[Peter Finke]

Reply to Jacob:
Jacob, you asked for the plants I use in my small tanks. I could take that as a difficult or as an easy question. It’s difficult if taken generally: How to combine plant growth and stable healthy conditions for licorice gouramis in small tanks without a permament water flow? We must discuss that, without doubt. But here, I shall take it as an easy question, simply asking for the plants I use.
Mostly Vesicularia submerged and Ceratopteris at the water surface, as we said already. It’s a problem with submerged plants to stand the low light, the low pH and the low contents of dissolved nutrients. Therefore I use other plants only a few here and then: a small piece of a Ludwigia palustris or repens, a small piece of Potamogeton gayi, here and there a small Cryptocoryne, different species, in a small pot. For I have only a very thin layer of brown or black gravels at the bottom of my tanks (much less than 1 cm), thought as a settling ground for bacteria; it’s too thin for most plant roots. Only recently I found that a very tender Utricularia, perhaps gibba, is doing quite well in these conditions, building nests of tender growth. Often, it grows on the surface, too, building thicker layers there. So we arrive at the floating plants. Ceratopteris thalictroides is best, but there are Salvinia auriculata, some small pads of Riccia fluitans which tend to become fragile and loose there, or the unavoidable Lemna spec..
So you see: I avoid rooted plants which need to be planted in a thick layer on the bottom, although I love them and let them grow in some other, bigger tanks with other fish. But I know: There are people successfully growing and breeding Parosphromenus in such tanks, too. I think, that the most important thing is – besides the low content of dissolved salts and nutrients in the water that you need for the survival of the eggs of the licorice gouramis – not the low pH as such, but the avoidance of noxious bacteria and germs, harmful to eggs, larvae and inducing infections with the fish. You can manage that with planted aquaria, but also you can produce quite the contrary conditions.
But here the difficult version of the question begins, and therefore I finish. (But we can and must discuss that!)