The Kissing Gourami is generally a tolerant species but males may occasionally fight by pressing their lips together (i.e. kissing). Unfortunately the kissing has nothing to do with romance!
They are a hardy fish and will tolerate a range of water conditions. They do need a lot of space with access to the surface, warm water and plenty of vegetation. They are useful at helping to keep a tank clean as they will happily browse on algae that grows on the rocks and glass.
Species – Kissing Gourami - Helostoma Temmincki
Current Size – 4.5cm - 5cm
Adult Length – 15cm
Temperature Range – 22 - 30°C
pH Range – 6.0– 8.0
Special Requirements - The Kissing Gourami loves plants and will try to eat every live plant that you put in there, so plastic plants are often the best option. Java fern and Java moss will also work. They are part of the Anabantoids (Labyrinth fish) and require surface area to breath as well and oxygen in the water.
Tanks Mates and Compatibility – Suitable only for the larger community set-up alongside other robust fishes. Since it isn’t able to predate anything larger than a few mm in length groups of active, schooling cyprinids can be included and in larger set-ups suitably-sized catfishes, characins, cichlids, mastacembelids and other anabantoids are normally ignored provided sufficient space is available.
Feeding – In the aquarium healthy specimens will thus appear to be ‘mouthing’ almost constantly as they draw in water to filter it for food particles and spend much of their time rasping algae-covered surfaces if available.
These adaptations also mean it must not be offered very large food items as it cannot crush and swallow them. Most good quality flake foods are fine since they’re soft and easily broken-down, and smaller-grade pelleted products are usually accepted as well. Small live and/or frozen foods such as chironomid larvae (bloodworm), Tubifex, Artemia, mosquito larvae, etc. should also be offered on a regular basis and at least some of the dried products should contain a high proportion of vegetable matter such as Spirulina or similar.
We recommend:
Please note – Some images used are library photos and will show the colour potential at a fully mature size, as our fish are juveniles they may vary.
We always aim to supply the fish as close to the purchase size as possible. On rare occasions if this is not possible we will contact you.
The fish are selected at random however you are welcome to make a note on the order and the fish manager will do his best for you, requests are dependent on stock at the time of your order.
