red honey gourami

[centralharbor]

hi guys and happy new year

recently i went to the lfs and i saw a tank labeled honey gouramis, but instead of black, the underside of them was red. i thought these were really nice looking and i wanted to get some for my parents, but i wasnt too sure if they were actually honey gouramis or not. they looked really nice and yellow and red looked vibrant together, just wanted to get some info before doing anything

TIA

[TKOS]

My honey gourami was origianlly yellow on top with a reddish colouring on the bottom. The red seemed to fade as he aged. I found mine to be quite aggressive and had to move certain fish out of the tank. He died after a couple of years and my tank (a 20 gallon) is much more peaceful. If you do get one make sure to only get one and have no other similar fish in the tank.

[carpguy]

The black beard is on the males when they're in good color, and they may not be in such good color in a store tank. I've seen them once in a very good LFS and the beard wasn't all that obvious.

It seems to me that a lot of what are sold as Honeys these days are color morphs of the Dwarfs, especially when you see a color adjective thrown in for good measure. Without actually being able to see the fish, I'd guess this was the case. Its what I've usually seen referred to as a Honey.

Ask if its a color morph or a "Wild Honey". They may know the difference.

Here are some google images of Trichogaster chuna (http://images.google.com/images?q=trichogaster+chuna&hl=en&btnG=Google+Search) (true Honey) and of Colisa lalia (http://images.google.com/images?as_q=Colisa+lalia&num=20&btnG=Goodle+Search&as_epq=&hl=&as_oq=&as_eq=&imgsz=&as_filetype=&imgc=&as_sitesearch=&imgsafe=active) (the Dwarf Gourami). The results for the true Honey actually includes a few morphs and one even says C. Lalia on the file name. Notice the females though. Fairly plain dull tan with the darker stripe down the center. If you see any of those then the males are probably true Honeys. The dwarfs tend to be treated with hormones and tend to be almost exclusively male.

Take a look here (http://www.skepticalaquarist.com/docs/fishes/labyrinth.shtml) for more info (you'll have to scroll down a little ways until you hit C. chuna).

[centralharbor]

sorry, they were called honey gouramis not red honey gouramis at the store.

anyway, ive seen pics of honey gouramis and the ones in the link dont really look like them. the honey gouramis at the store are really vibrant yellow and red, the ones in the pic are kinda muttled

[squall_japan]

Are you referring to this?

http://static.flickr.com/20/72656865_7c10c5484e.jpg
http://static.flickr.com/35/73042667_977dc5bda4.jpg

they call them Golden Honey gourami here. The red fins are really red but not in this pic. I'll try to take a better picture next time

[TKOS]

Nice pictures but the thread is already over a year old. A little late.

[squall_japan]

Sorry i thought it was just this year. Sorry getting used to the new year.