Aquarist Atlas
Aquarist Atlas · the labyrinth fishes

Gouramis

Gouramis are the air-breathing labyrinth fishes of the Old World tropics — every aquarium anabantoid except the bettas, which have their own section. The group runs from the broad, slow-moving Trichopodus pearl and three-spot gouramis and the jewel-bright dwarf gouramis (Trichogaster) through the metre-class giant gouramis (Osphronemus), the croaking Trichopsis, the hardy Macropodus paradisefish, the blackwater licorice gouramis (Parosphromenus) and mouthbrooding chocolate gouramis (Sphaerichthys), to the lone kissing gourami, the predatory pikeheads, the land-crossing climbing perches, and — across the Indian Ocean — the African bushfish of the Congo and the Cape. This section is built to the same standard as the cichlid, cory and pleco pages: researched, cited accounts with no Wikipedia and no invented facts.

© Adobe Stock

One thing the labyrinth organ does not dictate is how a gourami breeds, and the modes vary far more than the “bubble-nest” cliché suggests. Most true, dwarf, giant and croaking gouramis and the paradisefish are bubble-nesters, the male guarding a raft of mucus-bound bubbles at the surface. But the chocolate gouramis and the pikeheads are mouthbrooders; the licorice gouramis are cave and substrate spawners of soft, acidic blackwater; and the kissing gourami and the climbing perches are open-water egg-scatterers that build no nest at all. Each species' page records which mode it uses, alongside its water chemistry — because so many of these fishes are specialists of warm, still, oxygen-poor water that the air-breathing labyrinth evolved to exploit.

A pearl gourami with a lacy pattern of pale spots over a lavender-brown body, drifting among plants
The larger gouramis are unhurried, surface-oriented fish — long pelvic rays trail like feelers, testing the water ahead as they move through dense vegetation.
A male dwarf gourami in nuptial colour — iridescent turquoise bars over a deep red body
In the dwarf gouramis the male carries the colour; he builds and tends a bubble-nest at the surface, often binding it together with bits of floating plant.
A tiny licorice gourami with red-and-blue banded fins poised over a dark, leaf-littered substrate
The licorice gouramis are blackwater miniatures of the peat swamps — bred in caves and crevices, and among the most threatened fishes in this atlas as their forests are drained.

Photos © Adobe Stock

92 species in the atlas

That spans three families following the Catalog of Fishes and FishBase — Osphronemidae (minus Betta), the African and Asian Anabantidae, and the kissing gourami (Helostomatidae) — grouped here by a friendly common-name group rather than by raw genus. Several of these fishes, above all the licorice gouramis of the Sundaic peat swamps, are Critically Endangered through habitat drainage and fire; new accounts are added as those species are written up.

Species

92 of 92 species

Gouramis · 6

The large 'true' gouramis — Trichopodus three-spot, pearl, moonlight and snakeskin gouramis of Southeast Asian lowlands, with a few smaller relatives (Ctenops). Bubble-nesting labyrinth fishes of still, vegetated waters.

Dwarf gouramis · 3

The small, brilliantly coloured Trichogaster (the former Colisa) — dwarf, honey, thick-lipped and banded gouramis of India and Indochina. Bubble-nesters; several bind their surface nests with bubbles and plant fragments.

Giant gouramis · 4

Osphronemus — the giant gouramis, reaching some 27.5 in and farmed for food across Southeast Asia. Bubble-nesters that build large nests of vegetation in still backwaters.

Croaking gouramis · 3

Trichopsis — the croaking and pygmy gouramis, tiny fish that produce an audible croak with their pectoral tendons. Bubble-nesters of shallow, still, often tannin-stained water.

Paradisefish · 12

Macropodus and the spike-tailed Pseudosphromenus (with Malpulutta) — hardy, cool-tolerant bubble-nesters of East and Southeast Asia. The paradisefish was among the first tropical fishes kept in Western aquaria.

Licorice gouramis · 23

Parosphromenus — the licorice gouramis, jewel-finned dwarfs of Sundaic peat swamps. Cave / substrate spawners of soft, acidic blackwater; many are Critically Endangered single-swamp endemics.

Chocolate gouramis · 6

Sphaerichthys and the Burmese false-chocolates Parasphaerichthys — soft-blackwater specialists. Unusually for the family these are mouthbrooders rather than bubble-nesters.

Kissing gourami · 1

Helostoma temminckii — the kissing gourami, a filter-feeding labyrinth fish whose 'kiss' is a trial of strength. An egg-scatterer that builds no nest; the buoyant eggs drift among surface plants.

Combtails · 2

Belontia — the combtails of Sri Lanka and Sundaland, named for the frayed comb of rays trailing from the tail. Loose bubble-nesters, sometimes barely tending a nest at all.

Pikeheads · 2

Luciocephalus — the pikeheads, ambush predators of Sundaic blackwater with an extraordinary protrusible jaw. Like the chocolate gouramis they are mouthbrooders, the male carrying the eggs.

Climbing perch · 2

Anabas — the climbing perches of South and Southeast Asia, famous for crossing land between waters on their spiny gill plates. Open-water egg-scatterers whose eggs float; no nest and no parental care.

African bushfish · 28

The African labyrinth fishes — Ctenopoma and Microctenopoma of the Congo and West Africa, plus the South African Sandelia. Mode varies by genus: some Microctenopoma build bubble-nests, while Ctenopoma scatter buoyant eggs.

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