See also: Croaking gourami

Croaking gourami

The croaking gourami, Trichopsis vittata, is a species of small freshwater labyrinth fish of the gourami family. They are native to still waters in Southeast Asia and are distributed worldwide via the aquarium trade...

 (Trichopsis vittata), which is often confused with the pygmy gourami .

The pygmy gourami (Trichopsis pumila) is a tropical freshwater

Freshwater

Fresh water is naturally occurring water on the Earth's surface in ice sheets, ice caps, glaciers, bogs, ponds, lakes, rivers and streams, and underground as groundwater in aquifers and underground streams. Fresh water is generally characterized by having low concentrations of dissolved salts and...

 fish

Fish

Fish are a paraphyletic group of organisms that consist of all gill-bearing aquatic vertebrate animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish, as well as various extinct related groups...

 belonging to the Trichopsis

Trichopsis

Trichopsis is a gourami genus.-Species:Species within the genus are:*Sparkling gourami, Trichopsis pumila*Croaking gourami, Trichopsis vittata*Threestripe gourami, Trichopsis schalleri-Importance to humans:...

 genus in the family (Osphronemidae). It is native to Southeast Asia, and is found in Thailand

Thailand

Thailand , officially the Kingdom of Thailand , formerly known as Siam , is a country located at the centre of the Indochina peninsula and Southeast Asia. It is bordered to the north by Burma and Laos, to the east by Laos and Cambodia, to the south by the Gulf of Thailand and Malaysia, and to the...

, Laos

Laos

Laos Lao: ສາທາລະນະລັດ ປະຊາທິປະໄຕ ປະຊາຊົນລາວ Sathalanalat Paxathipatai Paxaxon Lao, officially the Lao People's Democratic Republic, is a landlocked country in Southeast Asia, bordered by Burma and China to the northwest, Vietnam to the east, Cambodia to the south and Thailand to the west...

, Peninsular Malaysia

Peninsular Malaysia

Peninsular Malaysia , also known as West Malaysia , is the part of Malaysia which lies on the Malay Peninsula. Its area is . It shares a land border with Thailand in the north. To the south is the island of Singapore. Across the Strait of Malacca to the west lies the island of Sumatra...

, and Indonesia

Indonesia

Indonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an...

.

Physical description

Pygmy Gourami grow no larger than 4 cm long, sparkle with red

Red

Red is any of a number of similar colors evoked by light consisting predominantly of the longest wavelengths of light discernible by the human eye, in the wavelength range of roughly 630–740 nm. Longer wavelengths than this are called infrared , and cannot be seen by the naked eye...

, green

Green

Green is a color, the perception of which is evoked by light having a spectrum dominated by energy with a wavelength of roughly 520–570 nanometres. In the subtractive color system, it is not a primary color, but is created out of a mixture of yellow and blue, or yellow and cyan; it is considered...

, and blue

Blue

Blue is a colour, the perception of which is evoked by light having a spectrum dominated by energy with a wavelength of roughly 440–490 nm. It is considered one of the additive primary colours. On the HSV Colour Wheel, the complement of blue is yellow; that is, a colour corresponding to an equal...

 hues, and can produce an audible croaking noise. In the right light, its eyes appear bright blue, and its arrowhead-shaped body and caudal fins reflect a rainbow of colors as it swims. Sexing is difficult, but males have red spots above the "body line" or the stripe through their body, and females spots are duller.

Habitat

Its native habitat is slow river

River

A river is a natural watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing towards an ocean, a lake, a sea, or another river. In a few cases, a river simply flows into the ground or dries up completely before reaching another body of water. Small rivers may also be called by several other names, including...

s, rice paddies

Paddy field

A paddy field is a flooded parcel of arable land used for growing rice and other semiaquatic crops. Paddy fields are a typical feature of rice farming in east, south and southeast Asia. Paddies can be built into steep hillsides as terraces and adjacent to depressed or steeply sloped features such...

, ditch

Ditch

A ditch is usually defined as a small to moderate depression created to channel water.In Anglo-Saxon, the word dïc already existed and was pronounced 'deek' in northern England and 'deetch' in the south. The origins of the word lie in digging a trench and forming the upcast soil into a bank...

es and small pond

Pond

A pond is a body of standing water, either natural or man-made, that is usually smaller than a lake. A wide variety of man-made bodies of water are classified as ponds, including water gardens, water features and koi ponds; all designed for aesthetic ornamentation as landscape or architectural...

s. It is most commonly found in standing not stagnant water (including waters with low oxygen levels) that has a dense cover of floating plants

Aquatic plant

Aquatic plants are plants that have adapted to living in aquatic environments. They are also referred to as hydrophytes or aquatic macrophytes. These plants require special adaptations for living submerged in water, or at the water's surface. Aquatic plants can only grow in water or in soil that is...

. Its native habitat has a pH

PH

In chemistry, pH is a measure of the acidity or basicity of an aqueous solution. Pure water is said to be neutral, with a pH close to 7.0 at . Solutions with a pH less than 7 are said to be acidic and solutions with a pH greater than 7 are basic or alkaline...

 of 6.0 - 7.5, dH

Hard water

Hard water is water that has high mineral content . Hard water has high concentrations of Ca2+ and Mg2+ ions. Hard water is generally not harmful to one's health but can pose serious problems in industrial settings, where water hardness is monitored to avoid costly breakdowns in boilers, cooling...

 of 5 - 19, and temperature 25°C to 28°C (77°F to 83°F). It feeds on zooplankton

Zooplankton

Zooplankton are heterotrophic plankton. Plankton are organisms drifting in oceans, seas, and bodies of fresh water. The word "zooplankton" is derived from the Greek zoon , meaning "animal", and , meaning "wanderer" or "drifter"...

 and aquatic 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.

Name origins

This fish was originally named Ctenops pumilus by J.P. Arnold in 1936. It is also referred to with a variety of common names, including sparkling gourami, purring gourami, dwarf croaking gourami, and green croaking gourami. The word "pumilus" means "small", or "dwarf", and is pronounced POO-mil-us.

In the aquarium

The pygmy gourami is hardy and tolerant of less-than-ideal water conditions in the tank. It is important to avoid any strong currents

Fluid dynamics

In physics, fluid dynamics is a sub-discipline of fluid mechanics that deals with fluid flow—the natural science of fluids in motion. It has several subdisciplines itself, including aerodynamics and hydrodynamics...

 in the aquarium and need plenty of hiding places; a heavily planted

Aquatic plant

Aquatic plants are plants that have adapted to living in aquatic environments. They are also referred to as hydrophytes or aquatic macrophytes. These plants require special adaptations for living submerged in water, or at the water's surface. Aquatic plants can only grow in water or in soil that is...

 tank with subdued lighting would be ideal. They require some space between the top of the water and the tank cover from which to gulp air. Preferred water conditions include a temperature of 25°C (76°F) or above, and a pH

PH

In chemistry, pH is a measure of the acidity or basicity of an aqueous solution. Pure water is said to be neutral, with a pH close to 7.0 at . Solutions with a pH less than 7 are said to be acidic and solutions with a pH greater than 7 are basic or alkaline...

 of less than 7.

While these are not schooling

Shoaling and schooling

In biology, any group of fish that stay together for social reasons are said to be shoaling , and if, in addition, the group is swimming in the same direction in a coordinated manner, they are said to be schooling . In common usage, the terms are sometimes used rather loosely...

 fish, they can usually be kept peacefully in small groups. Keep in mind that they will not compete well for food with aggressive tankmates, nor will it cope well with constant harassment. Notoriously nippy fish such as tiger barb

Tiger barb

The tiger barb or Sumatra barb, is a species of tropical freshwater fish belonging to the Puntius genus of the minnow family. The natural geographic range reportedly extends throughout the Malay Peninsula, Sumatra and Borneo, with unsubstantiated sightings reported in Cambodia...

s or large danio

Danio

The Danio genus comprises many of the species of danionins familiar to aquarists. The common name "danio" is used for members of the genera Danio and Devario.-Taxonomy:...

s are poor choices for tank companions. Because of their small size, pygmy gouramis are an ideal choice for smaller aquaria. They will be targeted by male Bettas so they should not be kept with them.

They are not finicky about food, and will readily accept flake foods, live foods, or frozen foods.

Breeding

Pygmy gouramis can be induced to breed by raising the temperature and dropping the water level about 15 cm (6 inches). During mating, the male embraces the female, with their bodies intertwining tightly. The female deposits the eggs and both the male and female will collect the eggs in their mouths and deposit them into 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...

 created earlier by the male. Other tankmates should ideally be removed at this point, since the male vigorously guards the eggs and may attack other fish. The male can be left with the eggs until they hatch. The fry are tiny and require microscopic infusoria

Infusoria

Infusoria is a collective term for minute aquatic creatures like ciliates, euglenoids, protozoa, and unicellular algae that exist in freshwater ponds...

 until they are large enough to accept newly hatched brine shrimp

Brine shrimp

Artemia is a genus of aquatic crustaceans known as brine shrimp. Artemia, the only genus in the family Artemiidae, has changed little externally since the Triassic period...

or dry food. The water in the tank should be kept very clean with frequent water changes.