Hi all, we have two honey gouramis – a male and a female. When we originally got them a year ago, they had very distinct coloration (see last pic).
Recently though, a black stripe appeared on the female as well, reaching all the way to her mouth (first pic). We know this to be a sign of sexual maturity in males, so this confused us. Can females also get it?
She does have a rounder body, and they do appear to mate occasionally.
Posted by Bull3tpr00f-h
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P.S. she’s also incredibly confident and seems to often be chasing the male, instead of the other way around
Usually just the males get the dark belly.
Honey gourami with this colouration cannot be found in Australia anymore, AFAIK. They were popular 30 years ago, but they’re pretty much just a solid honey colour with no black stripe underneath nowadays.
Those are wild variants of the honey gourami. Somewhat rare. No females won’t develop a dark beard. The colouration changes in the female are indeed a sign of maturity. The stripe on the female is as far as any dark blemish on the female you will see. It will remain at the dark line.