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Helostoma temminckii Cuvier, 1829

Kissing gourami
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Classification / Names Common names | Synonyms | Catalog of Fishes(genus, species) | ITIS | CoL | WoRMS | Cloffa

Teleostei (teleosts) > Anabantiformes (Gouramies, snakeheads) > Helostomatidae (Kissing gouramies)
Etymology: Helostoma: Greek, helo = nail + Greek, stoma = mouth (Helos has the "e" long) (Ref. 45335).
Eponymy: Coenraad Jacob Temminck (1778–1858) was a Dutch zoologist, illustrator and collector. [...] (Ref. 128868), visit book page.
More on author: Cuvier.

Environment: milieu / climate zone / depth range / distribution range Ecology

Freshwater; benthopelagic; pH range: 6.0 - 8.0; dH range: 5 - 19; potamodromous (Ref. 51243); depth range 2 - ? m. Tropical; 22°C - 28°C (Ref. 1672); 16°N - 6°S

Distribution Countries | FAO areas | Ecosystems | Occurrences | Point map | Introductions | Faunafri

Asia: Thailand to Indonesia.

Size / Weight / Age

Maturity: Lm ?  range ? - ? cm
Max length : 30.0 cm TL male/unsexed; (Ref. 7050)

Biology     Glossary (e.g. epibenthic)

Occurs in lakes and rivers (Ref. 56749). An air-breathing species (Ref. 118402). Prefers slow-moving water with thick vegetation. Feeds on a variety of plants and animals, including green algae and zooplankton (Ref. 6459) as well as aquatic insects near the water surface (Ref. 12693). Utilized fresh for steaming, pan-frying, broiling and baking (Ref. 9987); also processed as dried or salted fish; ripe ovaries are collected and separately eaten (Ref. 56749). Large quantities of small fish are exported for aquarium use in Japan, Europe, North America, Australia and other parts of the world (Ref. 9987). Very popular with aquarists due to its habit of sucking its lips and kissing other fishes, plants and other objects (Ref. 4833). Aquarium keeping: not recommended for home aquariums; minimum aquarium size 150 cm (Ref. 51539).

Life cycle and mating behavior Maturity | Reproduction | Spawning | Eggs | Fecundity | Larvae

Spawning usually occurs under floating vegetation. Eggs hatch in a day and fry become free-swimming 2 days after.

Main reference Upload your references | References | Coordinator | Collaborators

Kottelat, M., 2013. The fishes of the inland waters of Southeast Asia: a catalogue and core bibliography of the fishes known to occur in freshwaters, mangroves and estuaries. The Raffles Bulletin of Zoology 2013 (Suppl. 27):1-663. (Ref. 94476)

IUCN Red List Status (Ref. 130435: Version 2024-1)

  Least Concern (LC) ; Date assessed: 19 September 2019

CITES

Not Evaluated

CMS (Ref. 116361)

Not Evaluated

Threat to humans

  Harmless





Human uses

Fisheries: highly commercial; aquaculture: commercial; gamefish: yes; aquarium: highly commercial
FAO - Aquaculture systems: production; Fisheries: landings, species profile; Publication: search | FishSource |

More information

Trophic ecology
Food items
Diet composition
Food consumption
Food rations
Predators
Ecology
Ecology
Population dynamics
Growth parameters
Max. ages / sizes
Length-weight rel.
Length-length rel.
Length-frequencies
Mass conversion
Recruitment
Abundance
Life cycle
Reproduction
Maturity
Maturity/Gills rel.
Fecundity
Spawning
Spawning aggregations
Eggs
Egg development
Larvae
Larval dynamics
Distribution
Countries
FAO areas
Ecosystems
Occurrences
Introductions
BRUVS - Videos
Anatomy
Gill area
Brain
Otolith
Physiology
Body composition
Nutrients
Oxygen consumption
Swimming type
Swimming speed
Visual pigments
Fish sound
Diseases & Parasites
Toxicity (LC50s)
Genetics
Genetics
Heterozygosity
Heritability
Human related
Aquaculture systems
Aquaculture profiles
Strains
Ciguatera cases
Stamps, coins, misc.
Outreach
Collaborators
Taxonomy
Common names
Synonyms
Morphology
Morphometrics
Pictures
References
References

Tools

Bio-Quiz | E-book | Field guide | Length-frequency wizard | Life-history tool | Point map | Classification Tree | Catch-MSY |

Special reports

Check for Aquarium maintenance | Check for Species Fact Sheets | Check for Aquaculture Fact Sheets

Download XML

Summary page | Point data | Common names | Photos

Internet sources

AFORO (otoliths) | Alien/Invasive Species database | Aquatic Commons | BHL | Cloffa | BOLDSystems | Websites from users | Check FishWatcher | CISTI | Catalog of Fishes: genus, species | DiscoverLife | ECOTOX | FAO - Aquaculture systems: production; Fisheries: landings, species profile; Publication: search | Faunafri | Fishipedia | Fishtrace | GenBank: genome, nucleotide | GloBI | Google Books | Google Scholar | Google | IGFA World Record | MitoFish | Otolith Atlas of Taiwan Fishes | Public aquariums | PubMed | Reef Life Survey | Socotra Atlas | Tree of Life | Wikipedia: Go, Search | World Records Freshwater Fishing | Zoological Record

Estimates based on models

Phylogenetic diversity index (Ref. 82804):  PD50 = 1.5000   [Uniqueness, from 0.5 = low to 2.0 = high].
Bayesian length-weight: a=0.01995 (0.00906 - 0.04395), b=3.01 (2.83 - 3.19), in cm total length, based on all LWR estimates for this body shape (Ref. 93245).
Trophic level (Ref. 69278):  2.8   ±0.33 se; based on food items.
Generation time: 1.3 ( na - na) years. Estimated as median ln(3)/K based on 1 growth studies.
Resilience (Ref. 120179):  High, minimum population doubling time less than 15 months (Assuming tm<=1; Fec=40,000).
Fishing Vulnerability (Ref. 59153):  Low vulnerability (19 of 100).
Price category (Ref. 80766):   Unknown.
Nutrients (Ref. 124155):  Calcium = 74.3 [26.2, 531.9] mg/100g; Iron = 1.17 [0.54, 2.41] mg/100g; Protein = 18.7 [16.0, 20.7] %; Omega3 = 0.357 [0.135, 0.972] g/100g; Selenium = 104 [36, 237] μg/100g; VitaminA = 32.3 [7.7, 145.1] μg/100g; Zinc = 1.84 [0.94, 3.65] mg/100g (wet weight); based on nutrient studies.