really odd question regarding a glutton and hair grass

[thrujenseyes]

Some of you may know that I have a guppy that is such a glutton that I'm always having issues with him. Obviously he was missing in line when the fish gods handed out brains.

Anyway...his recent (about two weeks) is picking at the dwarf hair grass until a piece comes loose (or sometimes there are a few that get loose somehow and are free floating).
He tries to eat it, starting from one end and of course can't manage to swallow the entire 2ish inches of it so he's swimming around with a piece of grass as long or longer than his body.

The first few times I saw this I was able to pull it out as he swam by me (since he's always looking for food, he'll swim up to my hand).

A few days ago when I attempted this same thing I actually pulled him out of the water a little bit because the grass had gone down further than previous times (I suppose).

And last night when I came home from work he was sitting on the bottom with yet again another piece of hair grass. He NEVER sits on bottom.
I had to assume he'd been trying to deal with that all day.

I couldn't get it as he wouldn't come to top so I actually had to net him and pull it out.
There was definite resistance.
But I got it and he quickly became his usual happy (stupid) self.

Is this normal?!?! And should I be pulling it out? I'm worried I'll mess up his little intestines or something?!

 

[HarpyFishLover]

Guppies are odd creatures. Mine will devour a plant to extinction and act completely normal about it. I suspect that that's just how he behaves... there's nothing wrong with him. However, I do think you are right about pulling the grass out of his mouth if it's too big for him.

He might be doing this as a result of not having enough nutrients in his diet. Feeding a variety of lettuce, peas, and flake/pellet food (depending on the size, he may or may not be able to swallow a pellet) should fix the problem if that's the cause.

 

[thrujenseyes]

Guppies are odd creatures. Mine will devour a plant to extinction and act completely normal about it. I suspect that that's just how he behaves... there's nothing wrong with him. However, I do think you are right about pulling the grass out of his mouth if it's too big for him.

He might be doing this as a result of not having enough nutrients in his diet. Feeding a variety of lettuce, peas, and flake/pellet food (depending on the size, he may or may not be able to swallow a pellet) should fix the problem if that's the cause.

I think he's just a glutton because I blanch a different veggie once a week for the tank to make sure my otocinclus get fed and of course the piggy is always nipping at it also. So he gets a variety of flake/shrimp and the fresh blanched veggies.



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