Antoondommerholt at Dutch Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 3.0 — Wikimedia Commons

Freshwater Fish · Gouramis

Honey Gourami

Trichogaster chuna

Gentle golden labyrinth fish, beginner-friendlyBeginner

Lifespan: 4-8 years
Size: 4-5cm
Social needs: Peaceful; fine singly, in pairs or small groups
Time: Low
Cost: Low
Diet: Omnivore (micro-pellets, flakes, frozen foods)

Overview

What is this animal?

The honey gourami is a small, gentle labyrinth fish from the slow waters of India and Bangladesh, turning honey-gold to red when in condition.
Hardier and far less disease-prone than its dwarf cousin, it is a genuinely good beginner fish.

Reaching only 4-5cm, it is peaceful, undemanding and well suited to small, calm community tanks.
Like all gouramis it breathes air at the surface.
Its easy temperament and resilience make it one of the better entry-level anabantoids available.

Temperament

Honey gouramis are among the most peaceful gouramis, shy and unaggressive, and are happy kept singly, as a pair or in a small group, with males far less territorial than dwarf gourami males.
They do best in a calm, well-planted tank.

They make good community fish alongside small tetras, rasboras, corydoras and other gentle species, but should not share a tank with fin-nippers or boisterous fish that intimidate them.
Their timid, easygoing nature suits peaceful nano and community aquariums.

A good fit for

Beginners wanting an easy labyrinth fish
Peaceful nano and community tanks
Keepers seeking a hardy, colourful centrepiece
Those wanting gourami charm without high disease risk

Common mistakes to avoid

Strong flow stressing this calm-water fish
Boisterous or nippy tankmates intimidating them
No lid, risking chilled labyrinth organ and jumping
Confusing them with the disease-prone dwarf gourami

Enclosure

Minimum 45 litres (12 US gallons)

Fine alone or with company. Peaceful; fine singly, in pairs or small groups

A planted tank of at least 45L with a calm water surface suits honey gouramis well, kept warm at 22-28C and soft to moderately hard around neutral pH.
They tolerate a wider range than most gouramis but dislike strong flow.

Provide floating plants, gentle filtration and cover for their naturally timid nature.
Keep the water cycled with zero ammonia and nitrite.
A lid maintains the warm surface air their labyrinth organ needs and stops jumping.
Their small size makes them well suited to modest aquariums.

Check your enclosure

Supplies

Setup

Tank and stand
Filter
Heater and thermometer
Substrate, plants and decor
Liquid test kit
Dechlorinator and starter supplies

Ongoing

Quality tropical flake
Floating and slow-sinking micro-pellets
Frozen bloodworm, brine shrimp and daphnia
Spirulina or vegetable flake
Courgette for blanching
Veg clip
Fine net for removing leftovers

Safe substrate: Inert aquarium gravel · Fine, smooth sand · Aquasoil for planted tanks

Work out the cost

Care routine

Daily

Check temperature and equipment
Feed
Head-count and look everyone over

Weekly

Check the air layer above the waterevery 3 days
Top up evaporationevery 3 days
Clean glass and clear algae
Test the water
Water change and gravel vacuum

Monthly

Trim and thin the plantsevery 2 weeks
Check supplies and reagent dates
Rinse the filter media

Less often

Replace chemical filter media (Carbon/Purigen)every 2 months

Vet: Quarterly review with a surface-air check — every 3 months

Top resources for more info

Independent creators and organisations we would send a friend to. We have no affiliation with any of them, and nothing here is sponsored. Links checked 2026-09-19.

YouTubers

Girl Talks FishCare how-tos by fish type, tank setup and beginner mistakes Aquarium Co-OpSpecies care guides, filtration and fish health (run by a retailer)Prime Time AquaticsSpecies profiles, stocking and water chemistry explained plainly

Sites

Seriously FishSpecies profiles with tank size, water parameters and diet for 1,800+ fish Practical FishkeepingLong-running UK fishkeeping magazine with care and species articles FishLoreCare profiles and a large keeper forum for freshwater and saltwater fish

Go deeper

Diet

Honey gouramis are omnivores that readily take quality micro-pellets and flakes as a staple, supplemented with frozen and live foods such as daphnia, brine shrimp and bloodworm.
In nature they pick tiny invertebrates from plants and the surface.

Feed small amounts once or twice daily, suited to their tiny mouths.
A varied diet keeps their honey colour vivid and supports breeding condition.
They feed mainly in the upper and middle water; avoid overfeeding, as their small appetites are easily satisfied.

Health

Honey gouramis are notably hardy and, unlike dwarf gouramis, are not strongly associated with the iridovirus problem, making them more reliable.
Most health issues stem from poor water quality, stress or overcrowding rather than inherited disease.

Maintain clean, stable, warm water and quarantine new arrivals to keep them thriving.
Watch for clamped fins, fading colour or loss of appetite as early warning signs.
With good basic care they routinely live several years, often outlasting flashier but frailer gourami species.

Is your enclosure big enough?

Minimum volume45 litres (12 US gallons)

CompanyFine alone or with company. Peaceful; fine singly, in pairs or small groups

Length

Width

Height

Units

Or tank volume

Units

Is this urgent?

In a fish tank the patient is usually the water. Test before you treat — dosing a healthy tank for a disease it does not have makes things worse.

Go now

Any detectable ammonia or nitrite in a stocked tankLarge water change now with dechlorinated, temperature-matched water. Stop feeding. Test again in 12 hours. Both are directly toxic. How toxic the ammonia reading is depends on pH and temperature, so the same number can be harmless or lethal.

Now

Fish gasping at the surface, or crowding the filter outflowIncrease surface agitation immediately, then test the water. Either the oxygen has crashed or the gills are being chemically burned. Both are hours-scale problems.

Now

Sudden deaths, more than one fish in a dayTest ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and temperature before doing anything else. Do not add medication yet. Multiple simultaneous deaths point at the water or the equipment, not at a pathogen.

Now

Today

Flashing — repeatedly scraping against decor or substrateTest the water, then look closely for parasites. Irritation is either chemical or parasitic; the test tells you which before you medicate.

Today

White salt-grain spots over the body and finsBegin the appropriate treatment today and check the temperature. The parasite's life cycle is temperature-driven, and it multiplies with every cycle you wait.

Today

Soon

Clamped fins, hiding, or refusing food for more than two daysTest the water and review recent changes. Usually the earliest visible sign of a parameter drifting.

A few days

Never add a new fish to a tank that is not fully cycled, and never treat blind. A test kit is cheaper than the fish.

This is general guidance for a healthy adult, not a diagnosis. An exotics vet who knows your animal always overrides it — and the time to find one is before you need one.

What it really costs

Setup, monthly, first year and across a whole life, itemised and with the electricity worked out from the actual wattage. Published figures for the same animal disagree by a factor of four, so the calculator shows ranges rather than picking one.

Region

How many animals

Your electricity price, per kWh

Buying the setup

Bedding and substrate

Substrate in an aquarium is a filter as much as a floor. Most of the biology lives in and on it.

Safe

Inert aquarium gravelRinse thoroughly before use. Grain size should be too large to swallow and too small to trap food.

safe

Fine, smooth sandCorrect for corydoras, kuhli loaches and anything that sifts. Their barbels wear away on sharp gravel.

safe

Aquasoil for planted tanksExcellent for plants, but it leaches ammonia for the first weeks. Cycle around it; do not stock into it.

safe

Bare bottomLegitimate for quarantine and grow-out tanks. Easy to clean, but it holds far less biological filtration.

safe

With a caveat

Crushed coral or aragoniteDeliberately raises hardness and pH. Correct for rift-lake cichlids, wrong for soft-water species.

with a caveat

Very deep sand bedsAnaerobic pockets form below about 5 cm in still sand. Either keep it shallow or keep it stirred.

with a caveat

Painted or coated gravelUsually fine, but coatings chip. Test a handful in a jar for a week first.

with a caveat

Never

Sharp or angular gravel with bottom-dwellersWears down barbels and leads to infection in corydoras and loaches.

never

Anything containing metal, limestone of unknown origin, or shells in a soft-water tankSlowly alters chemistry in ways that are hard to diagnose later.

never

This is our general list for freshwater fish. We have not built one specific to Gouramis yet.

My kit says 0.25 ppm. Is that dangerous?

A liquid kit measures total ammonia, but only the un-ionised fraction is really toxic, and that fraction is governed by pH and temperature — each whole pH unit multiplies it roughly tenfold. So the same reading can be nearly harmless in one tank and lethal in another; this works out which one you are in.

Total ammonia, ppm

Temperature, C