For a hidden fish, the log is the observation
Licorice gouramis are small, retiring blackwater fish that spend much of their lives inside caves, under leaves, and deep in plant cover. You will not weigh one — handling would terrify a fish this shy and tell you nothing useful — but a health log is arguably more important for this species than for any bold, visible fish. With a licorice gourami, casual watching yields almost no information; days can pass without a clear sighting. A structured weekly log, where you deliberately check each shelter and record what you find, is often the only reliable record of whether each fish is feeding, holding territory, and still present at all.
Water notes carry extra weight here
Most fish logs treat water readings as background. For licorice gouramis they are central, because this species comes from peat swamp water that is very soft and distinctly acidic, and it falters when conditions drift toward harder, more neutral water. Every entry should carry the readings that matter for this fish: acidity, temperature, and any change in how you prepare water, such as a fresh batch of leaf litter, new botanicals, or a different remineralising routine. When a fish later looks dull or stops breeding, that water history is the first place you and any vet will look, and a log that skipped it leaves the most likely cause unrecorded.
What to write at each deliberate check
Work shelter by shelter rather than scanning the whole tank. Note which cave, tube, or leaf pile each fish occupies, because licorice gouramis hold small territories and a fish displaced from its usual cave by a rival is useful information. Record male colour honestly: a settled male shows dark body tones with bright blue edging on the fins, and a male who has gone washed-out for successive checks is flagging stress or illness. Log feeding in detail — this species often insists on small live or frozen foods and may refuse dry food entirely, so note what was offered, what was actually taken, and which fish you personally saw eat. A fish you have not seen feed across several checks deserves a targeted watch at the next feeding, food delivered near its shelter.
Breeding signs worth capturing
Licorice gouramis are cave spawners, and a male guarding a cave, driving others away from its entrance, and refusing food for stretches may be tending eggs or fry rather than sickening. Without notes, that behaviour is easily misread as decline. Record guarding behaviour, the dates it starts, and any first sighting of fry near the cave mouth. Over time the log builds a breeding history for the pair — how often they spawn, whether fry survive, which cave they choose — information that is genuinely hard to reconstruct afterwards and valuable if the fish are ever passed to another specialist keeper.
Knowing when absence becomes a concern
One missed sighting means little for this species; a fish can sit deep in a cave for days. Treat a pattern as the threshold instead: no confirmed sighting and no food taken across several scheduled checks, a male's colour gone and not returning, or any fish found out in the open sitting on the substrate, which is very unlike a healthy licorice gourami. At that point, test the water against your logged history first, then contact an aquatic veterinarian with the record in hand, since the written timeline of water, appetite, and territory is the strongest evidence available for a fish that hides its symptoms.
A fitting home for specialist notes
Keepers of this fish accumulate exactly the kind of detail — water recipes, cave maps, spawning dates — that evaporates when it lives in scattered phone notes. Gathering it in KinsLe's Pet Passport holds your licorice gourami's whole history in one portable packet, so the knowledge you have built up travels with the fish to a vet or a fellow specialist.