[Peter Finke]

It is very praiseworthy that Paul is attentive to this question and examines this case. For we have nearly lost real deissneri. The only living pair spawns regularly but the larvae don’t develop. It’s a pity.
Helene is fully right, however; it is not possible to determine this fish clearly by this video. But it is highly improbable that it is a real deissneri. Why?
1. The real male deissneri is more longish in its bodily appearance than this fish;
2. The turquoise bands in his unpaired fins are strikingly special among all other members of this genus and they are very conspicuous in their dotted composition. They must be recognizable even with fins partly not spread because they lie in the middle of the fins’ width.
3. The tail is elongated and bears a black filament.
4. The ventrals have rather long filaments.
None of these very special markers are to be seen with the fish in the video. In my opinion it is an ordinary spec. Sentang.
The only reason why one could have second thoughts on this matter is that the fish was bought at an AAGB meeting. Allan Brown bred real deissneri over many years and distributed all of them in Britain and Germany some years ago. There is a slight chance that there might be offspring of these fish still to be found. But it is unlikely, however. The name “deissneri” says nothing. All people who don’t know exactly what they talk about, abd especially the fish trade , call nearly all licorice gouramis like this.
Nevertheless it was fully right that Paul calls attention to thus case. Why? See above.