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How to tell a Honey Gourami from other small Gourami species


laritheloud
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On 3/29/2022 at 11:18 AM, pr0cess0r said:

Hello, ehre are my honey gourami and would like help for identification to make sure they are honey and wich color and also would like to know if there is male and female? none have blue none have a black line... 

Thank for your help!

I’m going to put my money on all females based on body shape. If one colors up, let us know! 😃

@Henry Li I know Aqua Huna has honeys, but they call them “gold honey gouramis” and to me they look a bit rosy and less bright yellow than regular honeys. I’m not sure if that’s just the picture though.

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@laritheloud I’ve been meaning to ask if you know whether “gold honey gourami” usually means something slightly different in terms of color morphs.

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On 3/31/2022 at 7:56 AM, Hobbit said:

I’m going to put my money on all females based on body shape. If one colors up, let us know! 😃

@Henry Li I know Aqua Huna has honeys, but they call them “gold honey gouramis” and to me they look a bit rosy and less bright yellow than regular honeys. I’m not sure if that’s just the picture though.

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@laritheloud I’ve been meaning to ask if you know whether “gold honey gourami” usually means something slightly different in terms of color morphs.

"Gold Honey Gourami" refers to the yellowy gold morph. It's slightly less intense than the "Sunset Honey Gourami" but when fired up, very beautiful. Wild types are the more drab honeys when they're not in full breeding dress.

In truth, though? LFSs and different shops will call them whatever the heck they want in terms of color morph. They'll use all kinds of buzzwords. One of my wild types was called a Sunset Honey Gourami, and the other wild type was called a Dwarf Honey Gourami. The gold honey type has been called both Gold Honey Gourami and just plain Honey Gourami. All came from the same LFS. Sigh....

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Got it. I thought that was the case. I really want to get some mates for my current honeys, but I’d like to keep that bright yellow color. These just seem to pink for me. The “sunset” honeys from this thread don’t seem quite right either, though… *sigh*

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So I got a yellow honey gourami. I then got a "red honey gourami" from my LFS. Afterwards I remembered this post and questioned if it's actually a honey gourami or something else like a thick-lipped. 

@laritheloud I'm gonna tag you since you likely will know the answer given you made a wonderful informative post. 

The yellow is the one I'm 99% sure is a honey and possibly a female. The red is the one I'm heavily wondering if it's something else. It is quite a bit larger than the yellow. 

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On 4/7/2022 at 2:41 PM, laritheloud said:

@Cinnebuns The yellow fish is a golden female honey gourami. The "red honey" gourami is a thicklip, and judging by the color and body shape, a young male. Watch the dorsal fin. If it stays rounded, it's female. If grows to be pointed and the fish darkens up a lot, it's male.

Oh boy if it's young that means it will get bigger?  Well that confirms my suspicion then. Hopefully it doesn't create issues having a honey and thick lipped together. So far it hasn't but if it's young that could change as it ages I suppose. 

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On 2/9/2022 at 10:43 AM, Maggie said:

I just got my first gourami! Meet powder blue Frank, assuming it's a male. I can't tell and neither could the nice salesman at petco. What say the gourami experts? Boy or girl, I think it will be a nice contrast to my orange, white, yellow, pink and black platys once he/she gets comfy and colors up. He's in my 5 gallon minibow for quarantine right now. 

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It´s funny cause I am planning to get a powered blue dwarf gourami in the near future. Good luck with your´s though!

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  • 4 weeks later...

@laritheloud I read through the post but I apologize if I missed it and this question was already address. It was recently brought to my attention that there may be an issue with me keeping the gouramis I have. I have 1 female honey and 1 thick lipped ofc was sold as a honey. The concern is the water hardness. My water is very hard and they are kept with guppies. 

Parameters are:  PH 8.2 GH 19 KH 14

Is this going to be harmful to the gouramis or should I be considering a change of some kind? 

2nd question regards stocking my 29 gallon. I'm wanting to add some more to my tank so I figured it might be best to give my honey gourami some friends. First, will I run into any issues with a group of honey and 1 thick-lipped in the same tank? Also, ideally, how many and what sexes would you add? It's already stocked with 3 guppies, 7 panda cories, 5 mystery snails, 3 Japanese trapdoor snails, and 3 nerite snails. TOO MUCH ON THE BOTTOM!!  I'm working on taking some snails out. 

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@Cinnebuns they'll adapt to the harder water, but there is some evidence that softer-water fish will live shorter lifespans in hard water. My own tap water is PH 8.0 to 8.2, KH 10, GH 1; I've had my oldest gouramis for about 13 months so far and they are doing well.

My 29 gallon originally housed 3 honey gouramis and 1 thicklipped gourami. My thicklipped gourami was female. She became the dominant fish in the tank. She HATED when I added a male honey gourami and would chase him on sight. He spent most of his time hiding from her, so I moved her to my 55 gallon tank. I now keep her with a group of 4 other thicklipped gouramis and she's doing very well.

So TL;DR I think your mileage may vary. If the two fish you have are working out together right now, they will probably continue to work out. I'm not sure if your thicklip will tolerate new honey gouramis, though. Make sure you have a backup plan if you try it.

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@laritheloud so i rescued 2 more red "honey" gourami aka thick-lipped from someone desperate to get rid of them and I have 2 questions. You seem to be the guy who would know! 

1.  I'm wondering if it's best for my ACTUAL honey gourami to now be rehomed. I haven't seen any issues yet and will be keeping a close eye, but I'm also wondering if it might be happier elsewhere even without issues. 

2.  One is darker and, altho still red/orange looks slightly brown even. I'm wondering if that's a female and the other 2 are male. The one I originally had is slightly larger and follows that one around touching her with his feelers. Kinda fun to watch the interaction tbh. 

I'm so glad I got more so they can be happy together. I can tell already they are sticking together and will be much more enjoyable to watch. 

 

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On 5/4/2022 at 8:19 PM, Cinnebuns said:

@laritheloud so i rescued 2 more red "honey" gourami aka thick-lipped from someone desperate to get rid of them and I have 2 questions. You seem to be the guy who would know! 

1.  I'm wondering if it's best for my ACTUAL honey gourami to now be rehomed. I haven't seen any issues yet and will be keeping a close eye, but I'm also wondering if it might be happier elsewhere even without issues. 

2.  One is darker and, altho still red/orange looks slightly brown even. I'm wondering if that's a female and the other 2 are male. The one I originally had is slightly larger and follows that one around touching her with his feelers. Kinda fun to watch the interaction tbh. 

I'm so glad I got more so they can be happy together. I can tell already they are sticking together and will be much more enjoyable to watch. 

Darker, more saturated color generally occurs in male thicklip gouramis, but the best tell is that males tend to have bigger mouths and a much more pointed, elongated dorsal fin. If you can find a home for the true honey gourami that will put her with other honey gouramis, that'll probably be best. Since she is a female honey gourami, she might end up being perfectly fine with your group of thicklips and not try to compete with the males, but it's no guarantee.

I'm so happy you're enjoying the thicklips, though. They are still my favorite fish, so fun to watch them interact as a group and come up eagerly during feeding time every day!

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On 5/4/2022 at 7:25 PM, laritheloud said:

males tend to have bigger mouths and a much more pointed, elongated dorsal fin.

That def describes the original one I got but the 2 new ones dorsal fins are flat. Maybe 2 females then. 

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On 5/4/2022 at 8:26 PM, SpacedCadette said:

Hi folks! I’m just curious if someone in this group might be able to help me confirm the sex of my two HG.

think they’re both female, which is what I’m hoping for, but this seems like the group to ask for confirmation!

video: https://imgur.com/GfuP9kg

This is tough because it looks like one definite female, and one question mark. The other one I would think is male, but (s)he has a fin deformity or former injury that makes it tough to assess definitively. Color tells me male, mostly (it could be a sunset-variety female honey), but there's an orange rim to the front half of the dorsal that isn't in the back end. How does that fish behave? Is it dominant? Does it lurk near the top, does he chase the other honey gourami?

They look so sweet together in the video. I'm glad you're giving that little fish a loving home, even with his/her healed dorsal. 🥰

On 5/4/2022 at 8:35 PM, Cinnebuns said:

That def describes the original one I got but the 2 new ones dorsal fins are flat. Maybe 2 females then. 

Ah I just saw your videos! I see at least one definite female and one definite male, the third one I'm not sure. Fin and body shape look female, darkness of color looks a bit male. I would watch the third one and see if the fin elongates after she settles because she might actually be a sneaky male. That happened to one of my "females," lol! Regardless, they should be fine together. I love seeing them swim as a sweet little group.

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On 5/4/2022 at 5:45 PM, laritheloud said:

This is tough because it looks like one definite female, and one question mark. The other one I would think is male, but (s)he has a fin deformity or former injury that makes it tough to assess definitively. Color tells me male, mostly (it could be a sunset-variety female honey), but there's an orange rim to the front half of the dorsal that isn't in the back end. How does that fish behave? Is it dominant? Does it lurk near the top, does he chase the other honey gourami?

They look so sweet together in the video. I'm glad you're giving that little fish a loving home, even with his/her healed dorsal. 🥰

The HG with the dorsal fin deformity tends to hang out lower in the tank and is usually a bit on the shy side. They were listed as sunset honey gourami’s when I got them, in case that helps! 

I’ve had the dorsal fin gourami in the hospital tank since shortly after bringing them home. I spotted an issue shortly after the video was taken and moved her/him over. Hoping she/he recovers soon because I agree that the two of them are an adorable pair and I think Bea already misses them, lol  

The girl is named Bea and the other is Lemon ☺️

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On 5/4/2022 at 7:13 PM, laritheloud said:

@SpacedCadette No matter how many times I watch the video Lemon looks like they exhibit sex characteristics for both male and female. I'd just enjoy Lemon for what (s)he is. If they're eating and swimming and pooping okay, they're just a little bit quirky. 

Absolutely happy to have her either way! Appreciate you taking the time to share your knowledge and take a look 🥰

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@laritheloud i would like to double check with you one some behaviors I've noticed with those red thick lipped.  One or the other might not concern me too much but seeing both might be something. First, I occasionally will see one kinda chase another. It doesn't seem aggressive but more like a mating chase. It's not constant but scattered throughout the day.

The 2nd behavior makes me possibly worry the chasing is causing stress. I have noticed 1 or 2 of them resting at the bottom of the tank. I know sometimes guppies will do this so again, I wouldn't worry if it weren't for the chasing. I'm hoping it's not a stress response. 

I can try to get a video of the chasing maybe if you want

Ty so much for all your help. 

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On 5/8/2022 at 8:21 PM, Cinnebuns said:

@laritheloud i would like to double check with you one some behaviors I've noticed with those red thick lipped.  One or the other might not concern me too much but seeing both might be something. First, I occasionally will see one kinda chase another. It doesn't seem aggressive but more like a mating chase. It's not constant but scattered throughout the day.

The 2nd behavior makes me possibly worry the chasing is causing stress. I have noticed 1 or 2 of them resting at the bottom of the tank. I know sometimes guppies will do this so again, I wouldn't worry if it weren't for the chasing. I'm hoping it's not a stress response. 

I can try to get a video of the chasing maybe if you want

Ty so much for all your help. 

Neither is any cause for concern!

For the chasing, you'll see this often from the male gouramis. Male gouramis will chase their 'friends' and potential mates. You shouldn't see any real violence; I occasionally see a slightly torn fin, but it never lasts, and it's never super aggressive. Usually it's a short burst, the other fish zips away, and all settles back to normal.

For the bottom-resting, Gouramis like to 'sleep' at the bottom of the tank sometimes, especially when they're chilling out in the evenings/nighttime. My honeys like to either rest at the bottom or the top. My thicklips are the same. Sometimes they'll drift in place near some floating plants with their feelers out, other times they'll just sit upright on the bottom and rest. It's only a concern if you see them flopping onto their sides or getting really weak. So long as your fish are eating and swimming normally throughout the day, resting on the bottom occasionally is no problem. 🙂 

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  • 2 weeks later...

@laritheloud fun update on my thick lipped gourami trio. The guy i got the 2 from was trying to breed them and gave up on it. I think I accidentally did lol. One that I'm pretty sure is a male has changed colors is and brown now. He has been hovering in the same spot for days and will chase away any fish that comes close. I looked and honestly don't see any eggs but there is a lot of water lettuce in that area so they could be hidden. 

I apologize for the sniffling in the video. Getting over the last part of covid. 

 

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Could be guarding a nest but I actually don't think it's necessarily true @Cinnebuns! My gouramis have literally never bred and sometimes the males just like to guard their 'area' where they think they'd like to build a nest. Even if there's no nest and no eggs. Either way, looks fine to me! He's not hurting her so that's the biggest concern. In spite of the fierce chasing, I find them to be fairly gentle fish. 🙂

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On 5/17/2022 at 7:28 AM, laritheloud said:

Could be guarding a nest but I actually don't think it's necessarily true @Cinnebuns! My gouramis have literally never bred and sometimes the males just like to guard their 'area' where they think they'd like to build a nest. Even if there's no nest and no eggs. Either way, looks fine to me! He's not hurting her so that's the biggest concern. In spite of the fierce chasing, I find them to be fairly gentle fish. 🙂

That makes a lot more sense. I would be shocked if I actually did breed them and i see no eggs. 

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