Anjungan licorice gourami

Care at a glance

Overview

This is a specialist for a 40 litre blackwater species tank at 22 to 28 C with very soft, acidic water at pH 4.0 to 6.5, leaf litter, and spawning caves. Feed only small live and frozen foods like baby brine shrimp, moina, and mosquito larvae, since it rarely takes dried food. Keep it alone or with a few tiny peaceful cyprinids, and never mix licorice gourami species. Stable, mineral-poor water is essential to keep it alive.

In the wild

Lives in shaded blackwater forest streams with very soft, acidic, tannin-stained water. It is recorded from only a handful of localities, which makes it both rare in the wild and vulnerable to habitat loss. The fish stays close to leaf litter, roots, and cover in the lower part of the water. Its native peat swamps are being cleared for agriculture.

Good to know

Parosphromenus anjunganensis was described by Kottelat in 1991 and is a member of the family Osphronemidae. It is named after Anjungan, the area where it was first collected. Like other licorice gouramis it is a tiny cave-spawning micropredator that stays under 4 cm.

Did you know

Because it is known from so few places, keeping and breeding it in the hobby helps preserve a fish that could vanish along with its swamps.

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