The girl is just a pig!

[bosk1]

I have had my two gouramis for about a month now. Both were purchased fairly small. In the month I have had them, the gold gourami has grown just a bit. The blue has about doubled in size! And she is such a food hog! My usual method of feeding is to sprinkle a bit of flake food and/or freeze dried bloodworms to keep the gouramis and shark busy at the top of the tank, and then drop a wafer or two for the loach/pleco to find. I am not worried about the gold gourami or the shark. Even though the blue tends to chase the gold out of the way when there is food present, the gold and the shark still seem to get enough. But she not only hogs a great deal of the surface food, but then once it is all gone, she prowls the bottom in search of the wafers. I think she has been doing that all along, which is why she is so fat dispite the fact that I feed relatively small amounts. (enough to be eaten in about a minute or so, not counting whatever small bits manage to fall to the bottom without being snatched up) But it is only recently that I have caught her doing it immediately after the flakes/worms are gone. She has figured out the routine, and knows there will be something down at the bottom of the tank!

 

[An t-iasg]

LOL! Maybe she has a pleco gene or two!

I notice my bettas doing the same thing sometimes. When I feed pea pieces, sometimes they fall to the bottom before the betta sees them. I try to notice where they fall so I can vac them up later. The betta must remember that a piece of food floated away, and he will hunt for it. A lot of the time, I will see that the betta is down on the bottom, nibbling at the gravel, and I notice that he did find the fallen food and I don't need to vac it up anymore.

 

[AmberAcid]

I had this problem with a gold gourami. It is amazing how fast he could eat a wafer and then his sides bulged out. I started using old tongs to place the wafer in a cave that he couldn't fit into. The pleco would get some of it until the wafer worked it's way out of the cave and the gourami would eat it. Now the pleco is bigger than the gourami and no longer needs the cave to keep his food.

 

[bosk1]

If only she weren't still so shy about just hanging out in the open instead of always hiding behind plants (except when she's eating), she would be the best fish ever.

 

[bosk1]

Hmm, not many responses... Sorry for the un-pc title. I thought it was funny...

 

[Zagz]

I think some of my cichlids are related to your gourami, LOL. They are such piggies and two of them are definately fatter than they should be, I try to get them to eat less but still have to feed the tank obviously. They are healthy like yours so I guess I shouldn't complain.

 

[RoK]

Yeah, mine do the same.