help again! Gourami stkg./sel.  12/2/11
hi guys, its me again! as you remember i have a 95 litre tank. i lost all my guppies bar one. i think there was not enough oxygen, i have now rectified that problem by putting a filter in which goes up into the lid and flows the water back in to the tank. my problem now is i only have 1 honey gourami left (not sure if its male or female). i have a added 2 blue gourami which chase each other around the tank. i read your article on this and now know i have to put more plants in. can i add more honey gourami for company for the lone one and should i add more blue ones? thank you again for all the help and advice you have given me your site is an absolute god send to me thank you.
<When you say "blue gouramis" do you mean the Cobalt Blue variety of the Dwarf Gourami, Colisa lalia, or else the blue version of the Three-Spotted Gourami, Trichogaster trichopterus? I ask this because Colisa lalia is a pain to keep at the best of times, and while Trichogaster trichopterus is normally hardy, the males are extremely aggressive. Chances are your tank is big enough for just a single male gourami of any species. Floating plants will help (plants at the bottom are fairly useless unless their leaves grow up to the top) but you're being overoptimistic if you think adding plants will prevent all aggression problems -- they won't. Cheers, Neale.>
Re: help again!     12/4/11
hi Neale, thank you for your information.
<You're welcome.>
the blue gourami are the Trichogaster trichopterus.
<Okay.>
So I was thinking I could give them to my friend and just keep the honey gourami, but how can I tell if its male or female?
<What, the Blue Gourami or the Honey Gourami? Male Blue Gouramis have longer dorsal fins than the females. As for Honey Gouramis, with wild-types this is pretty easy: the females are drab, basically pale brown with a darker stripe running from the eye to the base of the tail. Males can be similar when young, but in breeding condition they're very brightly coloured, orangey-yellow (hence the "honey" name with blue-black along the chin down to the anal fin. Unfortunately, there are some artificial forms as well as hybrids with the Dwarf Gourami that confuse things and such specimens may be difficult to sex.>
also are all my plants at the bottom of the tank useless? (none of them reach the top)
<For Gouramis, more or less. When swimming about at the bottom they will rest among plants at the bottom. But territories and nests are defined using floating vegetation -- they are, after all, bubble-nest builders and in the wild spend almost all the time at the surface, tied there by both diet and their need to breathe air.>
Thank you again for your help. cheers jen
<Cheers, Neale.>

Three spot gouramis, sel./stkg.  1/13/11
Hello,
<Hi Jamie>
I have recently settled in two female three spot Gouramis in my 35 Gallon planted community aquarium.
I read on a site that females without males will die from egg impaction!
<Mmm, no; not commonly>
This has scared me, I love my two Gouramis and don't have the room to house another.
Do you think they will be OK as they are??
<I do... and the absence of a male will help greatly toward avoiding