Dwarf Gourami Gender

[GavinFish]

Hi everyone, I am new to fishlore,
I just got my dwarf gourami 1 week ago, but I am not sure if they are male or female.
The G1 has rounded dorsal fin, so I assumed that it's a female, but it's quite long compare to some of the pictures I've seen online.
And G2 seems to have long and relatively pointy dorsal fin and vividly coloured, but I am not sure if the evidence is enough. And G1 seems to be bigger and chases G2 around from time to time.
Could someone please help me identify the gender of my fish? Thxxx

Ps: They may appear to be quite pale if you are looking from a computer screen but the colour looks more saturated on a phone or in real life.

 

[Leeman75]

Hello and welcome to Fishlore!!

Those are both 2 different types of Male Dwarf Gourami. DG1 I've seen called the Neon DG and the other is a Flame DG (which I have one of). Male DGs are extremely territorial and thus it's not typically advised to keep more than one in a tank. Though you see them often in a tank with many others at the fish store seemingly getting along ok, that's not how most will act once in a new tank.

How big is your tank? If it's a big enough tank, with other fish, and hiding spots, you may be able to get away with it, but I would keep a very close eye on it and be prepared to move one if it seems that it's getting stressed and beat up on.

They are very pretty fish though!!

 

[AcuarioAmazonico]

100% male. Colouration shown only occurs in the male species. Females are rounder and silver (most of the time)

 

[GavinFish]

Hello and welcome to Fishlore!!

Those are both 2 different types of Male Dwarf Gourami. DG1 I've seen called the Neon DG and the other is a Flame DG (which I have one of). Male DGs are extremely territorial and thus it's not typically advised to keep more than one in a tank. Though you see them often in a tank with many others at the fish store seemingly getting along ok, that's not how most will act once in a new tank.

How big is your tank? If it's a big enough tank, with other fish, and hiding spots, you may be able to get away with it, but I would keep a very close eye on it and be prepared to move one if it seems that it's getting stressed and beat up on.

They are very pretty fish though!!

Hi Leeman75 Thank you so much for helping me!
The tank is 12 gallon, so it's relatively small. But it does have quite a few plants, floating plants and rocks though.

The LFS couldn't identify the genders that's how I ended up with 2 males haha
And yeah, the smaller one tends to hide behind the rocks half of the time. (They do occasionally school together though! and eat each other's poo...)

Unfortunately, I don't have another aquarium, so the only option I have is either returning one fish to the LFS or add more fish.

What would you advise me to do? I have had them for 1 week, and they were not nipping each other's fins after the first day, just chasing each other around a bit.

I am planning on adding some schooling fish, which one of the species below would you recommend me adding?
6 neon tetras/
6 black phantom tetras/
6 endler guppies/
6 freshwater bumblebee gobies/
6 kuhli loaches?

Thank you

 

[GavinFish]

Hello and welcome to Fishlore!!

Those are both 2 different types of Male Dwarf Gourami. DG1 I've seen called the Neon DG and the other is a Flame DG (which I have one of). Male DGs are extremely territorial and thus it's not typically advised to keep more than one in a tank. Though you see them often in a tank with many others at the fish store seemingly getting along ok, that's not how most will act once in a new tank.

How big is your tank? If it's a big enough tank, with other fish, and hiding spots, you may be able to get away with it, but I would keep a very close eye on it and be prepared to move one if it seems that it's getting stressed and beat up on.

They are very pretty fish though!!

Also, do you think maybe adding 3 females will help?

 

[Leeman75]

Hi GavinFish!
I think the best move would be to return one of the 2 DGs. They may get along for a while, but they will eventually most likely turn on each other, which you may already be seeing the very beginnings of now. Adding 3 F to the 2 M will also not help. A 12 would not give enough space for all that size of a non-shoaling fish. Additionally, F DGs are really hard to find.

Figure out which one you like best and take the other one back.

Once done with that, you can look at adding a group of maybe 6-8 shoaling fish. The smaller the better. In a 12 gallon tank, I think the Phantoms and Khuli Loaches will get too big. The Guppies would work and be fun, but be prepared for those 6 to become 16 pretty quick as they have lots o' babies!

As for the Bumblebee Gobies...I think they are really cool. Not really knowing anything about them, we bought one for my sons' 10 gallon tank and it was fun for a while, but it got sick and died after about a month or two. Come to find out they like to be in groups of at least 6, but also even though they are small, like to have a good amount of space. There are also versions that prefer brackish water.

Smaller tetras would definitely work. Neons have nice colors, but they can sometimes be prone to disease. I lost 11 of 15 fish Neons in about a week's time. Green Neons are more striking in my opinion and don't seem to have quite as much of the problems that Neons have, though they may be more expensive and harder to find. An alternative to Tetras that I have recently become enamored with is the smaller Rasboras like Harlequins or Chilis. I couldn't find Chilis for a tank I had wanted them in so went with Harlequins and absolutely love them! They are small, even smaller than the Neon Tetras, so you could probably do like 8 or 9 along with the DG. That would be a fun tank!

Sorry...lots of information. Your first step though should be to return one of the DGs.

 

[GavinFish]

Thank you Leeman75, I will probably return 1 of the gourami after the lock down then and get either 6 chillis or 6 Bumblebee gobies.

 

[DoubleDutch]

Thank you Leeman75, I will probably return 1 of the gourami after the lock down then and get either 6 chillis or 6 Bumblebee gobies.

please make "probably" a "definitely".
Otherwise they'll solve the problem themselves the hard way.

Great looking fish btw