Honey Gourami Care | A Splash of Gold for Your Community Tank

Looking for a centerpiece for your small community aquarium? The radiant gold of a pair of honey gouramis patrolling all over the tank might be just what you need.

One of the mellowest members of its genus and the perfect addition to a calm, planted set-up, this little gourami has more than earned its popularity. Even first-time aquarists can keep it — let’s find out how below.

Honey gourami description & origins

Description

Trichogaster chuna (though you might know it as Colisa chuna, its former scientific name) is a small species of gourami. It’s one of the most popular freshwater aquarium fish, beloved around the world by first-time aquarists and veterans alike. We love using it in our peaceful community aquariums to bring life to the middle to upper water layers, though it’ll also zoom around the rest of the tank.

Better known as the honey gourami, this little fish grows to a maximum length of just over 2″. That makes it almost an inch shorter than its close and super-popular cousin, the dwarf gourami, and in fact the smallest member of its genus.

The honey gouramis you’ll see in your local fish store are almost always selectively bred color varieties like “Red”, “Gold”, and the pretty “Sunset”. The females and males of these morphs look almost the same, though the female can be a little duller and may have a faint brown stripe down her side.

Wild-type honey gouramis, which are rarer but do pop up for sale now and then, look quite different. The males’ chins and bellies can turn almost black when they’re in breeding (“nuptial”) mode, often with some metallic blue mixed in on the face. The females seem more committed to camouflage and do a pretty good impression of a floating light brown leaf with a dark stripe down the side.

Tip: There are a few different gouramis that come in similar colors, some of which grow much larger than honeys — it’s worth double-checking you got the right fish. Note that honey gouramis never have mottled fin markings, and their heads are more compact than those of the rest of the family. They have a much smaller mouth than their otherwise similar cousin, the thick-lipped gourami (T. labiosa).

Origins

Honey gouramis are naturally found in Northeastern India and Bangladesh, where they inhabit the Ganges and Brahmaputra river basins. You won’t find these little fish in the main rivers, though. Thanks to their labyrinth organ, which allows them to breathe air, they’re optimally adapted for life in small sluggish streams, ponds, canals, and shallow swampy areas.

The habitats honey gouramis like are characterized by their thick vegetation (both riparian and aquatic plants), though their look can change a lot between the wet and dry season. They can even expand, with the fish moving into rice and jute fields when the monsoon leaves them flooded.

Honey gourami aquarium

Figuring out what kind of aquarium set-up a honey gourami will feel comfortable in is pretty easy if you consider where it would have lived in the wild. This isn’t a fish adapted to life in deep, turbulent, or fast-flowing waters, nor the tea-colored blackwater habitats some of its cousins inhabit. Luckily, a shallow, flooded field isn’t a difficult habitat to replicate.

The ideal honey gourami tank is densely planted (their golden hue looks fantastic against a green backdrop anyway). It includes some floating plants to dim the light and break up the flow level, but not so many that your fish can’t reach the surface for a gulp of air. The substrate type doesn’t matter much, but a layer of Indian almond leaves and other tree debris helps support a healthy microbial community as it decomposes.

Speaking of breathing air, we know open-top aquariums look fantastic. But labyrinth fish need warm, humid air, which is why a hood or lid is almost always required; unless you’ve got a dedicated tropical fish room situation going on, the ambient air will be too chilly and dry.

Honey gourami compatibility

Although honey gouramis are often sold for the general community aquarium because they’re sweet-natured and rarely territorial, their need for a calm environment extends to their tankmates. Hyperactive, predatory, or nippy fish will stress them out. This can cause them to lose their lovely colors, barely show their faces, or even become ill.

The good news? All this still leaves you loads of fish to choose from, including beginner species. Most bottom dwellers, for example, work well because they won’t get in the gourami’s way:

• Kuhli loach (Pangio semicincta)
• Corydoras catfish (Hoplisoma, Ostheogaster, etc.)
• Bristlenose pleco (Ancistrus) & small L-numbers
• Banjo catfish (Aspredinidae)
• Twig catfish (Farlowella)

As long as they’re not too boisterous or nippy, small schooling fish are also fine:

• Most (micro)rasboras (Boraras, Rasbora, Trigonostigma)
• Ember tetras (Hyphessobrycon amandae)
• Small rainbowfish (Pseudomugil, Iriatherina)
• Celestial pearl danio (Danio margaritatus)

Hatchetfish (Carnegiella) and small pencilfish (Nannostomus) are your best bet for the top water layer. Of course, the ideal tankmates for your honey gourami also depend on the size and lay-out of your tank — some fish require more space than others.

As for the gouramis themselves: they’re often kept alone, but this isn’t actually the best way to go about it. A pair or small harem (1 male, 2 females) allows you to observe much more of their natural inter-gourami interactions, though we think the ideal is actually an even larger group of six fish or more.

→ Learn to stock a freshwater aquarium

Biotope tankmates

Worked hard to imitate your gourami’s natural habitat? You can consider going the full honey gourami biotope route by stocking the tank with fish that it would plausibly come across in the wild. None are very common in the hobby, but you might find them at specialized aquarium stores:

• Golden dwarf barb (Pethia gelius)
• Indian glassy fish (Parambassus rangus & P. lala)
• Striped spiny eel (Macrognathus pancalus)
• Gangetic scissortail rasbora (Rasbora rasbora)

Honey gourami diet

Typically for small labyrinth fish, wild honey gouramis mostly feed on insect larvae and assorted zooplankton. They’re not complete carnivores, though: gut content analyses also reveal them to nibble on algae from time to time.

Your captive honey gourami will eat whatever the rest of the tank is having; a high-quality flake or micropellet food works fine as a staple. It is, however, also a good idea to regularly serve some live food. They really love hunting little critters like Daphnia or wingless fruit flies, which are similar to their natural prey items.

Breeding honey gouramis

Breeding honey gouramis in your home aquarium is possible. The tiny fry are a little finicky, but it’s still a fascinating introduction to breeding bubble nesting labyrinth fish! In fact, your gouramis might start nesting right in the display tank without any interference on your end. Sadly, this often ends up with the babies being eaten by their tankmates.

To make sure your grandgouramis make it to adulthood, your best bet is to set up a small (5 gal is fine) spawning tank. Fill it with (floating) plants just as you did the main aquarium and consider a small air filter for gentle cleaning action without up the babies or destroying the bubble nest.

Place the pair in the spawning tank and feed lots of nutritious live food to get them in the mood. The male will soon color up, begin trying to woo the female, and hopefully build a little bubble nest around a leaf or in the corner of the tank. The female’s belly should become round with eggs; with some luck, the male will soon coax her to the bubble nest to spawn.

Once the pair has spawned, the male will turn on the female and focus completely on raising his babies (meaning you can remove the lady at this point, allowing her to relax in the display tank). Dad will carefully collect all the eggs and place them in the bubble nest, returning any that fall out. You can remove him once the eggs hatch; cover the tank with cling film at this point to keep the humidity in for the sensitive fry.

The baby gouramis feed off their yolk sacs for the first day or two, after which you can start feeding regular small amounts of liquid fry food or home-cultured infusoria. Be sure to keep their tank very clean by regularly vacuuming it with some airline tubing! The fry can be switched to baby brine shrimp after a week or so, and you can consider your breeding attempt a success once they hit the one-month mark.

Frequently asked questions

Conclusion

If you prefer mellow and elegant over big and boisterous, you can’t go wrong with a honey gourami. Sure, it’s always been somewhat overshadowed by its dwarf gourami cousin, but still: aquarists been in love with this little golden number since it was first introduced in the hobby in the 60s. We don’t think that will change any time soon!