What Is Happening To My Honey Gourami

Can I just confirm a few things, please.

Your water tests - are ammonia zero, nitrite zero and nitrate below 20 ppm?
The poop - was it 'normal' coloured or white and stringy?

From the photos, the fish doesn't look too happy. And it's a male not a female, it's the natural colour and natural females are silvery beige while this one is tan coloured. His throat is white when it should be anything from tan with black speckles to dark inky black when he's in the mood for breeding.

Which leads me to ask, what sex is the other honey gourami? If that too is a male, this one could be being picked on by the other. A 50 litre tanks just isn't big enough for 2 males; they are territorial fish and one will try to drive the other out of its territory - but in a tank, it can't leave so the dominant one sees the other as constantly challenging it.

Could you post photos of both fish, please, preferably from the side. I do realise fish are not the easiest of creatures to photograph 

Ah, I see now they are the fish sold as red honeys not natural coloured honey gouramis. Sorry about that mis-identification  These are not actually honey gouramis. They are either red thick lipped gouramis or some say that are honey-thick lipped hybrids. I have never been good at distinguishing the sexes of this fish 
Having said that, I suspect the fish on the right in the first two photos is female due to the shorter rounded fins. The single fish in the last photo is possibly male as its fins are longer and not quite as rounded. Of course I could be completely wrong 

With true honeys, I could usually tell the difference in the shop tank by behaviour. Males would be the ones with an up front attitude while the females tended to be minding their own business and searching the bottom of the tank for bits of food.

So hopefully you do have a male and female.


It's possibly the one you got a week ago is slow at settling in. The brown poop is a good sign; it's white stringy poop that often means internal infections, anything from bacteria to worms.


You haven't mentioned nitrite, hopefully that too is zero.
Nitrate is a bit high at 40 ppm, it is now realised that levels above 20 ppm are not good for fish long term. What is the nitrate level in your tap water? UK legislation allows up to 50 ppm in drinking water. If your tap water is also high in nitrate, there are things you can do to lower it in the tank such as using nitrate removing media. But if tap nitrate is low, your tank nitrate should be at just about the same level as tap level. If it's higher, the usual causes are not enough water changes allowing it to build up, and/or feeding too much fish food as that decomposes to make ammonia which is turned into nitrate.

If it's just "new to the tank" shock, it should get better. Some fish take a few weeks. But keep an eye on it till you are 100% sure it's OK.

Nitrate - there are a few expensive media, some used in-tank, some to pre treat new water for a water change. Pozzani make pre-water change filters. For in-tank - API Nitra-zorb.
Other possibilities include using a storage tub for water change water, and have floating plants in there to remove nitrate from tap water before it is used. But this would need a good source of light. In those countries where the container can be kept out of doors all year round, this is a practical method, but in colder climates, the container would have to be kept indoors in winter which may not be practical.


Of course if the water is also very hard, gouramis need soft water, though guppies do need hard water. Using a mix of tap and reverse osmosis water will reduce the hardness, and nitrate.