rm
Passport
- Family
- Dwarf Gouramis
- Grows to
- 4 cm (1.6")
- Lives
- 3–5 years
- Temperament
- Peaceful
- Care
- Advanced
- Swims
- On the bottom
- Keep
- In a group of 2 or more
- Water
- 22–28 °C (72–82 °F)
Indonesia
Care requirements
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On record for Licorice Gourami: adult size, lifespan, minimum tank, temperature, ph, hardness, minimum group, diet, care level, swim level, tank length.
A figure that is not on record is left out rather than guessed. One marked Suggested comes from keeping knowledge rather than a page.
- Minimum tank 38 L / 10.0 US gal
- pH 3–6.5
- Hardness 1–4 dGH
- Diet micropredator
- Tank length 40 cm minimum
Care notes written from general aquarium knowledge, not from the cited sources.
About
Licorice gouramis are a specialist's fish and there's no soft way to say it. They need water softer and more acidic than almost anything else in this catalogue, they refuse most prepared food, and they will not survive in an ordinary community tank.
Get it right and they're remarkable. A displaying male turns near-black with brilliant horizontal bands of cream and iridescent blue, and he holds a territory the size of a teacup, flaring at rivals from inside it.
They come from peat swamp forests in Southeast Asia, where the water is stained almost black, extraordinarily acidic and carries virtually no dissolved minerals. Those swamps are disappearing, which makes several species in the genus genuinely threatened.
Tank setup
Build a blackwater tank and don't compromise. Reverse osmosis water re-acidified with botanicals, a deep bed of leaf litter, wood, almost no light. This is the entry requirement rather than a refinement.
Give them small caves. Half a coconut shell, a short length of narrow pipe, a gap in the leaf litter — males spawn inside them and each male needs one.
Keep the surface still and the tank covered but not airtight. They're labyrinth fish and they need warm humid air above the water.
Keep them alone or with nothing but very small, very quiet blackwater fish. A species tank is the honest recommendation.
Let the tank mature thoroughly before they go in.
Feeding
Licorice gouramis are micropredators and most will not touch dried food.
Feed live and frozen almost exclusively: baby brine shrimp, daphnia, cyclops, grindal worm, microworm. Live food is what settles a newly imported fish.
Feed small amounts often. Their capacity is tiny and uneaten food in an acidic, lightly filtered tank causes problems quickly.
Avoid: flake and pellets, which they generally ignore, and avoid any expectation that they'll adapt to convenience foods.
Filtration and flow
Use an air-driven sponge filter and keep the flow almost imperceptible.
Be extremely careful with water changes. Water this soft has essentially no buffering capacity, so a mismatched change moves the chemistry violently. Small, frequent and matched is the rule.
Keep the temperature moderate and utterly steady.
With plants
Licorice gouramis are safe with plants, and the constraint is that almost nothing grows in the conditions they need.
Java moss, java fern and cryptocorynes are about the limit under that little light and that much tannin. Floating plants help shade the tank further.
Leaf litter is the real furnishing. It provides cover, chemistry and the micro-life the fry depend on.
Health
They're fragile on import and reasonably hardy once established in correct water, which is a narrow definition of hardy.
Nearly every loss is a chemistry problem. A fish hanging listlessly near the surface after a water change has been shocked rather than infected.
They're vulnerable to breathing cold air. Keep the tank covered so the layer above the water stays warm and humid.
Breeding
Males are cave spawners and mouthbrooders, which is an unusual combination. The pair spawns inside a small cave, and the male then takes the eggs into his mouth and holds them.
He carries the brood for a couple of weeks, eating nothing, and releases fully formed fry. He'll be visibly hollow and swollen-jawed throughout.
Fry need infusoria and then baby brine shrimp, and they need the same extreme water the adults do. Success here is a real achievement and the main reason anyone keeps the genus.
Tank mates
Avoid9
- Convict Cichlid Convict Cichlid grows to 15 cm against Licorice Gourami at 4 cm, big enough to eat it.
- Jewel Cichlid Jewel Cichlid grows to 15 cm against Licorice Gourami at 4 cm, big enough to eat it.
- Pictus Catfish Pictus Catfish grows to 12 cm against Licorice Gourami at 4 cm, big enough to eat it.
- Common Goldfish Common Goldfish is not safe with Licorice Gourami: common goldfish and dwarf gouramis are a bad pairing.
- Demasoni Cichlid Demasoni Cichlid is not safe with Licorice Gourami: african cichlids and dwarf gouramis are a bad pairing.
Only with care21
- Chinese Algae Eater Chinese Algae Eater is aggressive and Licorice Gourami is peaceful.
- Amano Shrimp Licorice Gourami is a risk to Amano Shrimp: dwarf gouramis and shrimp and yabbies are a pairing to watch.
- Angelfish Angelfish is a risk to Licorice Gourami: angelfish and dwarf gouramis are a pairing to watch.
- Bala Shark Bala Shark is a risk to Licorice Gourami: dwarf gouramis and sharks are a pairing to watch.
- Bamboo Shrimp Licorice Gourami is a risk to Bamboo Shrimp: dwarf gouramis and shrimp and yabbies are a pairing to watch.
No conflict is recorded with the other 74 species in the database, so nothing to flag. 4 species are not covered at all, so they could not be judged either way.