Parasphaerichthys

This species is sometimes traded under the names 'mini chocolate gourami', 'Burmese chocolate gourami' or mislabelled as the congener P. ocellatus, these two currently comprising the only known members of the genus. P. lineatus can be told apart from P. ocellatus via the following combination of characters: smaller body size (maximum standard length 18.7 mm vs. 32.0 mm); absence of ocellus-type marking in middle of each flank (vs. presence); presence of dark, stripe (vs. abs...

To date the species is known mostly from the upper Ayeyarwady River basin in northern Myanmar where it's been collected close to the city of Myitkyina in Kachin State as well as around nearby Lake Indawgyi, the largest inland lake in Southeast Asia and home to ten globally threatened bird species. The lake and surrounding area were designated a protected zone by the Ministry of Ecotourism in 1999 and now form the Indawgyi Lake Wildlife Sanc...