Female Dwarf Gourami eating plants!

[jodie_jo]

My female dwarf gourami keeps eating my plants, as a result pooping ALL THE TIME! Do I leave her? Or take the plants out? Sometimes her poop is 3 or 4 inches long, is this normal???

Thanks.

Apologies if you are eating dinner!

 

[malkore]

what else are you feeding her?

my gouramis picked at certain plants, but plants are fiberous, and shouldn't result in long stringing feces.

i suspect she is eating plants to clean out her system.

probably way too much protein. make sure you vary the diet.

 

[jodie_jo]

I feed her fish flakes. I feed my oto cucumber so she may have been nibbling that? But flakes are her main source of food. What else can I give her?

 

[Guest]

I fed my gouramis flakes, freezedried blood worms, and aquatic frog food(because my frog died and they LOVED it). She picked at the plants and the rocks but did not "eat" them. maybe she is just hungry!

 

[kyektulu]

I really wouldnt worry too much.

I used to keep quite a few dwarf gouramis and they had a tendency to eat one plant in particula, Bacopa.

They never touched any other plants in the aquarium.

This wasnt much of a problem at first, untiull they harvested the aquarium dry of the leaves leaving long unsightly spines.

They often didnt bother eating the leaves just tearing at them for fun and watching them drift away, sometimes even the male would pick the leaves with the female near by for her to eat, I dont know if this was a courtship display or not as I havn't been able to find any reference to it.

I found that the drawf gouramis do this regaurdless of hunger.

My fish got fed a small amout of flake in the morning and live food (mainly daphnia or bloodworm) in the evening.

I do not think you should be too concerned at this, she obviously enjoys the plant as her main source of food.

If you dont want the plant to be picked as you find it unsightly in your tank, take it out and she will soon be munching away on the flake like all the other fish.

 

[IceH2O]

My male dwarf gourmais pull leaves and use them to hold their bubble nest together. Until i noticed I'd just scoop the leaves out. Then I'd see more leaves the next day so I watched the tank and seen them pulling leaves. Now I just leave some floating so they can use them.

 

[Creamhorses]

Jodie

Thanks for starting this thread. I have 3 gourami's that seem to like picking @ my micro sword plants. They get quite aggressive @ times and seem to want something close to the area where the plants emerge from the substrate. Sometimes from the outside, but they'll also dive straight down into the plant from the top and all but seem to pull the Be Jeezus out of the 'grass'.

OK so, it's their 'house' and I accept the fact that they're doing what comes natural, but it's not from hunger, as they will do this soon after eating. I rotate from flakes to live worms, to frozen BS....feeding on average twice daily, and no more than they'll clean up in a couple minutes.

I really want my micro sword plants to grow into a carpet, but @ this rate of abuse, I don't think they'll remain healthy for long.

Don't have another tank @ the moment, but the LFS does, and if I get frustrated enough, I'll bring the 3 gourami's back to the store. They are the only fish that bother. And these new plants are right up in front where I can watch it all...all too well.

For now I'll leave 'em alone, and get to work doing something besides spending all this time fussing over a mere hobbie.


Dave