Three-spot gourami

Water parameters

Tolerated range for this species. Aim for the middle of each band rather than the extremes.

Tank and habitat

Substrate: any.

Behavior

Plant interaction: plant safe.

Feeding

Omnivore that eats everything: flake, pellets, frozen food, live food, blanched vegetables, algae. Not picky. Feeds at the surface and mid-water. A larger gourami with a proportionally bigger appetite; feed once or twice daily. They'll graze on algae and biofilm between meals.

Compatibility

• Larger gourami (12–15 cm) that's more assertive than honey or pearl gouramis. Males become territorial with age and harass other gouramis and slow-moving fish in the same zone.
• One male per tank is the standard advice. Two males fight. A male with 2-3 females works in a 150 L tank with plant cover. The female needs escape routes.
• Sold under multiple common names depending on color variant: blue gourami (wild-type), gold gourami (yellow morph), opaline gourami (marbled morph), and platinum gourami (pale silver). All are the same species (Trichopodus trichopterus).
• Tankmates should be robust enough to handle occasional chasing: barbs, larger tetras, catfish, loaches. Avoid very small or very timid species.

Origin and habitat

Trichopodus trichopterus, the three-spot, blue, or opaline gourami, is a large, hardy anabantoid from the fresh waters of mainland Southeast Asia, centred on the Mekong basin from southern China through Thailand and Indochina to Malaysia and Indonesia, and widely introduced elsewhere. It lives in marshes, swamps, canals, and lowland wetlands, moving into seasonally flooded forest with the rains and back to permanent water in the dry season. As a labyrinth fish it gulps air at the surface, which lets it thrive in oxygen-poor water. The common name comes from a pattern of two dark spots along each side, with the eye counted as the third. Wild fish are a plain blue-grey, but the trade is dominated by selectively bred colour forms, the blue, gold, opaline, marbled cosby, and silvery platinum varieties, all the same species. It grows to about 15 cm. Its genus has shifted over the years: larger gouramis were lumped into Trichogaster in 1923, and Derijst reinstated Trichopodus for them in 1997. It is hardy enough to be farmed as a minor food fish in its range, and IUCN lists it as Least Concern.

Breeding

A prolific bubble-nest builder. The male blows a large nest among floating plants, darkens up, and courts the female with flared fins beneath it; the spawning embrace can yield a very large clutch, well into the hundreds, far more than the small gouramis manage. He gathers the falling eggs into the nest, then guards it and turns on the female, who should be removed. The eggs hatch in about a day to a day and a half, and the tiny fry need infusoria before baby brine shrimp. Because a single spawn produces so many young and the fish is undemanding, it is bred industrially and is one of the cheapest tropical fish in the trade.

Common problems

Male aggression is the main issue, especially in tanks under about 150 litres, where a dominant male claims the upper water and chases everything that enters; gold and opaline forms are often said to be a touch calmer, but individual temperament matters more than colour. On disease, the dwarf gourami iridovirus that devastates dwarf gouramis is far less of a concern here, since the three-spot is a different, much hardier genus and not the virus's primary host, though it can occasionally pick it up when housed with infected dwarf gouramis, so mixing the two is still best avoided. Ich and bacterial infections are the usual risks. The fish is otherwise extremely tough and tolerant of poor water, which can lull keepers into neglecting maintenance, and overfeeding leads to fatty liver, so portions should be kept in check.

Bioload

Further reading

• How to cycle a fish tank
• Stocking ideas by tank size