| Kissing Gourami | Profile and Description |
| Size | Up to 12 inches or 30 cm although rarely this large in a home aquarium |
| Fish Hardiness | Relatively easy to care for |
| Water Temperature | 72 - 86 ºF or 22 - 30 ºC |
| Water pH | 6.0 - 8.5 pH |
| Water Hardness | 5 - 30 dH |
| Peaceful or Aggressive | Although generally peaceful some fish can become aggressive |
| Number of same species in one aquarium | Two or more |
| Community Fish | It is possible when carefully choosing tank mates |
| Sexes | Not easy to determine until spawning, the female will become fatter |
| Strata | Mostly middle to top |
| Food | Vegetable based flake food, brine shrimp, bloodworms and plants and algae |
| Breeding | Difficult to breed |
| Breeding Temperature | 80 - 86 ºF or 27 - 30 ºC |
| Other names | Kissers, Pink or Green Kissers, Pink or Green Kissing Gourami |
| Scientific name | Helostoma temminckii or Helostoma rudolfi |
| Lifespan | 5 - 8 years |
Ideal Kissing Gourami Conditions
Appearance
This is a large Gourami with the typical Gourami shape. The body is laterally compressed with a long oval shape. They do not however have the long, thin pelvic fins like other Gouramis.
The main body color is either greenish or a rosy pink. A smaller, round bodied pink variety called the Balloon Pink Kisser is also found.
Their unusual large lips with which they "kiss" each other is not actually kissing but a liplocking fight they have with each other over territory.
Aggressive
This fish can be territorial and aggressive especially towards its own kind and smaller fish, slow moving fish. Their aggression can however be managed by keeping them in larger numbers of four to six. Only keep them in larger numbers if you have enough room for them for they do become fairly big fish.
Community Species
They can be kept successfully in a community aquarium with other fish like Bala Sharks, Danios and bottom feeders.
Feeding
Feed them a staple food of plant based flake food and supplement with freeze dried or frozen brine shrimp and bloodworms. They will also appreciate live foods and live plants.
If there is no algae eaters in the same tank, leave some algae in the tank when cleaning it.
Breeding
Breeding them is not very easy. To improve your chance of success you need to have a large aquarium of 50 gallon or 190 liter. Bigger will even be better.
Start with a group to establish a breeding pair and then condition them for a week or two with lettuce, brine shrimp and bloodworms.
Make sure the water is soft and warm with a lot of floating plants. Rather not fill the tank completely for a lot of splashing will take place during spawning.
After spawning the eggs will rise and attach to the floating plants. They will hatch in one to two days and the fry will become free swimming after another three of four days.
Other Names
Some confusion exsits over whether the pink and green variety are the same specie or not.
Whatever the case may be, for the purpose of keeping them in our aquariums we can identify them by the following names. Kissers, Pink or Green Kissers, Pink or Green Kissing Gourami, and Balloon Pink or Pink Balloon Kisser.
Lifespan
They can reach a age of five to eight years old.