Care
The Thick-lipped Gourami is a peaceful species ideal for quiet community aquaria. In the wild, these fish would be found amongst heavy vegetation in the slower reaches of rivers, and so to emulate this, the aquarium should be well-planted and with a gentle water flow. Although they'll adapt to most conditions, Thick-lipped Gouramis will be seen at their best in softwater aquaria, where their striking colours become very impressive. Given sufficient space and plenty of cover, males can be kept together with minimal aggression. As with most gouramis it's best to outnumber them with females.
In addition to the standard wild type, a couple of different colour strains are available: the Orange variety and the Red Robin variety. All can be mixed with the proviso that males of the normal and orange forms will often dominate the smaller red ones.
There seems to be a little confusion between this fish and the closely related Banded gourami T. bejeus (previously fasciata), 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 Thick-lipped gouramis can be distinguished from Banded gouramis by their rounded anal fin, which is pointed in bejeus.
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 planted breeding tank (include floating species) 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. Up to 600 eggs will be released/fertilised, and these 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 quite 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 24-36 hours, at which time the male should also be removed. The fry are tiny and usually start to become free swimming after a further 48 hours 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.
