Can anyone please help? Thanks

 

[sylvia]

You mean macropodus opercularis? Even if your fish aren't both male, they are rather aggressive fish and are likely to attack, even kill, each other if in less than a 30 gallon. If they are both male, be aware that they can act like bettas and fight to the death once sexualy mature. If you want pictures of the sexes search google images for macropodus opercularis or for 'paradisefish'. There may also be a profile in the fish index and I'll check the pinned topics in this forum in a minute to see if there are any paradise pics and let you know. The blue paradise is just a color morph so the same rules apply when sexing them. Basicaly, males grow much longer fins and are more brightly colored while females are deeper-bodied and wider when viewed from above. If you have one of each sex, I'd think the differences are obvious so you should be able to tell now you know what to look for. Obviously, if they are the same, you need something to compare them to. I found a few pics here that may be of use: http/www.aqualandpetsplus.com/Gourami,%20Paradise.htm I like that site because of all the gourami pics (the info is average though).

edit: This pinned topic has a male pic, scroll down: http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=54992

Also: http/philkerr.cfm-resources.com/lf/viewfish.cfm?id=157 That's supposed to be a black paradisefish male but there's debate over whether m. concolor is the correct name.

Here's another male (from a German site - try searching a German site when you can't understand German!): http/www.aquanet.de/zierfischlexikon/zie...10163154201.asp

And a google image search for macropodus opercularis brought this up: http/kd.mysearch.myway.com/jsp/GGimg.jsp...dus+opercularis
I can tell you that most are male. I think, probably, if you click on them and go to the site they'll tell you what sex they are. If not and you want to know, tell me specificaly which one and I'll try to help.

 

[Kiara]

Lol, I should have asked my husband check the German sites...considering the fact that he's German... Thanks for all the help, I do have two males, one is just smaller than the other. The bigger one keeps picking on the smaller one and chasing him around the tank...it's a 55g tank it has some ornaments (5) and 3 big plastic plants and 2 small plastic plants. Is there anything I can do to help the little Gourami? Other than moving it into another tank as I don't have another one, and can't afford one atm. Thanks again for your help

BTW, my fish both look like the middle one in the first row on the first page. One is just a little but smaller with a smaller tail.

 

[sylvia]

If they are both male you don't realy have much choice but to somehow seperate them. If you don't have another tank to put them in, re-home them or give them to an LFS. If you can already see them sparring and there's obviously some aggression there, they are almost guaranteed to end up killing each other (or more like the big one will kill the smaller one).

However, though you say you can't afford a new tank, paradisefish are suprisingly cheap to keep. They don't grow big (about 3" - not counting fin/extensions), breathe air so don't realy need a heavily oxygenated tank (thus, provided you don't over-feed and are careful to use gravel from a mature tank, you don't need a filter), are remarkably hardy and can actualy do fine in quite low temps (they don't need a heater if your temp. doesn't drop below about 67 deg F - they can actualy manage considerably lower - even up to 59 deg F though this obviously isn't great for their health). Basicaly, all you need to give one of the two paradisefish a new home is a relatively large plastic food storage box (prefferably holding about 10 gallons or more but it'll be ok in a little less if necessary). Make sure it's food-safe so you don't poison the fish, use gravel from a mature tank as a substrate and monitor water params while the fish is in there (it'll cycle like any ordinary tank but the balance will be a little more fragile to keep). Adding lots of fast-growing plants will help keep water quality up but keep in mind that you won't be able to have any lght fixtures so they must be a low-light species. BTW, don't position the make-shift tank in direct sunlight as you'll get major temperature fluctuations. You'll also want some form of a lid (make sure air can get in freely or the fish will suffocate) as gouramies often jump. Including a small ceramic cave or pot will make the fish feel more at home. You may find (if the volume is small) that you need to do more than one weekly water change to keep water quality good but, usualy, provided you don't over-feed, use mature gravel to start with, gravel vac weekly and carefuly acclimatize the fish to the new temp. to begin with, everything should be fine.