Website Review

It is perhaps not a well known fact that my favorite type of fish is the anabantids.  This family includes gourami, betta and Paradise fish as its main members.  Unlike the cichlid family, which has hundreds of sites dedicated to it, the Labyrinth fishes have few sites dedicated to their wonderful variety and behavior.  Labyrinth Fishes is itself not even a site.  Rather, it is a sub-site of one of the largest sites on the internet aquariumsite.org.  In and of itself, it is one of the largest if not the largest site in regards to labyrinth fish on the internet.

Original Content (9)

In your search for information about anabantids, you are likely to find that there is not really any content available on the internet.  What's more, their aren't a lot of good books on the subject matter either.  In the end, this means that the wealth of information on this site becomes even more valuable to aquarists.  A nice extra touch is the ability to add links from the profile of each fish on the site to other pages.  This helps the site become a gathering place of good gourami information.  The information on the site is quite original and very helpful.

Value to the Hobby (9)

Due to the lack of information available both online and through print about anabantids, the value of this site to our hobby is nearly invaluable.  It contains great amounts of information especially helpful in distinguishing the specific species apart from each other within families.  It also adds information about the origin of each species, and photos that help to distinguish one species from another.  Perhaps the most amazing thing about gourami is that there are so many species, and so few of them are known in the hobby.  There are perhaps more than 50 species of betta alone! (of which most ARE listed on this site!)

Visuals (6)

The visuals of the site are fine but dated.  The visual layout of the site could certainly use an update to match the quality of the material.  The layout itself seems cumbersome to a first time visitor, and you may need to spend a fair amount of time on the site before you begin to fully appreciate the real wealth of information that is really available. The visuals do help to get around the site to some degree, but they don't give more than an average web experience.

Overall (7)

Labyrinth Fishes online is easily the best site on labyrinth fish available.  I highly encourage all who are interested in labyrinth fish to give it a pass by.  If you would like to learn more, there is certainly plenty of information to be gleaned, and you may find yourself wanting some obscure betta species that you hadn't even realized existed before you visited the site.  Though this isn't the most visually stunning site on the internet, it does well what we love the internet for->"dispersing free information of good quality."