The chocolate gourami, Sphaerichthys osphromenoides, is a small species of gourami

Gourami

Gouramis are a family, Osphronemidae, of freshwater perciform fishes. The fish are native to Asia, from Pakistan and India to the Malay Archipelago and north-easterly towards Korea. The name "gourami" is also used for fish of the families Helostomatidae and Anabantidae. "Gouramis" is an example of...

. These fish originate from the Malay Peninsula

Malay Peninsula

The Malay Peninsula or Thai-Malay Peninsula is a peninsula in Southeast Asia. The land mass runs approximately north-south and, at its terminus, is the southern-most point of the Asian mainland...

, Sumatra

Sumatra

Sumatra is an island in western Indonesia, westernmost of the Sunda Islands. It is the largest island entirely in Indonesia , and the sixth largest island in the world at 473,481 km2 with a population of 50,365,538...

 and Borneo

Borneo

Borneo is the third largest island in the world and is located north of Java Island, Indonesia, at the geographic centre of Maritime Southeast Asia....

.

Appearance and anatomy

Chocolate gouramis reach a length of 6 centimetres (2 in). These fish have a chocolate colour with golden bands running down its body.

Ecology

These fish are restricted to peat

Peat

Peat is an accumulation of partially decayed vegetation matter or histosol. Peat forms in wetland bogs, moors, muskegs, pocosins, mires, and peat swamp forests. Peat is harvested as an important source of fuel in certain parts of the world...

 habitats. Unlike many other labyrinth fish, which breed by incubating their eggs in a bubble nest

Bubble nest

Bubblenests, also spelled bubble nests or bubble-nests, created by some fish species, are floating masses of bubbles blown with an oral secretion, saliva bubbles, and occasionally aquatic plants, or an area for egg deposit attached at the bottom. Fish that build and guard bubble nests are known as...

, this species is a mouthbrooder

Mouthbrooder

Mouthbrooding, also known as oral incubation and buccal incubation, is the care given by some groups of animals to their offspring by holding them in the mouth of the parent for extended periods of time. Although mouthbrooding is performed by a variety of different animals, most notably Darwin's...

. The female incubates the eggs in her mouth. These fish are omnivorous, but feed primarily on insect

Insect

Insects are a class of living creatures within the arthropods that have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body , three pairs of jointed legs, compound eyes, and two antennae...

s.

In the aquarium

They are popular aquarium

Aquarium

An aquarium is a vivarium consisting of at least one transparent side in which water-dwelling plants or animals are kept. Fishkeepers use aquaria to keep fish, invertebrates, amphibians, marine mammals, turtles, and aquatic plants...

 fishes but they are a challenging species to keep in an aquarium. Without optimum water conditions, these fish are susceptible to bacterial infections and skin parasites.

Chocolate Gouramis are best kept on their own in well planted species aquaria with gentle filtration. They require soft, acidic water; most of all, they prefer a higher temperature than most fish. Temperature should be maintained at 25–27°C (77–81°F). They are generally fussy eaters, preferring to eat live foods or freeze-dried, frozen equivalents over flake food.