how often to vacuum/shy gourami not eating

[Flory]

Thanks to Duke, Bob, and Niko for replying to my introduction so quickly! I thought I'd ask my question again here and also ask about vacuuming.
First, gravel vacuuming and water change: how often should I do this? I see that a lot of folks do it weekly. Would every other week be sufficient? I have done it once so far (and did everything wrong, but learned from my errors!). What percentage of water change is ideal? I realize there may be many answers, but I'd like to see what the consensus is.
Then, the shy gourami question. I've recently set up my first tank, a 46-gal freshwater one, with 14 danios, 6 rainbows, 5 brilliant rasboras, 6 harlequin rasboras, 3 cory cats, 5 tiny otocinchlus cats, and 2 dwarf gouramis. The tank's been established about 6 weeks, and I've had to replace the gouramis a couple of times after getting a bullying flame male. I returned him and bought two other males, a neon and a powder blue, about 10 days ago. They are gorgeous and well grown. The neon's settled in well and eats like a horse, but the powder continues to be very shy and intimidated by the rowdiness of the other fish at feeding time. There are nice big plants and caves in the tank so he has plenty of refugia. He does spend most of his time out in the open; however, I watch him carefully but rarely see him eat anything. The others essentially vacuum up all the food within a few minutes, so I really doubt there's anything left for him to glean later. The fish get flakes in the morning and bloodworm in the evening. My question is this: should I worry about this little guy getting enough to eat? Duke suggested getting some pellet food that is sink slowly, and scattering them around the tank at different intervals. Other suggestions?
Thanks to all! Cheers, Flory

[theotheragentm]

Gravel vac every chance you get with water changes. If the Gourami hasn't eaten in a while, quarantine him if possible. Boil a pea, remove the skin, let it cool, and smash up the inside and feed. It may help relieve constipation if that is the problem. At least if the fish is separated, nothing contagious will get a chance to spread.

[ThePBM]

gouramis won't fight for food so it looks like a simple case of being put off by the other active fish

[msjinkzd]

I gravel vac every week with 20-30% water exchanges on my community tank. My invert tanks i gravel vac and change 40% of the water twice weekly.
For your shy feeder, I would try feeding small portions in different spots of the tank. If you think his appetite is an issue, try soaking his food in a little bit of garlic juice or mixing with a small amount of crushed garlic. Its a natural appetite stimulant and also causes the food to sink, perhaps he will go after it then. My gouramis also eat the cories sinking wafers so you could try dropping one of those in. Best of luck and hope he perks up for you.

[Mgamer20o0]

with water changes the more the better. 10-20% should be fine but 50% is better. you can get away with monthly gravel vacs bet again more is better. doing it weekly will keep the tank extra clean and everyone happy.

[Rbishop]

With the bio-load you mention, I would be doing 50% a week for a water change routine. Also with the nature of the fish you have, you will probably overfeed in order to get some to all. I would be vac'ing weekly.

[Reddog80p]

I do between 35-50% pwc weekly. There is really no set amount to do, all aquariums are different. Bio-load and amount fed has alot to do with how much and how often you should do pwc's. With a heavier bio-load (which you do have). I would do 35-50% weekly. Another way to tell is by doing your water testing, after a week check your NitrAte level. If it is getting close to elevated levels, you'll know you need to do a pwc, if not check it every couple days after until you get to where you know it needs to be changed. This being said, most ppl(myself included) do weekly changes knowing that the tank will stay well below elevated levels. HTH Red :)

[Flory]

Thanks very much, all, for your input. I was not sure how heavy the bioload is in my tank (I followed my fish store's advice in stocking) so that's good to know. I do check the ammonia and nitrate every week, and have never had an elevated reading, so I think it's in balance. However, I will begin doing water changes and vacuuming more often, starting today!
I've observed the powder blue dwarf gourami, who doesn't eat much, very closely. He does get food, of course, but not nearly as much as the neon, who goes after the food much more. The blue seems oblivious to the presence of food until it's falling right around him, and even then his reaction is very slow, so he gets only small bits. His other behaviors seem normal, except that sometimes he seems startled when swimming close to plants or tank walls. I wonder if perhaps he has impaired vision. His predecessor (who was fatally injured by the bully) acted this way too and I believe he had been blinded on one side. So maybe that would explain the blue's cluelessness about food and occasional erratic behavior. Have you any insight about this? He seems in fine shape otherwise, beautiful radiant color and no patches of missing scales that I can see, and his eyes appear normal to observation. I expect he'll continue to do fine since there's no bully, but I would like to figure out his situation if possible.
Have a great day, all! Cheers, Flory

[OldMan1947]

If you're not getting any nitrate, you either have a lot of plants using it up or you are doing it wrong. With that many fish and anywhere near normal feeding, you should have nitrate climbing. The exception would be if you had enough plants to intercept the nitrogen amd turn it into growth instead of nitrates. On the other hand, I would not be surprised if nitrites were at or near zero.
A way to gauge the bioload against the water changes is to keep track of your nitrates and water changes. If the nitrates are a little higher each week, you are not doing a large enough water change. If it is going down or staying the same, you are doing enough. If week to week, it is going down quickly, you could back off some.
One of the main reasons for a water change in a low tech tank is to remove nitrates and similar contaminants that we do not measure. By low tech I mean that you are not dosing fertilizers to promote rapid plant growth. If you are a plant afficionado, you may need to do water changes just to take care of fertilizer build ups that might otherwise get out of hand. In that case you should probably follow Mgamer's practice and do large frequent water changes to avoid the build up.

[Flory]

Thanks very much for the insight. I realized a couple of things: 1. I have actually been testing nitrite, not nitrate, every week, so my statement about nitrate was erroneous. I have not seen any increase in nitrite, and have not tested nitrate. I understand how the nitrogen cycle works, and have been testing for ammonia and nitrite as recommended by the fish store manager. 2. I have been adding Kent Freshwater Pro-Plant fertilizer weekly, also as recommended by the fish store. It contains sodium nitrate (doh!), magnesium sulfate, and boric acid. I've posted an avatar picture to show the plant setup. I have a large melon swordplant on the right, an Anubias on the left, and four Java ferns (one is hidden by the sword). The plants on the background are fake. Should I stop adding the fertilizer/start testing nitrate/both/neither? 3. I'm starting to see a black threadlike growth on the edges of my plants' leaves. Is this algae? Or perhaps moss that got in when I added the most recent fish? I don't pour in the new water but of course a few spores could be imported with the fish themselves. The plant food bottle says it is phosphate free and should not stimulate algae growth. But of course the strong lighting 15 hrs/day does stimulate it.
4. The powder blue dwarf gourami is still not getting much, if any, of the flake food, but goes for the bloodworms like gangbusters and sucks up several. I know he is very hungry since he is willing to enter the fray to get some. But he seems clueless about flake food and still fails to get any, even when it's raining around him. I'm getting concerned since I'll be away for 10 days starting next Wednesday, and my vacation feeder gives only flakes, not live or frozen food. Any thoughts?
Thanks again for the help! I'm very grateful.
Cheers, Flory

[msjinkzd]

I think your gourami will be ok, fish can go up to two weeks without food so he shouldn't starve in that time. Make sure you do a good water change/vac before you leave and one as soon as you get back. I would also give the vacation feeder a trial run as they have known to fail and pollute the water by overfeeding. No food is better than too much while you are away.

[Flory]

Thanks, good suggestions. I did test the feeder for several days and it worked fine. I'll have my neighbor keep an eye on it too; he's not an aquarist but can remove the feeder if it malfunctions and just feed by hand.
I've also added my fish and plant list to my signature for reference.