Aquarist Atlas
Gouramis · waters

The waters behind the fish

Gouramis are creatures of specific water — a flooded rice paddy on the Gangetic plain, a tannin-black peat swamp in Selangor or Borneo, a cool paradisefish brook in southern China, a shaded Congo forest stream, a clear Cape river running cold in winter. Knowing which system a species comes from — its flow regime and, above all, its water chemistry, from neutral paddies to blackwater below pH 4 — is the foundation of keeping it well. Here are the freshwater systems that shaped 89 of the 92 species in this atlas.

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India & the Gangetic plain

7 species

South Asia · India, Nepal & Bangladesh

The rivers, tanks and flooded paddies of the Indian subcontinent — the Ganges and Brahmaputra plains and the rivers of the Western Ghats. Home of the dwarf, honey, banded and thick-lipped gouramis (Trichogaster), the climbing perch (Anabas), and the frail gourami (Ctenops nobilis) of Bengal and Assam.

Sri Lanka

2 species

South Asia · Sri Lanka

The wet-zone streams and lowland tanks of Sri Lanka — the range of the Ceylon combtail (Belontia signata), the spotted/ornate gourami (Malpulutta kretseri) and the spike-tailed paradisefish (Pseudosphromenus cupanus). Several are restricted endemics of the island's shrinking rainforest drainages.

The Mekong & Chao Phraya

15 species

Mainland Indochina · Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam

The great floodplains of mainland Southeast Asia — the Mekong, Chao Phraya and Mae Klong basins with their paddies, swamps and oxbows. The heartland of the three-spot and snakeskin gouramis (Trichopodus), the croaking gouramis (Trichopsis), the giant gourami (Osphronemus), the kissing gourami and the climbing perch.

The Malay Peninsula

17 species

Sundaland · Peninsular Malaysia, S. Thailand & Singapore

The clear forest streams and acid blackwater peat swamps of the Malay Peninsula — the North Selangor and Johor swamps and the Thai–Malay border drainages. A centre of licorice-gourami diversity (Parosphromenus), with the pearl gourami, the pikehead (Luciocephalus) and the combtail Belontia hasselti. Drainage and clearance have made several of these among the most threatened fishes in the atlas.

Sumatra

4 species

Sundaland · Sumatra (Indonesia)

The lowland blackwater and peat swamps of Sumatra — the Musi, Batang Hari and the eastern coastal swamps. Rich in licorice gouramis (Parosphromenus) and the home of the chocolate gourami (Sphaerichthys osphromenoides), alongside pikeheads and the pearl gourami of tannin-stained forest waters.

Borneo

13 species

Sundaland · Borneo (Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei)

The great island of Borneo — the Kapuas, Mahakam, Barito and Rajang basins and the swamp forests of Sarawak, Sabah, Brunei and Kalimantan. The richest gourami fauna of Sundaland: many licorice gouramis (Parosphromenus), the vaillant's and Samurai chocolate gouramis (Sphaerichthys), pikeheads, the giant gourami and combtails.

East Asia

4 species

Temperate & subtropical East Asia · China, Vietnam, Korea, Taiwan

The subtropical and warm-temperate rivers, ponds and paddies of southern China, northern Vietnam, Taiwan and Korea — the range of the paradisefish (Macropodus). Hardy, cool-tolerant bubble-nesters that gave the West its first tropical aquarium fish, the round-tailed and ocellated paradisefishes among them.

The Congo basin

21 species

Central Africa · the Congo (DRC, Congo, CAR)

The vast rainforest river system of Central Africa — the Congo and its tributaries through the Cuvette Centrale. The core range of the African bushfish: the leopard bushfish (Ctenopoma acutirostre), the orange and ornate Microctenopoma (ansorgii, nanum) and many lesser-known climbing gouramis of slow, tannin-stained forest waters.

West Africa & Lower Guinea

3 species

West & Central Africa · the Niger, Volta and Atlantic coast

The rivers and coastal swamps of the West African and Lower Guinea forests — the Niger, Volta, Ogowe and the Atlantic drainages from Senegal to Gabon. Home of the tailspot and other widespread bushfish (Ctenopoma kingsleyae, C. petherici) and a string of Microctenopoma of the forest belt.

The Nile & East Africa

1 species

Sudano-Sahelian & East Africa · the Nile, Chad, Zambezi

The Sudanian savanna and East African waters — the Nile, Lake Chad, the upper Zambezi and the Okavango. The range of the wide-ranging Nile or banded bushfish (Ctenopoma muriei) and the manyspined bushfish (C. multispine), labyrinth fishes of seasonal floodplains and swamps.

Southern Africa & the Cape

2 species

Southern Africa · South Africa

The clear, cool rivers of the South African Cape — the Breede, Gamtoos and Eastern Cape drainages. The home of the Cape kurper and the eastern Cape rocky (Sandelia capensis and S. bainsii), the southernmost labyrinth fishes on Earth and the only ones adapted to a winter-rainfall, temperate climate.

Other Old-World waters

3 species

Asia & Africa

Gouramis whose recorded range falls outside, or spans, the named systems above — including several recently-described peat-swamp endemics still known from a single locality, and widespread fishes carried far by aquaculture. Old-World tropical hydrology is intricate and incompletely mapped, and gourami taxonomy is still moving.

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