All fish / Helostomatidae

Kissing Gourami

Helostoma temminckii

Also known as kissing gourami, pink kissing gourami, green kissing gourami, kisser, kissing fish, pink kisser, balloon kissing gourami, helostoma temmincki, ปลาหมอตาล, ปลาจูบ, ikan tembakang, biawan

A deep-bodied, laterally compressed gourami best known in its pale pink form, with a wild green-silver morph also seen. It is famous for its protrusible, toothed lips used to scrape algae, and for the lip-locking 'kissing' that is really a form of sparring between rivals.

Care at a glance

Care level

Easy

Temperament

Semi

Adult size

15 cm

Temperature

22 to 28 °C

pH

6 to 8

Smallest tank

200 litres

Keep as

Singly or in a group of 3 or more in a large tank

Diet

Omnivore: grazes algae and biofilm; takes vegetable-based flakes and pellets, blanched vegetables and small live or frozen foods

Swims

Middle of the tank

Lifespan

5 to 7 years

Water

Freshwater

Wild range

Southeast Asia: Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Malaysia, Sumatra, Borneo, Java

Breeding

An egg scatterer that lays large numbers of floating eggs without building a bubble nest and gives no parental care. It is bred commercially in ponds in Asia but is seldom spawned in home aquariums because of the space needed.

Good to know

It grows much larger than most shops suggest, up to 20 to 30 cm in the wild, and can harass tankmates and graze soft plants. Kissing is aggressive behaviour, so keep with robust fish of similar size.