Hi everyone, hope you all had a great christmas and hope you have a good New Year.

Have been reading some of the other posts and one said that you shouldn't cross dwarf blue with dwarf honey. What would the main reasoning be for this?

My powder blue dwarf male gouramis' mate died, as did my dwarf honey females' mate. They have since paired up and I now have quite a few fry swimming round in the tank. Very tiny but lively.

Because the difference is the colours. If you mix the two many of the fry will not have as clear colouring as either parent (like mixing paints)

Hi Caryl, thanks for that. I thought the fry may be deformed and I'd have to dispose of them all.

Hi Caryl, thanks for that. I thought the fry may be deformed and I'd have to dispose of them all.

Depend on what fish the dwarf honey is, theres a strain of c.lalia referred to as honey, but the normal dwarf honey is c.chuna.

2 different species

Is the honey the same size?

Maybe you should post pics

I am pretty sure that honey gourami's and the blue neon dwarf gourami's are different species..

from rough research (hard to tell what a powder blue dwarf gouarmi is without a pic)

honey gouarmi is Colisa chuna

blue gouarmi is Colisa lalia

So any resulting fry would be hybrids and should be destroyed (feed them out if you're squeamish).

You are right ryanjury. I thought they were just colour morphs :oops:

Should have checked before I posted :roll:

The female honey is slightly smaller than the male powder blue. Will try and add photos but they're not the best as I only have my cellphone camera.

Hope that worked

resulting fry would be hybrids and should be destroyed

Out of curiosity, why do they needa be snuffed?

Hybrid fish are generally a bad thing for the hobby..

Among other things they weaken the already limited gene pools we have in the country.

Sometimes you can't tell what your getting, some of the babies may resemble one parent therefore be named as that and be passed on as that. We may get a whole generation of dud "honey gourami's" that aren't quite right stem from this spawning and these fish can and will be passed on for years confusing people and annoying people who may pay top $$ for them only to find out they're crosses.

Generally as responsible fish keepers we do our best to breed pure fish of the highest quality to ensure the fish stocks in nz stay as good as they can..

I probably wouldn't have a problem with hybrids if people called them that so people knew what they were getting, but its when they get named and sold as a pure fish that it causes problems. It is generally best to get rid of them and do it right from the beginning.

Above is just my opinion and the opinion of others, there will be plenty of PC people who will argue for it I am sure

honey gourami is Colisa chuna

dwarf gourami is Colisa lalia

blue Gourami is Trichogaster trichopterus

The difference in the Colisa species is mainly seen in the tail shape. I think you have two species as the male looks like a dwarf gourami.

The dwarf gourami has a royal red and cobalt blue variety which cross to look like the normal 'wild type'. The normal strain when crossed with a cobalt blue gives the powder blue type. And there is a similar intermediatry type between the royal red and normal types.

The honey gourami also has a few colour variants but I haven't had experience with breeding them.