In this work we explore an alternative phenomenological model to Chaplygin gas proposed by Hova et al. (Int J Mod Phys D 26:1750178, 2017), consisting on a modification of a perfect fluid, to explain the dynamics of dark matter and dark energy at cosmological scales immerse in a flat or curved universe. Adopting properties similar to a Chaplygin gas, the proposed model is a mixture of dark matter and dark energy components parameterized by only one free parameter denoted as $$\mu $$ $\mu$ . We focus on contrasting this model with the most recent cosmological observations of Type Ia supernovae and Hubble parameter measurements. Our joint analysis yields a value $$\mu = 0.843^{+0.014}_{-0.015}\,$$ $\mu =0.{843}_{-0.015}^{+0.014}$ ($$0.822^{+0.022}_{-0.024}$$ $0.{822}_{-0.024}^{+0.022}$ ) for a flat (curved) universe. Furthermore, with these constraints we also estimate the deceleration parameter today $$q_0=-0.67 \pm 0.02\,(-0.51\pm 0.07)$$ $q_0=-0.67\pm 0.02(-0.51\pm 0.07)$ , the acceleration-deceleration transition redshift $$z_t=0.57\pm 0.04\, (0.50 \pm 0.06)$$ $z_t=0.57\pm 0.04(0.50\pm 0.06)$ , and the universe age $$t_A = 13.108^{+0.270}_{-0.260}\,\times (12.314^{+0.590}_{-0.430})\,$$ $t_A=13.{108}_{-0.260}^{+0.270}\times (12.{314}_{-0.430}^{+0.590})$ Gyrs. We also report a best value of $$\varOmega _k = 0.183^{+0.073}_{-0.079}$$ ${\Omega }_k=0.{183}_{-0.079}^{+0.073}$ consistent at $$3\sigma $$ $3\sigma$ with the one reported by Planck Collaboration. Our analysis confirm the results by Hova et al. this Chaplygin gas-like is a plausible alternative to explain the nature of the dark sector of the universe.