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3 Spot Gourami 3 Spot Gourami
(Opalescent colour morph-Female) (Gold colour morph-Male)
The 3 spot gourami - Trichogaster trichopterus, originates from South East Asia in countries such as Thailand, Malaysia and the surrounding regions.
They have only 2 spots, it is believed the eye is the third spot .
In the aquarium they grow to around 3"- 4".
I use a temperature of 25-26C.
The colour morphs I currently keep are the Golden variety and also the Opalescent variety.
I feed them on flakes as a staple day to day food and once a week I add a high protein food, rarely I do add a freeze dried brine shrimp cube.
The males have a more pointed dorsal fin, also having depth of colour in their markings, the markings alone are quite different to that of the females.
The females have a more rounded dorsal fin, their anal fin follows the ventral contour in a more uniform way, with a step deeper in the fin occuring about a third along the fins length.
It is not a good idea to house more than one male in the same tank.
A better choice is to have a pair, a group of all females or a single fish.
There are several colour morphs available, they have a nice body shape and finnage.
With the exception of 2 males not being kept together, I would not class these fish as aggressive, they are well suited with similar sized fish for the community aquarium and are extremely popular as such.
I have the tank planted up with live plants, they like the plant called Thai Stricta and to swim between the stems, plants and also to rest in it, if you plant the Thai Stricta in rows or groups near to each other it makes for a nice display in the tank, it is tall and reaches the surface, as the three-spot gourami likes to look around near the surface they also relax in amongst the plants, they will also swim midwater and even at the lower levels. This specific plant is native to the countries of origin of the species, so if you are working towards a themed tank it is also well suited.
With breeding they are bubblenest builders similar to bettas. The female needs to be removed after the spawning, with the male being left to care for the nest and fry for the first few days and he is then also removed. Spawns can be large, you need to regularly size grade the fry and several growout tanks will be needed due to this factor, if you do not size grade the fry levels of cannibalism occur between the growing fry.
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