Pygmy Sparkling Croaking Gouramis

Hi,

Does anybody keep these little beauties?

I would appreciate any information you can give me on them. I've kept and bred larger Gouramis before but I can't find much info online about these little dudes.

By the way the girl working in the LFS didn't know what they were and sold them to me for the same price as neon tetras as they were in the same tank.

I couldn't resist a bargain like that

I have kept and bred Trichopsis pumila in the past. Most i have kept were peaceful except the last lot of 3 females and 1 male were nippy. Mostly the fin nipping was amongst themselves.
They will spend most of the time hiding amongst plants at the surface. IMO plants on the surface are a must for these little beauties.
The water should be soft and acidic. I wouldn't keep them in a ph higher than 7. Temperature around 24c is fine except for breeding then it should be raised to about 28c.
They will except most food offered and love live food.
They shouldn't be mixed with other labyrinth's and it is best to avoid other surface dwelling fish.
Sexing can be tricky. Males will show redish dots above the broken brown line along the flanks. This is more brown/tan in females. When the females are in breeding condition you will see the eggs. I cant remember if they are yellow or orange but it is one or the other.

Breeding: As mentioned above the water should be warm, about 28c and acidic. It also should be shallow, 4-8" is ideal but i have had them breed in water 14" deep.
Filtration should be something simple like a sponge or box filter. Nothing with to much flow.
The male will build a nest under some floating plants. He will also build several nests if there are several females for him to breed with and look after all the nests.
The fry are tiny and need tiny food like infusoria for a week or so before they are big enough to accept microworms or very finely crushed flake food. They may seem to grow slow but i think this is because they are such a small fish and they actually grow quite quick. About 1cm after 2 months. Which isnt bad considering they only grow to about 3-4cm SL.

Hope this helps, Darren.

Thanks Darren. That's brilliant. Exactly the info I was looking for.
They are in my community tank at the moment and they spend most of their time hiding in the plants as you said. They're full of personality though and if I go near the tank at all then they come out of hiding and right up to the glass to see what's going on.

Congratulations on breeding them because some of the only information I can find on the net says breeding is very difficult.

They are obviously quite rare and the first time I ever saw them for sale I got some.

I'm hoping to breed them soon.

Thanks again

Jaffacakehead.

No problem. Glad i can help.
If you do go ahead and breed them will you keep me in mind for some youngsters or even some fry? I haven't kept them for a while and would like to keep them again.
They are a great little fish:).

Picked up a few of these yesterday...interesting little fellas.
Anyone have anything to add on them?

Gavin