Did they give me the right one???

[Hurley]

I went to the LFS store today to buy another female dwarf gourami because I currently have 1 male and 1 female and the male was picking on the female. I am hoping that by adding another female this will spread out his aggression. The LFS gave me a gourami but im not sure if its a dwarf gourami or if its even female. It is currently smaller then the 2 dwarfs I have now but it looks different. It is greyish but distinctly more yellow then the other female and does not have stripes like the 2 other dwarfs. I know there are other varieties of small gouramis, could this be one of those? If so, is there a way to tell if its male or female?

[Ghost_knife]

male gourami's have a more pointed Dorsal yes dorsal fin, there is no real way to tell if it's a dwarf untill you have had it for awhile, thats the only way I know of,

the Chocolate Gourami is a true dwarf, as seen in my avatar located to the upper left corner of this post

[patoloco]

If your gourami is too young, it may have not developed all the distintive characterist you are looking for. Perhaps, you should let him/her sit for some days until it grows a little bit.

I have gouramies and have seen them very colorful one day and pale the other day if I forget to turn on the lights. Seem like they happen to change it's appearance very quickly.

As for distiguising males from famales, I almost always go right by looking at the dorsal fin: males have a pointy long fin, and females have it rounded at the end. This will be more evident as the fish grows.

*** Edit: I hate it when I'm about to give the first response and someone posts seconds before I do. :pc: :pc: :D

[Ghost_knife]

sorry, I'm a fast typer :-)

[Slappy*McFish]

Here's a pic of a male and female dwarf gourami. The female is the bottom fish. Females are generally silverish in color, have shorter/less pointed dorsal fins, and have a fuller/rounder belly than males.

http://www.solodvds.com/images/gourami/images/Colisa_lalia3.jpg

[Hurley]

I know the difference between the male and female dwarf gouramis, its just that this other gourami looks different from either of the other two (more yellowish in color then gray). Im really just curious as to if this is a different version of a dwarf gourami (ie. red or blue) or if this is a completely different species of gourami. I looked at the dorsal fin and its rounder then the male's and looked alot like my other female's fin so im going to say its a female.

[Slappy*McFish]

It could just simply be a female flame gourami or honey gourami.

[Hurley]

Are they still compatable/breedable with dwarf gouramis?

[Ghost_knife]

I think that he gourami are inter-breedable, I am not 100% on it though

[Slappy*McFish]

They're all dwarf gouramis. The Honey gourami is a different but closely related species(Colisa Chuna) to the most commonly sold dwarf gourami (Colisa Lalia) which includes several different color morphs. The Flame gourami being one of those color morphs of the common wild type C. Lalia. They'll all interbreed or at least attempt to anyway.

Here are the same species of Dwarf Gourami (Colisa Lalia) showing the two commonly kept varieties.
http://www.malawicichlidhomepage.com/other/dwarf_gourami.html

The Powder Blue Dwarf Gourami is another commonly sold color morph of Colisa Lalia.
http://www.aquahobby.com/gallery/e_powder.php

...and here is the Honey Gourami (Colisa Chuna)
http://www.plantedtank.net/fishprofiles/50/