Crossband chocolate gourami

Care at a glance

Overview

The crossband chocolate gourami is a small gourami for a dedicated blackwater tank. It is a fish for experienced keepers.

Caring for the crossband chocolate gourami

Keep a group of six or more crossband chocolate gouramis in a blackwater tank of at least 16 gal (60 L). Add leaf litter and tannins, and fit a tight lid to trap a warm, humid layer above the surface.

They need very soft, acidic water at 79 to 86°F (26 to 30°C), with a pH of 4.0 to 6.5. Keep that soft water stable. Feed small live and frozen foods, such as baby brine shrimp, daphnia, grindal worm and micro worm. It can be a picky micropredator.

The crossband chocolate gourami is peaceful and shy. It needs its own calm species tank, or at most the gentlest of nano tank mates.

It is a maternal mouthbrooder, so the female carries and broods the eggs and fry in her mouth. Breeding is hard.

Good to know

Sphaerichthys selatanensis was described by Vierke in 1979 and belongs to the family Osphronemidae. It is a small chocolate gourami with pale crossbands on a dark body. It is also sold as the Selatan or cross-barred chocolate gourami.

In the wild

The crossband chocolate gourami lives in shaded blackwater peat swamps and streams in South and Central Kalimantan, Borneo. The water is very soft, acidic, warm and mineral-poor, stained dark with tannins, and its pH is often well below 6. It stays among leaf litter, roots and submerged plants in dim light. These peat swamp habitats are being lost to drainage and clearing.

Common questions

Related species

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