Pearl
Gourami Fact Sheet
The Pearl Gourami, Trichogaster
leeri, is also called the Lace Gourami and the Mosaic Gourami, and
sometimes the Red Breasted Gourami. It
is native to Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia. It has been introduced to Colombia, The Philippines and Taiwan.
Length and
Longevity
The Pearl Gourami can grow to about 12 centimetres (4½
inches) long. It will live for up to 8
years.
Water
Conditions
This fish comes from tropical countries, and it needs
warm water. A temperature of between 24
and 28 degrees C (75- 83 degrees F) is suitable. They come from soft acid water, but the
adults are moderately adaptable and a pH of between 6.0 and 7.5 with a dH of up
to 19 is all right for maintaining them.
Plants
This fish comes from still or sluggishly moving water
bodies with a lot of plants in, so at least part of their aquarium needs to
have a lot of plants. Ideally these
should include floating plants.
Breathing
The Pearl Gourami is a labyrinth fish and can breathe
air as well as water, so it needs access to the air. It is better if the air is of a similar
temperature to the water and is humid, so the tank should be well covered.
Food
The Pearl Gourami is an easily fed omnivore. It will eat all common fish foods. Its diet should include foods of both animal
origin like live or frozen bloodworms, daphnia or brine shrimp, and also things
a vegetable origin like algae wafers, lettuce or lightly cooked zucchini.
Hydra
Although the most popular fish for eating Hydra is the Blue Gourami, Pearl Gouramis also eat it readily. Pearl Gouramis are smaller and more peaceful
than Blue Gouramis and are sometimes kept in tanks as small as 60 Litres (15 US
gallons), so there are circumstances where the Pearl Gourami would be the fish
of choice to get rid of hydra.
Bruising
The Pearl Gourami has a soft body and care needs to be
taken when handling this fish.
Companions
The Pearl Gourami is a very peaceful fish which is
often, but not always, shy. It can
safely be put with fish smaller than itself although I would not put it with
fish as small as Neon Tetras, but most of the more peaceful tetras are suitable
companions as well as all the corydoras catfish like the Bronze Catfish.
You need to avoid fish that nip fins or are large and
aggressive.
Sexing
When they are in breeding condition the male and
females are easy to tell apart because the male gets a bright red breast. The males also have a longer and more pointed
dorsal fin.
When in breeding condition the females are plumper
than the males.
Breeding
To condition them for breeding, the parents to be
should be very well fed, including rich foods like frozen bloodworms.
The babies are small and it is not likely that the
parents will be able to breed successfully with any other fish in the tank.
The breeding tank normally is about kept at about 27
degrees C (80 degrees F), with soft, slightly acidic water. Normally the water level is lowered to about
15 centimetres (6 inches)
Nest
The male Pearl Gourami builds a bubble nest. It builds a fairly large bubble nest, and
sometimes will spit sand grains into its nest.
Spawning
The male will encourage the female to go under the
nest. He wraps his body round his mate
and she releases hundreds of floating eggs while he fertilizes them. It is safer to remove the female after
spawning is complete. The male looks
after the nest until the eggs hatch; the babies will be free swimming in about
4 days. The male should then be removed.
Raising the
Fry
The babies are very small and will need to eat microscopic
food like green water and infusoria for about two weeks. After that they can eat visible food like
live or frozen, newly hatched brine shrimp, finely screened daphnia etc. These live foods can be supplemented with
commercial fry food.
Frequent careful partial water changes are necessary
to avoid the build up of wastes that can wipe out the whole batch of fry. I recommend a sponge filter while the babies
are small.
Common Names
In English, apart from being called the Pearl Gourami,
this fish is referred to as the Lace Gourami, Mosaic Gourami Leeri Gourami or
Diamond Gourami.
In French it is Le Gourami Perlé, Le Gourami lerry or Le Gourami Mosaïque.
In Mandarin Chinese it is 珍珠毛足鲈 or 珍珠毛足鱸.
Sources
Fishbase.
