Chocolate gourami Chocolate gourami The chocolate gourami ("Sphaerichthys osphromenoides") is a species of gourami native to the Malay Peninsula, Sumatra, and Borneo. Chocolate gouramis reach a length of . These fish have a chocolate colour with golden bands running down their bodies. "Sphaerichthys selatanensis" has sometimes been treated as a subspecies of "S. osphromenoides". They are restricted to peat habitats. Unlike many other labyrinth fish, which breed by incubating their eggs in a bubble nest, this species is a mouthbrooder. Even more unusually, this species is a maternal mouthbrooder, with the female incubating the eggs in her mouth; all other anabantoid mouthbrooders
Kissing gourami do not guard, are spherical, smooth, and buoyant. Initial development is rapid: the eggs hatch after one day, and the fry are free-swimming two days thereafter. The kissing gourami does not care for its young. The kissing gourami present a kind of behavior associated with their characteristic jaw and mouth: two individuals approach their mouths in both mediolateral and dorsoventral planes and press for a few seconds. This type of "kiss" has given "H. temminkii" the common name of kissing gourami has been considered an intraspecific aggressive behavior also known as "mouth fight" due to the contraction of the jaw