Care
A beautiful peaceful species suitable for community aquariums and a good choice for those seeking a contrast to small, shoaling tank mates. In the wild, these fish would be found amongst areas of slow-moving waters with heavy vegetation, and so to emulate this, the aquarium should be well-planted and with a gentle water flow. At first sight, this fish may seem rather plain compared to its smaller relatives but once settled into a well-planted aquarium the males will start to develop some beautiful barring reminiscent of wild Dwarf gouramis. Perhaps it was in regard to this that they earned the common name of Giant gourami - probably from people who hadn't encountered the enormous Osphronemus that really deserve this epithet. In order to avoid ending up with a fish over 60cm long, we try to stick to the alternative. There seems to be a little confusion between this fish and the closely related Thick-lipped gourami T. labiosa, with imported fish sometimes showing intermediate characteristics. Time will tell if there are undescribed species involved, a massive amount of regional variation or even natural hybridisation at play. Male Banded gouramis possess a pointed anal fin, which is rounded in Thick-lipped gouramis.
Recent research has determined that this fish is not the real Trichogaster fasciata, meaning that two very well established binomials are changing and the very popular Dwarf gourami should now be known as T. fasciata instead.
Feeding
Flake, green flake, frozen foods such as mosquito larvae, daphnia and brineshrimp.
Breeding
Your pair should be brought into condition by feeding with a mixture of frozen foods. They should then be moved to a shallow breeding tank filtered by a small air-driven sponge filter which will give a minimal flow rate and pose no risk of breaking up the bubblenest when constructed by the male. Spawning will occur beneath the bubblenest, with the male wrapping his body around the females in an embrace with much shaking. A huge number of eggs will be released, numbering between 500-1000, and after fertilisation, will float up into the bubblenest. Any that stray wide will be herded into the safety of the nest by the male. The male does become very aggressive at this point as he begins guarding his nest, and the female should be carefully netted out and acclimatised back to the main aquarium. The eggs should begin to hatch after 24 hours or so, at which time the male should also be removed. The fry are tiny and will need to be offered appropriately sized first foods such as infusoria. After a couple of weeks, they can be moved onto finely powdered dry foods and baby brineshrimp. It is of extreme importance to maintain a warm layer of air between the surface of the water and the coverslides at all times whilst the fry are developing their labyrinth organ, critical during the first few weeks of their life.
