hi,

my name's gabriela, i'll be 45 in december, and i live in sweden.
fishkeeping has been a hobby of mine for the past two years, and i'm currently in the process of starting up fishtank #2 - a 67 gallon tank (fishtank # 1 is a 42 gallon tank with a bit of "fishsoup" - mostly fish i "inherited" when i bought the fishtank second hand), where i'll try to keep chocolate gourami.

i'm a member of an aquaristics society, and am trying to do a lot of research, because i want my fish to be healthy, happy and absolutely GORGEOUS (in that order)!

looking forward to getting to know you all, and hope to learn a lot from you, and share my experience with chocolate gourami with you!

Chocolate gourami eh? Good luck to you, they're pretty delicate as far as gourami go. I'm guessing you have a source for them over there? I rarely see them in my neck of the woods due to the whole delicate thing.

hi saint_felony,

i don't have a *personal* source for them, no, but i've asked at my "lfs" (which is about a two hours' drive away from where i live), and they in turn have a source for them (i even get to choose from "wild" or tank-bred, so i guess i'm spoiled! *lol*), so the actual *finding* them isn't a problem.

yes, i know they're a pretty delicate fish - i have done my research on them, and i know they're going to require a lot of tlc from me to be healthy, happy and absolutely GORGEOUS, and i'm totally prepared to do the work.
it breaks my heart to have any of my fish die, and so i promise i'm going to take VERY good care of them, because by doing so, i'm protecting myself from heartbreak!


it's funny - whenever i mention my plans to keep chocs, people on the internet seem to want to talk me out of it, stating how delicate and demanding" the chocs are - in fact, the only people who *haven't* tried to talk me out of it are the people in a labyrinth fish association...
*rofl*

i have NO intention of bringing a group of these fish home just to have them DIE because i didn't do my research or was to lazy to do the work that's necessary for them to thrive in my care!

Howdy, Gabriela, wlecome to FWM.

Nice choice of fish, one I have never kept. They are gorgeous.

Don't think anyone here is gonna try to talk ya out of it, we just wanna make sure ya know what yer gettin' into. Many times, a new, inexperienced poster will have ideas but really will have no idea what the fish needs or what he or she really needs to do to care for the fish. We really have no idea how knowledgeble a person is until they posted a few times, so we do tend to err on the side of caution until we get to know ya a bit. Definitely doesn't sound like an issue in yer case!

Are ya plannin' on a species tank, or are ya gonna have other fish in the tank? Are ya goin' with live plants? Lookin' forward to hearin' 'bout yer experience!

Ivan

hi wyomingite,

please don't think i wrote my second post in "anger" or frustration or in order to defend myself!
*lol*
i just wanted to make sure that people in here know that i have done my research.
one of the "perks" / "quirks" of having asperger syndrome is that you make sure you know "EVERYTHING" about whatever it is you're interested in, and i live and breathe (and dream about them in my sleep) chocolate gourami now!
*rofl*

yes, definitely will be using live plants - i'll get the first plants tomorrow evening when i go to the aquarists society member meeting, and then the fun begins!


i haven't decided 100% yet if i'll keep it a species tank, or if i'll try to have a small group of a beautiful subspecies of corydoras in there as well (to help with keeping the water parameters optimal for the chocs) - i'm thinking either green-gold cory or red-gold cory.

i *was* toying with the idea of having a "colo(u)rful" species of fish (barb or tetra or rasbora), because although brown *is* a colo(u)r, it isn't a very HAPPY one, but i think i've decided against it.
i want my chocs to be the main focus of the tank, and so 10-12 chocs and six or so corys will be what goes into the tank.
i think.


i'll start another thread where anyone interested in hearing about my adventures as a chocolate gourami keeper can follow this project!

mumrik wrote:

hi wyomingite,

please don't think i wrote my second post in "anger" or frustration or in order to defend myself!
*lol*

I didn't. Just lettin' ya know where we're comin' from. IMO, from what I've seen of other forums, the staff here is as knowledgeable and experienced as almost any on the web, and more so than some. We all are pretty open-minded and generally don't take things personally, but we don't hold back observations, either. I myself grew up in the hobby with only one archaic LFS owner for a mentor, aquarium magazines, and aquarium books to learn from, and have successfully done things that are s'posed to be hard or impossible simply 'cuz I didn't know "better", only to find out it was impossible later thanks to the internet and contact with other folks as I've become older.

Lookin' forward to your post and seein' the development of your tank.

WYite

Welcome to FWM! You should be able to find whatever you need here