The Gouramis

by Jennifer Wilkinson, CAS

originally published in The Calquarium Volume 41, Number 11, July 1999

We recently purchased some baby pearl gouramis. Although we have kept these fish before, it has been quite a while, and I had forgot how interesting it is to watch them. With this renewed interest, I began to do some research. So here are some of my findings.

The characteristic that distinguishes these fish from the rest is that they have a labyrinth. The labyrinth is an air-filled breathing cavity, located under the gill covers. The labyrinth fishes can often be seen going to the surface of the water to take in fresh air. This makes it possible for these fish to survive waters that don’t carry much oxygen.

There are many forms of this species of gourami. They come in the blue three-spot, the blue opaline (which has wavy darker blue lines running vertically on the body), and the gold-brown variety. The males are slimmer and have a longer, pointed dorsal fill and can reach a length of 15cm. The females’ fins are slightly shorter and rounder, and they have a total body length of 13cm.

These fish come from all of Indo-China except Burma, and from Indonesia east of Sumba and to the northeast as far as the Philippines. They are found in ponds, rice fields, lakes drainage canals and in rivers. They prefer planted areas and will even withstand brackish waters.

These fish are a hardy aquarium fish, as they will take just about any kind of water with a temperature of 24C. They will also eat just about everything that is fed. They will fit nicely into a community tank, as they won’t bother any of the other inhabitants. They need a fairly large aquarium, but I have kept them in a 120-liter community. The males on occasion can become ornery towards the females, and will fight with other males, by locking lips and shaking or jumping. It is best to only keep one male with several females in a well-planted tank.

The three-spot gourami is one of the easiest of the labyrinth fishes to breed. The breeding tank should be at least 60 cm on one side, with a temperature of 28C. The water level should be lowered to about half of the tank volume. Shut off any filtration or air. The air or filtration will break up the male’s bubble nest. There should also be some hiding places for the female. The male displays for the female by swimming in front and around her with his fins spread wide. When she is ready to mate, she will mouth him along the body. Then the male wraps himself around her and the eggs are released. The eggs float up into the bubble nest or are placed in the bubble nest by the male. The bubble nest is usually under a leaf or something floating at the top of the aquarium.

I moved a pair of the three-spot gouramis into a 120-liter aquarium by themselves. The water level was just under half full. There were some plastic plants for the female to hide behind to get away from the male if she wanted to. A piece of Styrofoam was left floating on the top. After three days I checked to see if I could see anything. There was a bubble nest of sorts but it wasn’t very big: there were really just a few bubbles here and there. On closer inspection though I found hatched fry under the Styrofoam. These fish are big producers: there were over 300 eggs from that spawn. The book says they can be continuous spawners, spawning every few days, and I do believe this as they spawned again shortly thereafter.