Giant Gourami

Question
Hi there, ok here's my question and I hope I can get a solution for this. I've had a red eye albino Giant gourami for 8 years but Its only about 1ft. I've been feeding it vegetables(leafy), feeder fish, glass shrimp and also pellets. I search around the internet and people claim that their Giant Gourami(I'm not sure what type) grow at a fast rate up to 2ft(max)! So I'm wondering why mine is just 1ft in 8 years? Oh yes another question, my RED EYE ALBINO GIANT GOURAMI use to love eating pellets, but now he just ignores them...why is that and how do I make him eat it again? For your information, he eats everything else but pellets. I feed the pellets to my pond fish and they eat it. So to sum up 2 question: 1.Why is my giant gourami only 1ft in 8years?
2.How to make him eat pellets again.

Answer
Hi,
As you probably noticed over 8 years is that giant gouramis are very smart, personable fish. He stopped eating the pellets because he prefers the other food you give him, an he knows you'll give that to him instead. i recommend feeding very small amounts of the other food in with the pellets, and leave the pellets in the tank for a while. He should get the point soon.

It's not uncommon for the internet or books to say fish grow larger than they actually do, for example, I have had my archer fish for nearly 7 years in a 300 gallon tank. They are perfectly healthy, but they are only 6", even though I have heard of them getting up to 18". Point being, size given in books and the internet are rarely reliable. The other thing is i believe the albinos are smaller. I have seen tons of giant gourami exceeding 2', but they have all been normal color. I have seen just as many, if not more albinos, but i haven't seen any larger than about a foot.