Chocolate gourami

Care at a glance

Overview

These are shy, peaceful fish best kept in a small group of their own kind, sitting mostly in the middle of the tank. Keep them in at least 65 liters with warm water in the upper 20s C, soft and acidic at pH 5.5 to 7. They can be fussy eaters, so offer small live and frozen foods like daphnia and baby brine shrimp alongside fine prepared food. House them only with calm, quiet tankmates, since they are easily outcompeted and stressed.

In the wild

Chocolate gouramis come from blackwater peat swamps and slow forest streams in Sumatra and Borneo. That water is soft, acidic, and stained brown with tannins, which is exactly what they need to do well. Set up a dim, heavily planted tank with floating cover and add leaf litter or botanicals to lower the pH and tint the water.

Good to know

Sphaerichthys osphromenoides is a labyrinth fish in the family Osphronemidae, so it can gulp air at the surface. It stays small at around 5 cm. Unusually for the family, this species is a maternal mouthbrooder rather than a bubble-nester, with the female carrying the eggs.

Did you know

They are sensitive to water quality and considered tricky for that reason, so stable, clean blackwater conditions matter more than for most gouramis. Many losses come down to nitrate creep and unstable parameters rather than disease.

Related species

• Crossband chocolate gourami

  Sphaerichthys selatanensis

  1.8 in (4.5 cm)16 gal (60 L)79–86°F (26–30°C)
• Sharpnose chocolate gourami

  Sphaerichthys acrostoma

  2.8 in (7 cm)24 gal (90 L)72–79°F (22–26°C)

• 

  Vaillant's Chocolate Gourami

  Sphaerichthys vaillanti

  2.2 in (5.5 cm)20 gal (75 L)70–77°F (21–25°C)

• 

  Honey gourami

  Trichogaster chuna

  2 in (5 cm)20 gal (75 L)72–82°F (22–28°C)

• 

  Ornate paradisefish

  Malpulutta kretseri

  2 in (5 cm)12 gal (45 L)72–82°F (22–28°C)

• 

  Threestripe croaking gourami

  Trichopsis schalleri

  2 in (5 cm)12 gal (45 L)72–82°F (22–28°C)