Pink Kissing Gourami Not Eating

[charlie4486]

I have two kissing gourami's in a 55 gallon tank with 6 black skirt tetras and 2 gold dojos. i have noticed that one of the gouramis isn't eating. the other one immediately comes up and gets food, but the other one just sits at the bottom and eats algae. is algae enough? help!

 

[charlie4486]

Help Please!

 

[CPQ]

Have you noticed the other kisser chasing the one that won't eat?

My two fight like mad and one of them is constantly getting picked on by the larger one. She also hides away and doesn't come out for feeding time - I just have to put some flakes over where she's hiding while all the others are in a feeding frenzy to make sure she gets fed. I'm hoping to move her out into a seperate tank soon.

I'm afraid that's my only idea - in the meantime, make sure she's getting a bit of food every feed and watch to see if it's that she doesn't want the food or that she won't come out to get it!?
It might be that she's eating left over food flakes from the bottom rather than algae.

And also - kissers like vegetabley food I've heard so try putting some lettuce or cucumber out and see if she shows an interest in that!

oh - and is there any sign of her being unwell at all? Does she swim properly/look healthy!? And is her stomach looking concave (right word??) - you need to look to see if she's starving or just finding her food supply elsewhere!

 

[charlie4486]

Thanks for the advice. the other gourami actually has chased it around before but it doesn't show any stress or any discoloration. It swims around just fine and most of the time the two swim together peacefully. I've tried to put some romaine lettuce in there before but neither of the gouramis seem to show any interest in it. It just really seems to not show any interest at all at feeding time. I'm going to try and isolate it as soon as i get my 20gal set up. hopefully it will eat. thanks again for the advice. I'm going to keep a close eye on the situation.

 

[sylvia]

Another idea, if you are particularly worried, is to try feeding some pellet foods - catfish pellets or algae wafers for example - as well as flake. You may find the other kisser is simply nervous about coming to the surface - whether it's because of its tankmate or not.

Also try feeding some live foods. They should be unable to resist brine shrimp or blood worms and this'll at least let you know whether you're dealing with an aggression issue or if it's down to a lack of appetite brought on by disease.

Oh and, BTW, the kisser won't actually starve if it's eating algae. It'll be getting lots of other leftovers etc as well.

 

[charlie4486]

thanks , i'll go pick up some algae wafers asap.

 

[charlie4486]

RIP... I found my Pink kisser dead today. it seemed to be eating just fine and it had good color and it swam around fine but for some reason it died. the other kisser had even stopped chasing it around. i need to get some more so my other pink kisser won't be lonely. i'm going to add 2 more females. thanks for the advice guys.

 

[Kgforlife]

Yea sorry to hear kg's eat slowly and any competition for food may result in less food then needed