do gouramis eat plants?

[houndour]

Hello,

I have a planted tank and I was going to get 1 male/1 female gourami. Are they notorious for eating plants?

 

[xanthianacid]

Absolutely. Part of their natural diet. Be prepared to lose some of your pretty underwater garden. Our gourami's kept the plants down to bare minimum with some help from swordfishies for quite some time until we brought lots. Good luck!

 

[houndour]

are there plants that they won't eat?

How would hairgrass fair with gouramis? Do they eat amazon swords? Or just the smaller leaf varieties?

 

[xXMrBonesXx]

my opalines dont eat plants unless they do it while im not watching

 

[cometcattle]

I've kept Sparkling, Croaking, and Dwarf Flame Red Gouramis in planted tanks, and I've never seen them touch plants.

 

[sylvia]

Most gouramies, being omnivorous, do appreciate a little plant material in their diet. However, very few will actualy destroy a planted tank. Hairgrass should not be a problem and they deffinately won't damage amazon sword. The only gourami I can think of that does regularly cause major plant damage in your average tank is the kissing gourami.

 

[Katchan]

As my wife said (xanthianacid) our gouramis ( a blue and 3 spot) absolutly decimated the milfoil (lots of nice tender shoots/leaves), to such an extent that I have now removed what remains to another tank, elodia they eat but not as much, the dont touch the amazon sword, anubus or the java fern while the wisteria is an occasional munch.

 

[annka5]

I've 2 dwarf gourami and they completely polished off a twisted valis plant in an evening. I was daft enough to sit and watch them - well, had no-where else to put the plant anyhow.
However, they don't touch any of the other plants in there (sword plant, hair grass)

 

[squirrelrabbits]

My dwarf gourami has never eaten any of my plants but he did dismantle one planted tank when he was in the nest-building mood a few weeks ago. Eventually I moved him to another (planted) tank and he has since stopped doing it. I have another (male) dwarf and he's never done anything of the kind.

 

[houndour]

I guess I need to prepare myself not to be too attached to my plants then!

 

[oldskool]

I have 2 dwarf goramis and since introducing them to my tank they have eaten two of my favourite plants. The male in particular likes eating plants and all he does is hide all day long - I rarely see him as he is so timid - will introducing another pair make any difference - he is a beautiful fish - but i am condisering getting rid of him beacause I never get to see him

 

[houndour]

I don't know if you can keep 2 pairs of the same species. A gourami expert might help. But I think I've seen it said that you should keep pairs of different gouramis. But don't quote me on that.

I was due to get my gouramis tomorrow, have waited very patiently for 3 weeks. But I've just added Melafix to the tank cos my Guppy is injured. I didn't want to risk introducing new fish at this stage. Have I made the right decision?

 

[sylvia]

oldskool - assuming you have a male/female pair (not 2 males as is common), and provided you have a good-sized tank (say 30 gallons), you could add another pair. However, this wouldn't encourage your current male to come out any more than he does now. Making him do so would invlve making him feel more secure in his environment. How big is your tank? What fish do you have and how many of each? Do you have lots of tall rooted and/or floating plants? Also, how long have you had him and the female and does he ever chase her around?