Trichopodus is a genus of gouramis in family Osphronemidae, native to Southeast Asia - Thailand, Cambodia, Indonesia, Vietnam, Laos, Malaysia, and southern China - with at least one species also established outside its native range, in Colombia. Like other anabantoids, they possess a labyrinth organ that lets them breathe atmospheric air, an adaptation to the oxygen-poor swamps, ponds, and slow backwaters they favor, and they build bubble nests at the water's surface to guard their eggs and fry.
This is one of the most familiar genera in the freshwater aquarium hobby. The three-spot gourami (Trichopodus trichopterus, including its blue and gold aquarium-bred forms), the pearl gourami (T. leerii), and the moonlight gourami (T. microlepis) are all long-established staples, prized for generally peaceful temperaments and, in the pearl gourami's case, striking beaded patterning. The snakeskin gourami (T. pectoralis) is also significant as a food fish farmed at scale across much of Southeast Asia. Across the genus, tolerance of a wide range of water conditions is a big part of why these fish have traveled so well in both aquaculture and the aquarium trade.