onetwothree
Member
Hello all,
I purchased a pearl Gourami roughly 5 weeks ago. Since then, he's been very shy. I've read that it's common for them to hide a lot, especially while settling in. However, this guy basically never comes out unless he's going up for air, then goes straight back behind my more dense plants. I've never seen him eat (literally, not once), even when I drop food all around him. I've tried flake, frozen worms, sinking pellets etc, nothing.
I have my lights on 6 hours a day and have noticed that at night, when the lights go off and I'm sat next to the tank on my computer (with only the light from my monitor providing light to the room), he'll be swimming around everywhere like the boss of the tank, totally chilled, mainly because I don't think he knows I'm in the room anymore. Whenever you're in the room or the lights on, he sits in one area and doesn't move behind all the leaves.
To survive until 5 weeks in, I'm assuming he must be eating left over food from the tank floor during the night?
Isn't much in the way of floating plants in my tank now, quite a few of my plants touch the surface of the water (image attached). Could this be the cause? I heard they like a lot of cover at the top of the tank. Should I get him a friend? I've heard mixed reports about them liking/not liking same-species company etc, but I'm not sure my tank would be appropriate due to size (it's 100 litres).
Outside of this, he seems totally fine. Appearance, weight wise and functionally, he's swimming and behaving normally when I observe him at night.
Is he sick/unhappy and should I be worried about him not eating?
I purchased a pearl Gourami roughly 5 weeks ago. Since then, he's been very shy. I've read that it's common for them to hide a lot, especially while settling in. However, this guy basically never comes out unless he's going up for air, then goes straight back behind my more dense plants. I've never seen him eat (literally, not once), even when I drop food all around him. I've tried flake, frozen worms, sinking pellets etc, nothing.
I have my lights on 6 hours a day and have noticed that at night, when the lights go off and I'm sat next to the tank on my computer (with only the light from my monitor providing light to the room), he'll be swimming around everywhere like the boss of the tank, totally chilled, mainly because I don't think he knows I'm in the room anymore. Whenever you're in the room or the lights on, he sits in one area and doesn't move behind all the leaves.
To survive until 5 weeks in, I'm assuming he must be eating left over food from the tank floor during the night?
Isn't much in the way of floating plants in my tank now, quite a few of my plants touch the surface of the water (image attached). Could this be the cause? I heard they like a lot of cover at the top of the tank. Should I get him a friend? I've heard mixed reports about them liking/not liking same-species company etc, but I'm not sure my tank would be appropriate due to size (it's 100 litres).
Outside of this, he seems totally fine. Appearance, weight wise and functionally, he's swimming and behaving normally when I observe him at night.
Is he sick/unhappy and should I be worried about him not eating?