was lucky enough on one of my excursions to the local pet shop to purchase two young blue gouramis about an inch long and to have them mature into a pair. I say lucky, because usually when I buy fish this way I get two males or two females. But at the time, it didn't matter; I just wanted to add some blue to my community tank. So conditioning wasn't anything special--they got flakes daily and tubifex worms twice a week like all the other fish.

As time went by, I noticed a difference between the two gouramis. The female was a dull blue gray, three inches long, and had a much smaller dorsal fin as compared to the male's. His dorsal was longer and more pointed. His colors were deeper and more prominent, and he was about three and a half inches long. I also noticed that the female had begun to fill with eggs and looked as though she had swallowed a guppy or two.

It became apparent that I would have to get the two together, as the female had become listless and was not moving around much. This did not seem to be very likely in the 40-gallon tank, where they seldom came across each other; when they did, he chased her. I filled a 5.5-gallon tank with aged water, no air, no ...

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