Chocolate gourami
| Chocolate gourami | ||||||||||||
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Chocolate gourami ( Sphaerichthys osphromenoides ) |
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| Sphaerichthys osphromenoides | ||||||||||||
| Canestrini , 1860 |
The chocolate gourami ( Sphaerichthys osphromenoides , syn .: Osphromenus malayanus , Duncker, 1904) is a fish belonging to the labyrinth fish . Its home is the southern section of the Malay Peninsula and the Indonesian islands of Sumatra and Borneo . It owes its name to the dark brown color.
features
The chocolate gourami is a maximum of 6 cm in size and has a relatively short and high body that is strongly flattened on the sides. The head is pointed. It is chocolate-brown to red-brown in color and has a faint greenish sheen in some cases. Young fish show a clearly visible longitudinal band on the sides of the body. Adults have several irregularly arranged light yellow to whitish transverse bars. The fins are brown with light edges and often darkly mottled. The dorsal fin of the females is less pointed.
- Fin formula : Dorsal VIII-XII / 7-10; Anals VII-X / 18-22; Pectorals 8-10; Ventral I / 5; Caudal 13.
- Scale formula : mLR 26–30.
The second fin ray of the ventral fin is greatly elongated.
Way of life
The chocolate gourami occurs in its homeland in ditches and ponds in water that is very low in minerals and colored coffee-brown by humic acids . He stays there near the bank below the protective vegetation on the banks. Aquatic plants are not found in his home waters. The water temperature is around 30 to 32 ° C, the pH value is 5.5 to 6.5, the water hardness is 0.5 to 5 ° dH and the conductivity is 15 μS. It feeds mainly on approach food (small insects and arachnids that fall on the surface of the water). The chocolate gourami is a mouth brooder . The approximately 80 yellowish eggs are taken into the mouth by the female. The fry leave the mouth after 8 to 12 days.
Aquarium keeping
The chocolate gourami was first introduced to Germany in 1905 for keeping in the aquarium, again in 1934 and 1957 in the GDR. Keeping them in freshwater aquariums is not easy because of the fish's demands on water quality.
literature
- Hans-Joachim Richter: The book of the labyrinth fish. Verlag J. Neumann-Neudamm, 1983, ISBN 3-7888-0292-8 .
- Günther Sterba : The world's freshwater fish. 2nd Edition. Urania, Leipzig / Jena / Berlin 1990, ISBN 3-332-00109-4 .
Web links
- Chocolate gourami on Fishbase.org (English)
- The ornamental fish directory