Pearl Gourami
Trichopodus leerii
Lace-patterned, peaceful centrepiece gouramiBeginner
- Lifespan
- 4-6 years
- Size
- 10-12cm
- Social needs
- Group of 4-6 with one male; or a single fish
- Time
- 10-15 min daily; weekly water change
- Cost
- Low-Medium
- Diet
- Omnivore (flake, pellet, frozen foods)
Overview
What is this animal?
- The pearl gourami is widely considered the most beautiful and best-behaved of the larger gouramis, dressed in white spangles over bronze with a black lateral line.
- Mature males add a flame-orange throat.
- It is hardy, peaceful, and forgiving — a genuinely beginner-suitable centrepiece fish for a planted community, provided the tank is large and calm enough for it.
Temperament
- Among the gentlest large gouramis, pearls glide through the midwater and explore plants with their touch-sensitive feelers.
- They are shy in bare tanks and confident in planted ones.
- Pair them with peaceful tetras, rasboras, corydoras, and similar; avoid barbs and other nippers.
- Males build bubble nests and display beautifully at breeding time.
A good fit for
- A first centrepiece fish for a planted community
- Keepers wanting calm, graceful tank presence
- Communities of peaceful mid-sized fish
- Beginners ready for a 100L+ aquarium
Common mistakes to avoid
- Housing with fin-nippers that shred the feelers
- Two males sparring in mid-sized tanks
- Strong flow and choppy surfaces stressing them
- Tanks under 100L cramping adults
Enclosure
Minimum 110 litres (29 US gallons)
Fine alone or with company. Group of 4-6 with one male; or a single fish
- Provide at least 110 litres (29 gallons) with gentle flow, dense edge planting, and some floating cover; like all gouramis they are labyrinth breathers that sip air at a calm surface.
- Keep the water at 24-28C.
- Keep one male with a group of females, or a single fish in a community; two males will spar over territory in average tanks.
- Soft to moderately hard, slightly acidic to neutral water suits them, though tank-bred fish adapt widely.
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
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.
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Diet
- Pearl gouramis accept everything: quality flake or small pellets as the staple, rotated with frozen or live brine shrimp, daphnia, and bloodworm.
- Some vegetable matter or spirulina rounds the diet out.
- Feed once or twice daily only what is eaten within a couple of minutes.
- They are deliberate, polite feeders, so check they are not outcompeted by faster tankmates.
Health
- This is a robust species; most problems arrive with poor water quality or aggressive tankmates rather than disease susceptibility.
- Standard quarantine of new arrivals covers the rest.
- Watch the long, thread-like ventral feelers: fin-nipping species shred them, which is a welfare problem and an infection route.
- Stable temperature and a calm surface keep the labyrinth organ happy.
Is your enclosure big enough?
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
Today
Soon
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.
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
With a caveat
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.
Compare with other animals
The same axes for every animal, side by side — the way the guides are written makes that a fair comparison rather than two articles.
Gouramis, side by side
Same axes, same care guides — the honest way to choose between types.
See all Gouramis side by side →
