12 Beautiful Types of Gourami for Your Fish Tank

If you ask a hundred aquarists to make a list of the most iconic species in the freshwater fishkeeping hobby, you’re guaranteed to get a hundred mentions of various gouramis. These elegant fish have been used to add movement and color to the upper water layer of our tanks for as long as we’ve been keeping critters in glass boxes!

We’ve kept many species of gourami over the years and still haven’t really managed to pick a favorite. But here’s our best attempt anyway: let’s have a look at twelve gouramis you might come across at your local aquarium store, what kind of aquarium they need, who they get along with, and how to make sure they thrive in your home.

Let’s dive in!

What’s a gourami, anyway?

The name “gourami” was derived from the similar words many Southeast Asian languages (Malay, Javanese, Tagalog) originally used for a large food fish now known as the giant gourami (see the bottom of this post). Spelled graméh, gurame, gurami, or similar, it was westernized as gourami and expanded to refer to an entire family of similar fish.

The gourami family, which contains fifteen or so genera and 130+ species — you can never quite put an exact number on this because ichthyologists are always discovering new fish and moving old ones around — is known as the Osphronemidae. They belong to the overarching order Anabantiformes, the labyrinth fish, making them closely related to the equally iconic Betta fish.

The “labyrinth” thing refers to the labyrinth organ that sets these fish apart from all others. It’s a highly folded (labyrinth-like) extension of the gills that allows the Anabantiformes to breathe air! This comes in might handy when you live in small bodies of water that inevitably becomes mucky and oxygen-starved during the dry season.

Aside from their wacky air-breathing superpower, most types of gourami have a few other things in common with each other:

• They are native to Asia, especially Southeast Asian countries. Here, they live in slow-moving rivers, swamps, and paddies with dense vegetation.
• They’re generally “leaf-shaped”, with flat, deep bodies and a small upturned mouth.
• Their pelvic fins are extended into long “feelers”. These are sensory organs they use to navigate murky water or communicate with each other — you might spot yours seemingly feeling each other up.
• They take very good care of their young. The males build floating raft nests made of bubbles (“bubble nest”) and carefully tend to their babies until they can fend for themselves.
• They’re territorial, but in the aquarium they’re also easily cowed or stressed by overly active tankmates. They do best solo or in mellow communities.

Now that we know what a gourami actually is, let’s move on to meeting a few of our protagonists. Here are twelve of our favorite types of gouramis.

FantaSEA’s 12 favorite types of gourami

Honey Gourami (Trichogaster chuna)

Let’s start off strong. When it comes to the entire package of ease of care (beginner-proof ✅), temperament (not too feisty or overly skittish ✅), suitability for smaller aquariums (2″ adult length ✅) and good looks (reflective gold ✅), we think the humble honey gourami beats the rest of the bunch. We’ve got a winner!

Sure, the males are still territorial, and all gouramis need mellow tankmates — that’s just how the anabantoids work. But if you’ve never had a labyrinth fish before and want to try one in your community aquarium, the honey gourami might just be the best species to start with.

You can keep a honey gourami pair in an aquarium of 10 gallons or up, while a trio or small harem should work well in >15 gallons. Because they don’t stress as easily as some other gouramis, your fish should get along just fine with a wide range of peaceful (no nippers please) tankmates.

Tip: In smaller aquariums, we like to reserve the entire top water layer for the gouramis. This helps to keep the tank balanced and squabble-free.

Dwarf Gourami (Trichogaster lalius, formerly Colisa lalia)

The honey gourami has many virtues, but when it comes to looks, the dwarf gourami beats it. This little labyrinth fish has been a staple — a commodity, even — in the aquarium hobby for so long we almost forget how beautiful it really is. Truly one of the most eye-catching freshwater fish for the upper water layer, which is arguably the most difficult part of an aquarium to stock!

The downside? Popularity can come at a cost, and dwarf gouramis seem to have paid the price more than any of their cousins. Aquarists have complained for years that the mass-produced fish in the aquarium trade are weak from inbreeding and being treated like cheap disposables. In our experience health issues are especially common in extreme morphs like “balloon” gouramis, which of course are really just deformed fish sold under a fancy name.

Although all this doesn’t mean you should avoid dwarf gouramis entirely, it can be a good idea to skip the more exotic variations. Wild-type fish are beautifully colored and much more likely to be as hardy as older sources describe.

If you’d like to know more before adding one to your tank, don’t forget to check out our full dwarf gourami care guide!

Pearl Gourami (Trichopodus leerii)

Here’s another “stop in your tracks” fish, this one a little larger than dwarf gouramis: the polka-dotted, multicolored pearl gourami. All gouramis have a certain elegance to them thanks to their slow swimming style and long, trailing feelers, but this one is straight-up regal. We particularly like its unusually long, veil-like fins.

The great thing about pearl gouramis is that they can back up their looks with a hardy, flexible disposition and friendly nature. As long as you don’t keep two males together, they’ll do well in all sorts of peaceful community aquariums.

Aquarists don’t quite agree on the minimum tank size for pearl gouramis. Is 30 gallons enough, or should you go for 40? We think the former works, but in our opinion, the latter will really allow these fish to shine. Aquarists sometimes describe their pearls as shy or always hiding, but they’ll really come out of their shell in larger, densely planted systems.

Chocolate Gourami (Sphaerichthys osphromenoides)

If you’ve got some aquarium experience and are looking for a special fish to build a tank around, may we offer you a gourami that’s made looking like a floating leaf into a full-time job? It may not be as flashy as a pearl gourami, but seeing some serious camouflage in action is still pretty cool.

Chocolate gouramis don’t do well in the average community tank and are fussier about water parameters than many of the other fish on this list. Softness in particular is a must, as is a stable, lower pH level than many of us are used to. The good news? These fish give you the perfect opportunity to set up a beautiful Southeast Asian peat swamp biotope. Bring on the blackwater, one of our favorite aquarium types!

Unlike most other labyrinth fish, chocolate gouramis are best kept in groups of at least 6–8 fish. It’s not that they get along all the time, because they don’t — but keeping more fish means aggression is diffused and no one member of the group is singled out. It also allows you to observe all sorts of interesting aspects of gourami domestic life, especially when the males spar and show off for the females during breeding time.

Samurai Gourami (Sphaerichthys vaillanti)

Okay, okay. We know not a lot of people are going to opt for Sphaerichthys gouramis. Their needs are just too specific and they don’t get along with most popular community fish. But they’re so beautiful and interesting it’s hard to resist including them — and this is an exploration of our favorite gouramis, after all, not a popularity contest. 😉

If you liked the chocolate gourami, you’ll love its more colorful samurai cousin (and if you manage to keep one successfully, you’ll probably also be able to keep the other without much issue). Samurai gouramis keep the leaf-like look, but add beautiful vertical three-colored bars of cherry red, metallic powder blue, and blueish-black.

As with other Sphaerichthys, you’ll need to imitate a peat swamp if you really want your samurai gourami to thrive. It doesn’t technically have to be blackwater — these fish also pop up in clearwater habitats in the wild — but it should be soft and acidic. You’ll want to keep the light nice and dim, working with an abundance of leaf litter and other tree debris but keeping the live plants to a minimum to make your samurai feel like home.

Licorice Gourami (Parosphromenus deissneri)

If you liked the two Sphaerichthys gouramis we discussed above, you’ve just found another perfect candidate — our apologies if this makes choosing a favorite even more difficult. Like their chocolate and samurai cousins, licorice gouramis are somewhat sensitive and stress easily. They don’t do well in the average community tank, but we think they’re more than worth setting up some private digs for.

The great thing about licorice gourami-only aquariums is that they really don’t need to be very large. These fish are truly tiny, meaning a pair can do well in something as small as a 10-gallon; they can keep you company on your desk while you work. We can attest to this making the Mondays a lot more bearable, though not necessarily more productive.

Your licorice gouramis will do best in a blackwater set-up with plenty of leaf litter and dim lighting. Don’t worry about never being able to see them, though. The tea-stained water somehow makes the males’ beautiful blue fin edges pop more, not less!

Sparkling Gourami (Trichopsis pumila)

One more nano option before we go big: meet the smallest gourami on our list! The sparkling gourami proves that when it comes to beauty and personality, size isn’t everything. It really does seem to sparkle in beautiful shades of greenish-blue, and you’ll never be bored with one of these pocket rockets in your tank.

A pair or small harem of sparkling gouramis makes an excellent choice for single-species nano systems, and they’re among our favorite choices for planted desktop tanks (though admittedly, we say that about everything). They’ll also do well in tranquil community set-ups with mellow tankmates like dwarf rasboras. Like most gouramis, they’ll appreciate an aquarium with lots of live plants, somewhat dim lighting, and the filter flow level set to low.

Fascinatingly, this is a fish you can actually hear. All members of the genus Trichopsis make audible noises that we can only describe as “croaking” or “purring”. They do it to express their emotions, like when confronted with a rival or potential mate, but also around sundown seemingly simply because they can. Luckily, it’s not loud enough to be annoying — just interesting.

Tip: If you like the tiny sparkling gourami, the genus Trichopsis has more to offer you. Check out the croaking gourami (T. vittata) for more nano gourami goodness!

Three-Spot Gourami (Trichopodus trichopterus)

Let’s move from the smallest gourami on the list to something a little more substantial. It’s a good thing three-spot gouramis are on the larger side, because that means there’s more of those beautiful colors to enjoy!

The wild form of this species is actually a mottled and dotted brown, kind of chocolate gourami meets pearl gourami, but apparently it’s easy to selectively breed for color — we know of at least five different varieties on the market.

Pictured above is a morph known as “opaline”, but these fish also come in blue (opaline minus the stripes, but add the spots they were named for), cosby (opaline with more dramatic dark striping), lavender (dusty reddish-grey) silver with or without dots, and gold with or without stripes (often just called “gold gourami”, don’t let ’em fool you!).

One thing to keep in mind about three-spot gouramis is that with great size also comes great territoriality, not to mention the need for a sizeable tank. In our experience, there are two things that really help in keeping the peace: getting one male three-spot gourami with 2–3 females, and keeping them with tankmates that won’t get in their way, like bottom-dwelling loaches and catfish.

Moonlight Gourami (Trichopodus microlepis)

We hope you’ve got your sunglasses on hand, because “moonlight” doesn’t quite cover how bright this gourami shines when the light hits it — we’re inclined to call it the quicksilver gourami instead. This species’ extraordinary fluid shininess is caused by its particularly small scales (hence the scientific name, as “lepis” refers to flakes or scales in Ancient Greek), which shimmer and shine every time the fish moves.

The moonlight gourami isn’t the easiest species to find in your local aquarium store. This is likely because it’s more active and grows bigger than dwarf or honey gouramis. But if you can find one and can offer enough space, this one’s more than worth bringing home. It’s not just shiny, but also — aside from other gouramis, which generally loathe each other — a polite addition to the community aquarium and hardy enough to be beginner-proof.

Moonlight gouramis come with only one serious disadvantage: they’re known to have a taste for soft and fine-leaved plants. Luckily, this is easy enough to resolve by only growing tougher plants like Anubias or Java fern.

Snakeskin Gourami (Trichopodus pectoralis)

Three-spot and moonlight gouramis still too small for you? Don’t worry, they’re only going to get bigger from here on out! Snakeskin gouramis are already large enough to be considered an apparently delicious food item in their native Southeast Asia. Since they’re not very common in the USA, however, we’ll keep them swimming in our tanks, thank you very much.

As a rule, fish will eat anything that fits into their mouths. Given this species’ size, this means very small tankmates (dwarf rasboras, slow-moving guppies, etc.) may be at risk, as are shrimp. Aside from this, snakeskins are actually a breeze to keep: they’re not nearly as territorial as something like a three-spot and will get along with most other peaceful fish species.

You should also keep tank size in mind. Don’t be fooled by sources recommending 20-gallon aquariums for snakeskin gouramis — you’re looking at something at least three times that volume, preferably more. Like most gouramis, snakeskins will thrive on a varied diet containing both protein and some plant matter.

Kissing Gourami (Helostoma temminckii)

Some experienced aquarists instantly roll their eyes when they hear the kissing gourami mentioned. It’s hard not to: the cute “kissy fish” has gotten so many people in trouble after an impulse buy that you’d almost want it to be banned from pet stores (or at least come with a very large disclaimer).

To clarify, this gourami’s “adorable” kissing behavior is not an expression of love. It’s the way the males spar, and you shouldn’t keep two males together unless you want them to stress each other to death. Also, those manageable-looking little fish at your local aquarium store? Those are babies. They will reach up to 12″ in length in a surprisingly short time. And to top it all off, kissing gouramis are bad-tempered and territorial — few other species will get along with them.

If you’re an experienced aquarist with space for a very roomy tank and would like to keep a pair of kissing gouramis so you can observe their fascinating behavior, we’d say: go right ahead. If you’re looking for a romantic gift or a beginner fish, though, you’re probably better off choosing one of the other species on this list.

BONUS: Giant gourami (Osphronemus goramy)

People in Southeast Asia, where the giant gourami is native to, might give you an odd look if you say you keep a giant gourami in your aquarium. Those belong on your plate, preferably deep-fried, with a little lime juice and lots of chili peppers! This being said, these gargantuan gouramis can also make fascinating pets — as long as you can offer them the space they need.

We’re including the giant gourami in this list as a bit of a gag (and because we’d love to be commissioned for a giant gourami tank, hint hint!). If you do actually have an interest in monster fish, though they actually make a better choice than some of the other species on offer. At least their 20″ adult size isn’t nearly as large as some of the other tank-busters commonly sold to unwitting aquarists, like catfish.

Many giant gourami owners report their fish bursting with puppy-like personality. They’re flexible in terms of water parameters and can get along well with larger-sized tankmates, though their massive waste output does mean a big filtration system and regular maintenance are essential. Feeding shouldn’t be a problem, as these omnivores will eat anything from worms to plants (including aquarium plants, unfortunately).

If you’d like to keep a giant gourami, don’t fall into the trap of starting out with a small aquarium and vague ideas of upgrading later. These fish grow faster than you think and switching tanks is stressful for both gourami and owner. If you’re going to do it, we recommend going all in and starting out big — your fish will grow into its home before you know it.

Conclusion

There really is a gourami for everyone — and we mean everyone. From the itty bitty sparkling gourami to the tank-busting kissing gourami (not to mention the giant gourami, which really is for crazy people only), the Osphronemidae cover the entire range from desktop tanks to indoor ponds.

Which of the over 130 types of gourami are you going for? Let us know in the comments!