I hav not kept the Samurai (Sphaerichthys vaillanti) but I have twice kept and spawned the Chocolate species S. osphromenoides and I have kept the Licorice Parosphromenus deissneri. I only could get one of the latter, and it lived for a couple years. My second time with S. osphromenoides started out with six fish and they were doing extraordinarily well, spawning periodically until I had 10 or 11. I didn't do anything to save the eggs, I let nature take its course, and many likely were eaten. Males have a light (creamy white) edge to the dorsal and anal fins, and females have a dark spot on the caudal fin; males may have a reddish-brown hue over the body. Unlike many of the anabantids that are bubblenest spawners, this species is a maternal mouthbrooder. The pair circle each other and the eggs are laid on the substrate in a shallow depression, then immediately picked up by the female and retained in her bucal cavity for up to 14 days before the fry are released. With a thick cover of floating plants, several fry will usually survive.
Sad to say I lost the entire group over a day or two due to toxic fungus from a piece of wood. Other fish in the tank (Trigonstigma hengeli, Brevibora dorsiocellata and Trichopsis pumila (these also spawned regularly) also died.
My 70g heavily planted tank was their home for a couple years, then I moved the Chocolates to a 29g and that was where they succumbed to the fungus. Photos below. Water quality being absolutely consistent does seem to be crucial here. Mine was zero GH/KH and a pH below 5 (5 being the lowest I could measure). Feeding was not at all problematic, and they readily ate quality flake foods, frozen bloodworms and frozen daphnia being once weekly treats.
This species is nearly identical to Sphaerichthys selatanensis [Vierke 1979] which was originally considered a sub-species; Roberts (1989) established the latter as a distinct species, confirmed by Kottelat et al. (1993). S. osphromenoides has a third vertical creamy-white band running from just before the dorsal fin at the top to just behind the ventral fins at the bottom; this is not present on S. selatanensis. There are now four recognized distinct species within the genus, the other two less commonly seen being S. acrostoma and S. vaillanti.
This fish was described in 1860 by G. Canestrini. The genus name derives from the Greek for a conglobate or spheric fish. The species epithet is also from the Greek and means "to look like osphromenus," a reference to the Giant Gourami, Osphronemus gorami.
