Gold Gourami

1 Gold Gourami Overview

The Gold Gourami has a golden body and is a distinctive ornamental fish. Its temperament is gentle and it can be mixed with other tropical fish. Unusually, it can live in oxygen-poor water thanks to its auxiliary breathing organ, the labyrinth.

Chinese name: Gold Gourami

Foreign name: Gold Gourami

Origin: Thailand, Malaysia

Body length: up to 14 cm

2 Appearance

The Gold Gourami’s special trait is its auxiliary breathing organ, the labyrinth, which lets it live in oxygen-poor water—its most distinctive feature.

The body is elongate-oval and compressed, with a shallowly forked caudal fin, reaching 14 cm. The body is golden, the eyes red, and the fins silvery white covered with golden spots, shimmering under light. The pelvic fins have evolved into filamentous tendrils. The temperament is gentle and it mixes with other similarly gentle, similar-sized tropical fish; it is not demanding about water.

3 Habitat

The Gold Gourami is not demanding about water; thanks to its labyrinth it survives in low oxygen. But many keepers try to breed it, and breeding water conditions are stricter.

The Gold Gourami is a variant of the Blue Gourami. Keep at 20–27°C; water demands are low. It has an auxiliary breathing organ and can breathe at the surface when oxygen is low. Breeding temperature is 26–27°C; fish mature at 6 months. Males show bright nuptial colors with an elongated dorsal tip; sexing is easy. It is a bubble-nest egg-layer; float a few plants, the male blows a foam nest, and the eggs float in it. Each female lays 500–1000 eggs.

4 Feeding

The Gold Gourami is gentle and mixes with other similarly gentle, similar-sized tropical fish. Water demands are not strict; what about feeding?

It is omnivorous and accepts many foods, favoring live foods such as daphnia, and also dry pellets and even small live fry (without chasing ones it cannot swallow). To breed successfully, feed live daphnia or fry for over a month beforehand.