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.
Housing
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.
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.
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
Is your enclosure big enough?
Minimum volume110 litres (29 US gallons)
CompanyFine alone or with company. Group of 4-6 with one male; or a single fish
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.
Intermediate
Beginner
Intermediate
Intermediate
Beginner
Beginner