Taking the plunge back into the water again

[Fruitbat]

Howdy y'all (and that's the last Texas twang you'll get from me).

Just getting back into the aquarium addiction...errrr....hobby from a nearly 20 year absence. My...my...my how much things have changed!! I started with my first aquarium (a whopping 10 gallon) back in the mid-1960s and ended up with a little over 4000 gallons total tank space by the mid-1980. That's when marriage and mortgage put an end to my aquatic extravagances.

Well....now I'm back...in a small sort of way. I finally convinced the spousal unit (wife) that I wouldn't be happy without some sort of aquarium in the house. I bought a nice bow-front 26 gallon that I've now got stocked with 3 Blue Gouramis, 4 hefty Tiger Barbs, 2 Yo-yo loaches, a Red-tailed Zebra Loach (Schistura subfusca or whatever species it is named today), an unidentified loach similar to the Zebra, and a small Farlowella (which will be headed for another tank as soon as I get one).

I stumbled on this site quite by accident but it has been a most pleasant discovery! I hope to pick up a lot of new information and to share some of my 'old-timer' stuff at the same time!

[Allivymar]

*grin* To make it official, although we've already started talking about it, welcome to Aquariumadvice Fruitbat!

[tkos]

Yes, welcome back to fish keeping. Sorry to jump on things right away but don't those gouramis grow to like 12 inches long? Or are they a dwarf variety?

[Fruitbat]

Blue Gouramis aren't exactly dwarfs but they're not the so-called True Gouramy (Osphronemus gouramy) either. Trichogaster trichopterus (Blue Gourami) grows to about 4 inches and is relatively peaceful for an Anabantid. It isn't a good idea to put two males in the same tank, however. There is also a 'gold' variety that was developed in East Germany quite some time ago that has become fairly common in the aquarium trade.

They do very well in my tank and ignore all of the other fish completely.

[ferret]

Yep yep. 4 in variety gouramis rock! Have you ever seen a true 'Common' gourami? :P They grow two feet :P

Welcome FB

[e-cat]

welcome too AA

[reefrunner69]

to AquariumAdvice.com!!