Honey gourami care for beginners

The honey gourami is one of the best first fish for a planted community tank. It stays about 2 inches long, is peaceful with almost everything, and is much hardier than the more famous dwarf gourami. Here's everything you need to keep one.

Honey gourami facts

• Size: about 2 inches
• Tank: 10 gallons for one, 20 gallons or more for a pair or trio
• Temperature: 72–82°F, with 75–78°F a good target
• Water: soft to medium, with a pH of about 6 to 7.5
• Group: one on its own, a pair, or one male with two females
• Lifespan: 4 to 8 years

Honey gourami or dwarf gourami?

Both are small, colorful gouramis, but the honey gourami is the easier fish:

If you want the bright blue of a dwarf gourami, read dwarf gourami care first to learn how to buy a healthy one.

Males and females

Store fish are often pale and look alike. A male turns deep honey-orange with a dark blue-black throat when he's settled or wants to breed. Females stay a softer silver-gold with a brown stripe along the side. Fish sold as "sunset" or "red" honey gouramis are color forms of the same fish with the same care.

Setting up the tank

• Lots of plants, especially floating plants. Honey gouramis are shy without cover. See easy live plants.
• Gentle flow. A sponge filter or a hang-on-back filter turned down suits them. See the best aquarium filters.
• A lid. Like all gouramis they breathe air from the surface, and the warm, humid air under a lid keeps them healthy.
• A cycled tank. Add gouramis only after the tank has finished cycling.

Feeding

Honey gouramis have small mouths. Feed small flakes or micro pellets once or twice a day, with frozen or live daphnia, brine shrimp or bloodworms a few times a week. They can be slow and polite at feeding time, so make sure faster tankmates don't eat everything first. See how often to feed fish.

Tankmates

• Good: small peaceful fish like neon tetras, ember tetras, harlequin rasboras, corydoras, otocinclus, kuhli loaches, snails and adult cherry shrimp.
• Avoid: fin nippers like tiger barbs and serpae tetras, big or pushy fish, and fast eaters that leave the gourami hungry.
• Bettas: some tanks manage it, but both fish want the same space at the top. It's safer to pick one. See betta fish tankmates.

Normal and not normal

• Swimming up to gulp air is normal. Gasping at the surface all the time is not. See fish gasping at the surface.
• Touching things with their long, thread-like fins is how gouramis feel their way around.
• A cluster of bubbles at the surface is a male's bubble nest.
• Staying pale and hiding for weeks usually means too little cover or bullying tankmates.

Related: Dwarf gourami care · 20 gallon stocking ideas · 10 gallon stocking ideas · Norman's lampeye care · Celestial pearl danio care