Not a Flaming Female!

[Lisa]

Hello,

I am gradually stocking my 50-gallon bowfront, and today I purchased 3
female "Dwarf Flame Gouramis" to go with my two established males.
However, when I got home, and I could see the new fish in better light,
I can see faint stripes on ONE of the females. She isn't a Flame
Gourami- she's a normal dwarf gourami. (The store had them all housed
together.) I can see how they could be confused - the differences are
very hard to detect.

I don't really mind, but I was really trying to have a 3-2 ratio of
females to males. Will this mess it up? I don't want the 2 poor
female Flames harassed by my established males. (One of the females is
quite tiny.) Should I try to replace the striped one with a real
"Flame" female, or is my current one "close enough" in the male
Flames's eyes to not bother? They are all Colisa lalia, aren't they?
I am not interested in breeding them, but I wanted to establish some
interactive pairs.

Thanks for any info,

- Lisa in Central CA

[NetMax]

"Lisa" > wrote in message
oups.com...
> Hello,
>
> I am gradually stocking my 50-gallon bowfront, and today I purchased 3
> female "Dwarf Flame Gouramis" to go with my two established males.
> However, when I got home, and I could see the new fish in better light,
> I can see faint stripes on ONE of the females. She isn't a Flame
> Gourami- she's a normal dwarf gourami. (The store had them all housed
> together.) I can see how they could be confused - the differences are
> very hard to detect.
>
> I don't really mind, but I was really trying to have a 3-2 ratio of
> females to males. Will this mess it up? I don't want the 2 poor
> female Flames harassed by my established males. (One of the females is
> quite tiny.) Should I try to replace the striped one with a real
> "Flame" female, or is my current one "close enough" in the male
> Flames's eyes to not bother? They are all Colisa lalia, aren't they?
> I am not interested in breeding them, but I wanted to establish some
> interactive pairs.
>
> Thanks for any info,
>
> - Lisa in Central CA

They are all the same fish, Colisa lalia. Colour variations exist in
nature. These variations will have no bearing on their interaction in an
aquarium environment. The names Flame gourami, or Honey, Sunset, etc etc
are made up by people, anyone. The 16 year old who unpacks a shipment of
Dwarf gouramis can say "let's call these Sunfire gouramis" and that is
how you get these names! This is why the names vary within a country,
state, city or even crossing the street. They are made up. The farmers
in Thailand and Singapore have gotten the line breeding down to the point
where they get high %s of males of a particular colour so they can be
sold that way, but they are all the same fish. The farmers, brokers and
exporters come up with new names several times a year to promote sales,
but they are all the same fish (I think I'm starting to repeat myself).
Did I mention that they are all the same....
--
www.NetMax.tk

[Lisa]

Thanks, NetMax. I'm glad that it'll be "all the same" to the males.
The LFS guy did try hard to make sure that they were all Flames - but
it was poor lighting and hard to see. It's weird that some have
stripes (so are called Dwarf gouramis), while the other females are
solid silver (so are called "FLAME Dwarf Gouramis"). As long as
everyone is happy, it doesn't matter to me if one female has faint
silver stripes. :-)

- Lisa in Central CA