Animal-World > Freshwater Fish > Labyrinth Fish > Giant Gourami

Giant Gourami

Common Gourami ~ True Gourami Family: Osphronemidae

• Puzzles
• Postcards

Osphronemus goramy Photo © Animal-World: Courtesy Ken Childs

   The Giant Gourami is the largest of all labyrinth fishes...big, powerful, and an overall awesome fish to keep!

   This is a stunning fish when it gets large. In their natural environment, natives have reported lengths of 60 cm (24 inches) and it has even been suggested that the Giant Gourami can get as large as 70 cm (28 inches). Wow! One big gourami! They are usually sold in sizes of 4 - 8 cm (1 1/2 - 2 1/2 inches) in pet stores, and are scarce in captivity over 40 cm (16 inches). When they are small, they have an attractive banded coloration of black and gold. As they get older they turn the color of the fish in the photo or sometimes completely black.

   Though the Giant Gourami will grow into a very large strong fish, they make a very personable pet. They will come to know you and some people even report being able to pet their fish. They will need a very large aquarium, and because of their appetite will put a load on the water and the filtration. A weekly water change is recommended and needed.

   Giant Gourami are considered a delicacy and are used as a food fish in their native areas.

For more Information on keeping this fish see:
Guide to a Happy, Healthy Freshwater Aquarium

Dream Aquarium Build your own aquarium The Coolest and Funnest Screensaver in the World.

Distribution:
   The Giant Gourami was described by Lacepède in 1801. They are found in the waters of China, Java, Malaysia, eastern India where they inhabit both rivers as well as canals where the water moves more sluggishly. They are considered an important and savored food source.

Status:
   These fish are not endangered.

Description:
   The Giant Gourami has a compressed, oval shaped body and a blunt head. As juveniles their head is pointed, and they have 8 - 10 dark bars,giving them a black and gold striped appearance, and they have yellow fins. This coloration fades as they mature becoming rather plain, generally a brownish black or even an overall pinkish to white coloration. Mature males will develop a 'nuchal hump', a swollen knob or lump on the forehead.
   Like all other gouramis they can breath air, generally gulping it at the water's surface. They have a special 'labyrinth organ' which acts like a lung which enables them to survive in oxygen-depleted waters.

Size - Weight:
   The Giant Gourami are known to reach over 27 inches (70 cm).

Care and feeding:
   Since they are omnivores, the Giant Gourami will generally eat all kinds of foods. Although it can be a voracious predator, this fish will eat almost any freshwater aquarium foods if it is trained to do so at an early age. If they are mainly fed live fish, your food bills will be very high so it is suggested that you start to train them on the dried foods as soon as they are obtained. To keep a good balance give them a high quality flake or pelleted food everyday. They are not very picky eaters.
   In the wild they will eat aquatic algae as well as fish, crustaceans, frogs, worms, and even dead meat. Besides offering them regular fish foods, they will even eat cooked meat, bread, boiled potatoes and other vegetables. Feed brine shrimp (either live or frozen) or blood worms as a treat. Sometimes, predatory fish that are never fed any live fish will grow up not knowing that other fish should be considered dinner. There are reports of large sized Giant Gouramis living peacefully with small tetras or danios
   These fish grow large (huge actually) so as adults they will need a very large aquarium, 200 gallons is recommended. You will also want to be sure to have a good filtration system and do large weekly water changes, with 25% or more being reasonable. As they are large and active, they will need minimal tank decorations.

Water Region: Top, Middle, Bottom:
   These fish will swim in all areas of the aquarium.

Acceptable Water Conditions:
   Due to their size, make sure you have good filtration and do weekly water changes!
   Temperature: 68° - 86° F (20° - 30° C)
   Hardness: 25° dGH
   Ph: 6.5 to 8.0

Social Behaviors:
   The Giant Gourami are generally a good community fish. Somewhat loners, they may fight fish of the same species when they are young. As they get older they mellow out but their size will allow them to eat smaller fish, so watch out for any smaller tankmates. Also, males tend to be aggressive to one another and may fight, rendering the well known gourami "kiss" in an aggressive ritualized manner.

Sexual Differences:
   The male Giant Gourami has longer and more pointed dorsal and anal fins. Mature males will also develop a 'nuchal hump', a swollen knob or lump on the forehead.

Breeding/Reproduction:
   Like most fish in this family, the Giant Gourami are bubble nest builders. The male will build a ball-shaped nest out of bits of plants just below the surface of the water. Their eggs as well as the fry, are lighter than water and float to the top.

Buy Giant Gourami From LiveAquaria.com

See the description of how to breed labyrinth fish in Breeding Freshwater Fish.

Availability:
   The Giant Gourami is readily available and is inexpensive. Specimens run about $6.00 USD and up.

Add your comment here!
Click to see All the comments!
Click to see all of the coolest comments!
Latest Comments
Hi people. I've been keeping fish 40 years and I've kept most of what's out there. Now I can tell you these fish are not all that they appear. The one I had the longest, pinky we called him, was a very aggresive and nasty fish. We had to put ours in my friends tank while we decorated the room. I got a call an hour later, he had killed their oscar and was bashing their big red devil. When I got there it was almost dead and all the other fish were up one end of the tank. But we loved him, and it ate anything. An internal muck sucking filter combined with a good sump filter is the best. Have fun, I found them great. mark Anonymous 2008-11-14
I newly bought my giant gourami. She was smaller in 5 inches. I feed them koi and goldfish pellet. When giant gourami grow to be adult they like to live in green water. You are no need to change water and feed them just little. They will eat algae. Juveniles like to eat live food, but when they grow to adulthood they love to eat vegetation. They will grow large, maximum is 4 feet to 5 feet. Abi Sufian 2008-08-04
Gouramis are a group of most beautiful as well as edible fishes in world, especially in Asian countries. They belong to the family anabantidae, main 3 species are, Giant Gourami - Osphronemus gourami, Siamese Gourami - Trichogaster pectoralis, and the Kissing Gourami - Helostoma temmincki. I have a small aquarium with two Kissing Gouramis and I put their names as Akkum Ikku, with most love. Vishnu threkamatathil 2008-05-17
My cousin gave me about 8 small river fish, and my giant gourami ate all of them but one. I do not know why he is always following me around too, and I can put my hand in the tank and pet him. His name is jaws... I think you know why. Emily Goerge 2007-11-19
I bought my gourami from a pet store about 2 years ago for 10 dollars. She was about 3 to 4 inches long.. I asked the owner how big she would get and he said, "it'll get about 20 or more inches long", "but that will take a long time right?", "come back in a year and tell me how much its grown". She's about 17 inches long and 9 or 10 inches tall now...haha. What a great fish though. I can pet her and she like to jump in the air to get her food. She has a total concept on whats outside the tank and shes not too happy about the new puppy, but I still love her. Scott Gallagher 2007-08-05
Some of the coolest comments:
Hi everyone this is Lan Phan again and recently in the last 5 months or so I've had a 1600 gallon aquarium that was custom built for me. For the moment my aquarium consist of 7 six-eight inches Jardini Arowanas, 1 four-five inch Redtail Giant Gourami, 1 five inch Albino Giant Gourami, 35 three inch Blood Parrot, 3 four and a half inch Sydontis Catfish, 1 four inch Albino Ruby Red Oscar, 1 four inch Red Tiger Oscar, 8 seven inch Silver Arowanas and 12 five inch Silver Dollars. On top of that I'm running 4 150 gallon wet/dry filters and 6 UV. My friend also helped me installed an automatic water change feature on my aquarium which allowed me to changed about 15-25% of water every two to three weeks and than it would automatically fill up by itself. Can't wait till my next project hopefully soon. Remember dreams are stretched to the limit as only you it allow it to. Lan Phan 2008-09-23
I own a 300 Oceanic Show Aquarium with a three inch red tail giant gourami, two nine inch silver arowanas, two four-five inch silver scats, four three-four inch parrot fish, and a six inch pleco. All are doing fine with each other and my key diet when feeding them are pellets and freezed dried bloodworms which they enjoy. My Ph is at 7.2, Ammonia 0, Nitrite 0, and can you believe no Nitrate 0. Temperature is at 82 F and four filtration I personally am using eight yes eight Ehiem canister filters as in line. I used Ehiem 2215 straight in line and than the Ehiem 2217 as well by using different bio medias to clear my water. My lighting system I went with six 10,000K, two actinic blues, and two 50/50 lighting system. Lan Phan 2005-07-15

Back to Anabantoids

Author: David Brough. CFS.

Aquarium Banner Exchange! Join Now Free.