Kissing Gourami Care Guide - Aquarium Setup, Diet & Breeding

The Kissing Gourami is a distinctive, deep-bodied fish with a rounded profile, large scales and unusually prominent lips. Its natural colour is generally greenish or silvery brown, while the pink or peach-coloured form commonly sold in the aquarium trade is a selectively bred variety. The fish can also extend its lips into a characteristic puckered shape when feeding or interacting with another individual.

The famous “kissing” display is not courtship between affectionate partners. Two fish may press their mouths together during social encounters, which is usually associated with dominance and territorial testing. Mature individuals can become forceful with one another, especially when space or food is limited.

In nature, Kissing Gouramis browse across surfaces and use their specialised lips to graze algae and other edible material. Their labyrinth organ allows them to take atmospheric oxygen, an adaptation useful in warm, stagnant or poorly oxygenated waters, although they still rely on good-quality water and functioning gill respiration.

They are among the larger gouramis encountered in fishkeeping and may live for many years when properly maintained. Their size, powerful build and sometimes assertive temperament make them a very different prospect from the smaller, more delicate gourami species commonly sold for community aquariums.

Kissing Gouramis are native to Southeast Asia, including Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Malaysia and Indonesia. They inhabit slow-moving rivers, ponds, swamps, canals and floodplain waters across the region.

Plan on at least 250 litres for one adult, with a tank around 120 cm long or larger to provide sufficient swimming space; a substantially bigger aquarium is preferable for multiple fish. Use a secure lid because they regularly visit the surface and can jump, while leaving some open water for movement. Provide gentle to moderate filtration, good oxygenation and broad areas for swimming, along with hardy plants, driftwood and smooth rocks arranged to create visual breaks. A soft sand or fine-gravel substrate is suitable, and robust rooted plants or floating cover can offer shelter without sacrificing open floor space.

Kissing Gouramis can reach about 30 cm (12 inches) in length in the wild, although aquarium specimens more commonly mature at approximately 20–25 cm (8–10 inches). Females are often slightly larger and deeper-bodied than males.

Kissing Gouramis are omnivores with a strong preference for plant-based foods. Offer a quality omnivore pellet or flake alongside algae wafers, spirulina-based foods and blanched vegetables such as courgette, spinach or shelled peas. Supplement the diet occasionally with frozen or live foods including bloodworm, brine shrimp and daphnia. Feed varied portions that are consumed promptly, as their active grazing and large adult size can otherwise lead to overfeeding and excess waste.

Choose sturdy, peaceful tankmates that are too large to be swallowed and that can tolerate the same warm, spacious conditions. Suitable examples may include larger barbs, peaceful medium-to-large rasboras, robust tetras, rainbowfish, larger peaceful loaches and non-aggressive catfish. Avoid tiny fish, delicate long-finned species, fin-nippers and highly aggressive cichlids. Kissing Gouramis may bully one another and can harass slower or similarly shaped fish, so each individual needs ample swimming room and well-spaced territories.

Kissing Gouramis are egg-scattering fish that can be spawned in a spacious breeding aquarium with warm, clean, slightly acidic to neutral water and plenty of floating vegetation. A conditioned pair may scatter hundreds or thousands of adhesive eggs among plants, but they provide no parental care and may eat the spawn. Remove the adults after spawning, or protect the eggs with dense plant cover, and raise the fry on infusoria or another suitably tiny first food before offering larger foods.

The sexes are difficult to distinguish reliably outside breeding condition. Mature females are usually fuller through the abdomen and may appear deeper-bodied, while males tend to be slightly slimmer; there are no consistently dependable external colour or fin differences.