i think my gourami is pegnant

Question
QUESTION: hi i was just woundering if you coumd tell me if my gourami is pregnant it has a bit of a like belly it looks like an urly pregantcey it akts fine but it is abit fat around the belly coude you pleas help me and tell me if she is can you e-mail me the ancer and this e-mail adres rainbow624@msn.com thanks cant wait to no if its good nows

ANSWER: Hi Jordan

Do you know what kind of gourami it is?  If not, what's it look like and how big is it?  Usually the gouramis that are sold at pet stores are males.  The males are a lot more colorful then the females, so they sell better, which is why they usually only sell males. Also, how many are in your tank?  And how long have you had it(them)?

Christy

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QUESTION: thanks for e-mailing back and it is a pearl gourami and it is its like a goldie cooler and it has a black strip gowing from its eye all the way to her back on both sides and whan of my fish witch i think is a boy it is making a booble nest if i can i will send you a pic of the fish and i have about 7 gourami in a 4ft tank pleas e-mail back thenks

Answer
Hi Jordan
A bubble nest would be a sign that that one is a male :)  I found this link, the third paragraph down tells you how to tell the difference in the sexes in pearl gouramis.  It also gives a little info on what to do after they mate/lay the eggs.  Might need to check into getting another aquarium, or check into making or buying a tank divider to separate the parents from the fry/eggs.

http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/prod_Display.cfm?pCatId=966

Here's another link that compares a male and female, the lighting's kind of bad in the photos though, but you can tell on the top dorsal fin, the males is longer, and the bottom anal fins-the females has a bit more of a rounded appearance where as the males is pointed/longer:

http://www.thetropicaltank.co.uk/Fishindx/pearl.htm

And this link is even better, there's a photo towards the middle with a male and female next to each other, also talks about what to do/how to breed them:

http://www.aqualandpetsplus.com/Gourami,%20Pearl.htm

If it ends up they're males that you have, then let me know because you might be dealing with a disease called dropsy/bloat.  The fish starts swelling up, and sometimes it's hard to distinguish that from "pregnancy" or full of eggs.  

Good luck, and hope you have a bunch of baby fish/fry soon :)

Christy