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Food Aggressive Pearl Gourami


CorydorasEthan
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Hello everyone,

I have a male pearl gourami in a semi-planted 29 gallon community aquarium. He is quite peaceful most of the time. He is around 3 inches long so far, and I haven't even seen him eat any guppy fry (yet). He is even a little timid when I come up to the tank. The only problem arises when I feed the fish tank. I provide plenty of floating foods (flakes, crisps, freeze-dried bloodworms, fry food, etc. varies depending on the day) and I also provide sinking foods (pellets, Repashy gel food, algae wafers) for my bottom dwellers. The gourami gobbles up a portion of the floating foods, but then instead of eating more, he goes straight to the bottom of the tank to eat the sinking pellets, where my bristlenose pleco, SAEs, Amano shrimp, and various species of cories feed. Whenever a cory is eating nearby, he will suddenly get aggressive, chasing them and nipping/biting them until they swim off. The strange thing is he will only nip the peppered cories and albino cories, and completely ignores the pleco, SAEs, guppies, pygmy cories, and Amano shrimp.

Does anyone have any suggestions on what to do about this situation? I want him to stop picking on my cories. Any advice would be well appreciated.

Thanks.

Edited by CorydorasEthan
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I haven't tried it, but I've seen quite a few people recommend feeding corys after the lights have gone out.  They forage at night, but the other fish are less likely to find the food in the dark.

I have a similar problem in my 65, with the angelfish and rainbowfish eating off the bottom, and my solution was to plant a row of bacopa and rotala close together across one corner of the tank to form a fence, then drop the wafers down in this corner.  So far the larger fish haven't found them, but the corys and plecos don't have any trouble.

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I found that feeding chunks of Repashy (or other foods) behind my sponge filter and cabomba work to deter the pearl gourami (or stop him from finding the food). I like your idea about the fence to keep the other fish out. I have some hairgrass that I will try to do that with. I will also try the feeding after the lights go out, as that seems like a good idea too. Thanks everyone!

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I have a male and female Pearl Gourami who gets Krill Flakes, they spend the bulk of their time topside(the male typically chasing the female).

Then I wet the tip my finger with aquarium water an dip in Nano Pellets, submerse my finger, pellets immediately sink and are intercepted by the Harlequin Rasboras,

Finally, a pinch of Vibra Bites, again dipped in the aquarium which sink to the bottom for the Kuhli Loaches and Amano Shrimp.

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