Trichogaster chuna - Honey gourami

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Classification

Class: Actinopterygii • Order: Anabantiformes • Family: Osphronemidae
Binomial name: Trichogaster chuna (Hamilton, 1822)
Synonyms: Trichopodus chuna, Colisa chuna, Trichopodus sota, Colisa sota, Polyacanthus sota
Distribution & Habitat

Asia. Northern India, including floodplain and delta in Bangladesh, plus the Brahmaputra system, plus records in Nepal.

Countries: Bangladesh, India, Nepal
Known from the Ganges River in northern India, including its floodplain and delta in Bangladesh, as well as the Brahmaputra system in the states of Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, and Arunachal Pradesh, with additional records from Nepal.

It normally inhabits low-lying, densely vegetated and sluggish waters, including ponds, ditches, beis and flooded fields.

Many of these habitats experience seasonal fluctuations in water volume, chemistry and turbidity due to the annual monsoons that occur between June and October.

Aquarium Group: Gouramis, Labyrinthids

common names

Colisa Honey, Colisa Chuna

English: Honey gourami, Sunset gourami, Honey dwarf gourami,

aquarium maintenance

Aquarium with minimum dimensions of 60 cm X 30 cm X 30 cm required. Like most Anabantoids, they do not appreciate strong movement in the water. Densely planted aquariums are highly appreciated by the species. It is important to form refuges and burrows if you keep a pair, since the male's harassment is quite strong with the female.
It is a peaceful and ideal species for community aquariums, being able to become territorial and aggressive towards other members of the genus, namely other Colisas and not infrequently other Anabantoids such as Tricogaster, Peixe Paraíso and Bettas.

Food

Omnivorous, in its natural environment it feeds mainly on small crustaceans, rotifers, protozoa, insect larvae algae and small annelids.

Reproduction and sexual dimorphism

Oviparous. During the reproduction phase, the male will tend to be aggressive towards the female, a behavior that will cease when the reproductive ritual begins. The two will stay under the bubble nest with the male nudging the female with his snout and caressing the ventral area with his «antennae».
Spawning will take place beneath the bubble nest in the typical anabantoid hug, with the male coiling around the female with the eggs and sperm being released simultaneously. The eggs released by the female are floating, eventually some may sink where they will be collected by the male and placed inside the nest.

sexual dimorphism

Adult females are brownish in color and are noticeably larger than males and have a broad brown lateral band extending posteriorly from behind the eye to the caudal peduncle.