Shrimp foods that Gourami won't go crazy for

[gouramiami57]

I have 3 honey gouramis in a 20 gallon tank and 4 coryadoras and 7 Kuhli loaches with about 20 Red Cherry shrimp. The honey gouramis are really gentle with the cherry shrimp and the shrimp get along really well with the Cories and Kuhlis, sharing the shrimp pellets for the most part.

The only issue, which is very frustrating, is when I feed the aqueon herbivore algea wafers to the shrimp, the Gouramis constantly peck at the wafers making a mess and also spooking the shrimp. When I tried breaking the pellets up unto 5 or 6 pieces, the gouramis would just makes rounds pecking at each of the pieces. Is there any food that shrimp will like that doesn't draw so much interest from Gouramis ? 

Edited December 27, 2023 by gouramiami57

[NOLANANO]

in my experience the short answer is no. I would suggest breaking the pellets up into more pieces and spreading it throughout the tank. In addition I would probably feed some sort of flake or slow sinking pellet first to distract the gouramis and then try to "sneak" the algae pellets in while the gouramis are distracted.  But unless this is a brand new tank, I don't think you need to worry about the shrimp getting enough food. They graze all the time and they will get enough from the scraps that hit the substrate and the natural food that grows naturally.

[Robert K]

I think I would either put in the wafers after the lights are out or I would feed veggies, like spinach or kale.

[nabokovfan87]

On 12/27/2023 at 12:07 PM, Robert K said:

I think I would either put in the wafers after the lights are out

Basically this is one of the best bets.

Check the ingredients on the food, if you see things like fish meal and fish oil that would attract the gourami. The issue also is that it might be too big for the fish and cause them to choke.

There are a lot of complete shrimp foods that don't have a whole lot of fish and focus on leaves, insects, or crustaceans. Those would be slightly more conducive to the shrimp getting the food.  However, no matter what you settle on, be sure to leave it as a situation where the lights are out and check on the food/feeding dish in the morning.

They do have feeding tubes/dishes for this application as well. A technique you could try is to hide the dish behind plants or hardscape.  Use a piece of tube, PVC, or something to get the food to that spot and then go from there.

Best of luck.

Check out. Nordic daybydad, some of the glasgarten offerings, or shrimp king complete. They should have less fish stuff.