This is the sparkling gourami, a tiny labyrinthine fish that only grows to about 1.5 inches in length for a male and the females are considerably smaller at about an inch at first glance, they can look really quite drab. They are a boring base, color of grayish brown, although they do have these nice darker bands running down the sides, but when they catch that light, these little fish are incredibly beautiful. They have flashes and speckles of the brightest blue, covering their body and best of all, they have that eye.
This bright, iridescent blue ring that really takes you by surprise when you spot it lurking in the undergrowth of your tank sparkling. Gourami are a fish that fascinate, but what do they like to keep and what kind of setup do they need? [ Music, ] well sparkling gourami hail from southern asia, where they inhabit really quite a diverse range of different habitats. They'Re found in small ponds, shallow streams and owing to their ability to breathe air, they can even survive in quite stagnant water. They live quite often in rice, paddies, for example, anywhere where they have plenty of vegetation and a nice slow flow, [ Music ] in the home, aquarium, they're, not particularly active, and so they don't need open swimming spaces.
Temperature
And so a group of four or five will be perfectly comfortable in an area of about 30 to 40 centimeters, and you will want to keep a group of them because, while they don't school, they do show off their best colors when they have other gourami around Them males can be really quite feisty when they're defending their territory, and they have this extravagant dancing, fight that they do and if at all possible, it is best to keep a nice equal number of males to females or slightly more females just to keep the aggression In the tank a little bit lower, they are not at all fussy about ph and anything. Around neutral is absolutely fine and they're really easy going when it comes to temperature as well, preferring anything in your typical tropical range of between 20 and 26 degrees. One thing these little sparklers really do. Need, though, is some nice dark, hiding places, they are quite a shy fish and they don't like loud noises or anything startling happening around their tank and to help them feel as secure as possible. They really need plenty of nice.
Big broad leafy vegetation that they can hide behind and particularly under so anubias bucephalandra crypts, all those sorts of plants rather than your finer, leaves or carpeting plants, or you could, of course provide them with plenty of solid structures. Some nice twiggy wood or some little rocky caves, just so they've got somewhere to retreat to if they feel threatened and so they've got something over them, so they don't feel threatened by the open water. Sparklers also benefit hugely from having other little diller fish in with them. This can really boil their confidence and bring them out into the open, far more frequently, even when they are comfortable, though you'll find they often stick close to cover and they seem to really enjoy squeezing, through the narrowest little gaps and lurking in the darkest shadows that They can find often with just that beautiful blazing eye looking out at you. Unsurprisingly, then perhaps i find my sparklers certainly prefer a much dimmer tank compared to my other fish, and this is definitely how they look at their best.
Sparklers are a showy fish but they're not like the others. You think of your typical flashy little fish, a celestial or something the males are always parading around flaring their little fins and generally showing off in the spotlight. Sparklers are different, they sulk and they lurk and they move slowly and gracefully and with absolute precision and purpose, and it's only when you really look for the beauty in them that you see it and that's a big part of their appeal. You give them those shadows and they won't fail to impress you sparkling grammy, though, are small at the end of the day, and so they are a very easy snack for a large fish. So if you're thinking about putting them in a tank, it's worth.
Tank Size
Bearing in mind the size of their tank mates, they also tend not to get along very well with very fast or boisterous fish, and they don't really like ones that nip fins, neither because they simply won't fight back. Another consideration is that, because of their shape, sparkling gourami can be a target for better fish and because they don't have anything like the confidence of a better, they will always be the one who gets bullied into submission. Sparkling gourami are completely harmless to other fish, though they get along with even the tiniest little micro, rasboras, chili rasboras and i've even put them in with semi-grown fry and they've been absolutely fine with them too [ Music ] when it comes to their own kind sparkling. Gourami have a sort of love-hate relationship going on. They certainly prefer to be in a small group, say four to six individuals, and you find they will alternate between either silently hunting together like a little sparkling wolf pack or they will be having a jolly good squabble.
The males especially really like to defend a little territory if there are females around they like to show off to those too, and it's at this time that the sparkling ground gets their other name, which is the croaking gourami, which is actually wrong. The croaking gourami is a completely different fish, but these little ones get called them too, because they make the same noise. The males croak like this, when they're sparring, but also when they're eating or when they're courting a female, and it seems to just be a sign that they're really excited about something. The noise sounds like a croak, but it's actually being produced by their petrol fins and it's loud enough to be heard from a good five meters away from the tank, which is remarkable when you think it's being created by this tiny little fish. When it comes to invertebrate tank mates for sparkling gourami, they are fine with anything their own size or with snails, but they are certainly not compatible with shrimp.
Sparklers are very predatory and they will stalk around the tank. Looking for anything small enough to kill - and this certainly includes any shrimp under about a centimeter in length - that's fine if you happen to be keeping them in your cull tank, but i certainly wouldn't put them in with your best breeders, when they're not consuming shrimp, though Sparkling gourami will happily take other types of food. They are quick to adapt to pelleted food or flake foods, as well as frozen or live just make sure they are actually getting a share because they are very slow at feeding. They like to have a jolly good look at anything that gets put in the tank before they eat it, and if there are faster species in there, they will just snatch all that food away before the sparklers get a look in. So it's worth watching them just to make sure everyone's getting enough food breeding sparkling gourami is not complicated and you'll find that if you put a group into a tank as they mature, they will naturally start to pair off.
Like many labyrinthine fish, the sparkling grammy are bubble nesters, so the male will construct a bubble nest up at the top of the tank either underneath a large piece of vegetation or right up at the surface and once he's finished, he will entice the female to come Over inspect it, and if it's good enough, she will release her eggs for him to fertilize. The male will then collect the eggs up and he'll put them up in the bubbles, while they're developing and in about two to three days once they hatch the male, will drift away and leave the young to fend for themselves once you've got their tank set up For them sparkling gourami are a very undemanding species. They are a fish you glimpse occasionally, rather than always being there in full view, and this gives them a lovely mysterious quality, especially when you hear them before you spot them, and even then, when you do go, look in the tank more often than not. You just see that piercing eye looking out at you from the shadows. Personally, i think they are really charming little fish, i'm perfect!
If you're looking for something that's just a little bit unusual they're, not your typical flashy little fish or a boisterous danio they're acquired contemplatory fish for an easy going aquarium.