The dwarf gourami has diagonal turquoise blue stripes on their reddish orange body. The males are larger and more colorful than females. The male becomes very brightly colored at spawning time. Their nature and needs of treatment are similar to those of pearl gouramis, they will eat anything they are being feed, however they prefer live foods and prepared mixtures. Best spawned in a separate aquarium especially setup for this purpose. Place a well-conditioned pair into a 40-liter or 60-liter, thickly planted aquarium with a lot of floating plants. The spawn can consist of 300 to 700 eggs. After spawning is completed, female should be removed. The male will tend spawn until fry become free swimming, and then he should be removed too.

The males of honey gourami have beautiful bright orange-yellow color. The females are plain, have slightly shaded brownish orange body with a silvery fluorescent glow. They prefer aquariums with some thickly planted areas and with some open swimming areas. They usually eat anything you provide them with. These fish are moderately easy to breed, though a little more difficult than dwarf gourami. For a pair, prepare a 40-liter aquarium without air stone or filter. The male will build a large bubble nest. The eggs will when laid float up into bubble nest, where male will guard over them until they hatch and fry becomes free swimming, which is when he should be removed. The female should be removed right after spawning.

During their spawning process, they will use their mouths to clean a flat rock, and female will lay her eggs there. Not all eggs are laid at once; female will take breathers, at which time male moves in and fertilizes eggs. A female usually lays 1,000-2,000 eggs. The eggs are opaque at first, turning transparent in 24 hours. After eggs are laid, both parents watch over eggs, wafting eggs with their fin and guarding them against predators. Occasionally they take eggs in their mouth, which keeps them clean and turns up bad eggs, which are then destroyed.

If a constant tank temperature is maintained, eggs should hatch in about 36 hours. At first, fry cannot swim, but they squirm "en masse" on rock, living off egg sac, for about 4 days. The parents constantly attend to their young at this time. Feeding these fry is easier than other breeds, because of baby Oscar's relatively large size. A good and simple plan is to crush regular processed flake food in your fingers, and just drop it in. Turn off filtration during fry feeding time to make it easier for them to find their bits of food.

How parents act towards their fry depends entirely on each fish personality. Some have numerous spawn and never bother their fry; others easily eat their young. To be on safe side, you can separate fry from their parents. However I do not recommend this until parents have had a few unsuccessful spawnings. The fry will reach 1.5 to 2 inches after 12 weeks at which time they can be sold.