My Pearl Gourami...

[jakester]

Hi, i am getting very worried about my small Pearl Gourami, he does not come to the surface to feed and when he manages to catch a falling flake he just spits it out again. I think he may have had some frozen food the over day but most of it he just spat out, im getting pretty worried, he is one of my favourite fish and very small (1 1/2 inchs).

 

[sylvia]

Is he in with other gouramies?

Anyway, he should be fine. I'd only be worried if he doesn't take the food in the first place. Many fish will take food, swallow some and spit out the rest. It's normal. If you're really worried, try feeding something different. Flake all the time gets monotonous and can cause constipation. Try mroe live and frozen foods - most gouramies love brine shrimp, daphnia, bloodworm and blackworm. Also try catfish pellets, spirulina flake, algae wafers, crushed or deshelled green peas, blanched zucchini and pellet foods. The more you vary, the more balanced the diet - plus you'll get to know what your fish like and what they don't

 

[jakester]

Ok thanks, when i put the food in he usually is hiding or starts hiding and therefore does not get any food!

 

[sylvia]

Try feeding wafers or pellets - they last longer and you can use them to distract some of the fish if you put in a few at either end of the tank or feed them in conjunction with something else. It might also help to feed twice, or even three times, a day (if you don't already) - but always small amounts so that you aren't polluting the water. In fact, little and often is far more like what they would get in the wild anyway.

 

[-germ-]

On top of sylvias advice.
I encoutered similar problems with my wild dwarf gourami S i think), because my thick lipped (ditto) gourami would eat most of the food before the nervous dwarves got a chance.
I found it easiest to put a little flake in to distract the greedy gourami, then reach in to my dwarves hiding place and sprinkle a little flake for them. If your fish is nervous and stressed by your presence you could also use a pippette or (clean ) turkey baster, put a little tank water in a cup sprinkle the flake in and try squirting it next to the fish.
Also keep an eye out for your gourami nipping at tank glass, plants, ornaments etc. If you have built up any algae they'll graze on this.
Not that it is anything bad but to be safe make sure you keep checking your water stats regularly and keep an eye out for any lesions, damaged fins, missing scales or other things out of place on your fish.