Opaline Gourami help... A.S.A.P.!!!!!!

[GoLdFiSh_GrL]

My Opaline Gourami has had his "droppings" hanging from him for the past day! at first it was clear, and when I woke up this morning it was brown, but it still was hanging on to him. Just in case it counts, here's what i've been feeding him:

*Freeze-Dried Bloodworms
*Tetra- Min Tropical Fish Flakes

My Kissing Gourami has been eating the same thing, but he (or she) is perfectly fine. Please help! I appreciate it VERY much! :D

GoLdFiSh_GrL

[GoLdFiSh_GrL]

uh... nevermind. I just re-checked him, and he finally let go. ;)Lol! :p well, thanks anyway! Can you answer just in case it happens again, though?

[SimonWoodstock]

I'm not 100% possitive, but i think when they hang from the fish like that....it means they are constipated. This is usually from lack of variety in food. I wouldnt be too concerned about it.

Other people who know more about these things than i do can tell you for certain, but for now i wouldnt worry too much.

Maybe try getting another type of food that it will enjoy and mixing it in with feedings every once in a while.

goodluck

[SimonWoodstock]

just read your second post, i guess you posted it while i was typing mine.

i think it is pretty common for most aquariums, i think it is just from lack of variety of foods, nothing serious.

[GoLdFiSh_GrL]

i do give them variety of foods... some days i give them Tetra-Min & some days I give them bloodworms.

[cdawson]

That's not really much of a variety. How'd you like it if someone made you eat rice-a-roni and bread everyday?

[wetmanNY]

After you see them tear up chopped spinach you know they need roughage...

[dethjam316]

just as an example...i feed my gouramis (of which i have 9 of 3 different species, plus a tank of 3-week old fry) a good staple food every morning. before i go to bed each night i might feed them spirulina flakes, freeze-dried bloodworms, live brine shrimp, live blackworms, or various vegetables (they're big on spinach, romaine, and peas especially). at that time, i always throw in a couple algae discs for bottom feeders and the gouramis chew on them too. i try to vary their nighttime diet, so they don't get the same food more than one night in a row. it's not hard, because they eat anything they can suck down.

[GoLdFiSh_GrL]

i feed them frozen brine shrimp now... my opaline doesn't seem to have problems anymore...

[Dahlia]

I'd get some vegetables like the ones suggested here into their diet, too. Peas are quite easy since you can keep a frozen bag of them and dethaw a few at a time with the microwave in a small bit of water. It only takes about 10-20 seconds. Then you just squeeze them out of the skins into the tank (you may need to break them up a bit depending on how large your gourami is).

[GoLdFiSh_GrL]

really? what else would you recommend for me to feed him? He's 2" right now...

[SimonWoodstock]

My Flame Gourami will eat blanched lettuce if I give it to him in small enough pieces for it to swallow whole, along with peas. I also get a knife or something and grind up part of an algae wafer into pretty small pieces and it likes those too. Other things in it's diet are bloodworms, flakes, shrimp pellets that I break into small bits, fruit flies(when I get a chance), and I even caught him eating a betta bio-gold pellet thing that my betta didn't find quick enough.

These are foods I accumulated and tried when I got a few extra bucks to pick up something new. I wouldn't go out and buy everything at once. Just get something every once in a while that is diff. and see how it likes it. It may not realize it is supposed to eat it at first, like my Gourami was with lettuce.

[Raithan Ellis]

Originally posted by cdawson
That's not really much of a variety. How'd you like it if someone made you eat rice-a-roni and bread everyday?

Hey, at least it's not as bland as a mosquito's everyday diet.

[GoLdFiSh_GrL]

Recently, I caught him eating everything in its path. I turn off the filter when I feed them because it sucks up the food, and when he senses that, he immediately hurries to the surface. I caught him eating my Firemouth's sinking cichlid pellets! Lol!:D

[fishfood]

I occasionally feed my blue goumais blanched lettuce or blanched cabbage. A lot of people reccomend boiled peas with the casing removed for a constipated fish. Never tried that, though.

[GoLdFiSh_GrL]

ok... he's not being constipated anymore, but he poops at least 5 times a day! What's wrong with him? He seems healthy and eats normally... :confused:

[cdawson]

Gouramis do that, we had a blue male three spot that had a string of poo hangin out of him 24/7 I swear. It just got longer and longer, the next thing I knew there was another getting longer and longer and longer =)
don't be so paranoid, just vary the diet. Change the water regularily and you should be fine. But monitor the water quality, that's very important as well.

[GoLdFiSh_GrL]

i'm not being paranoid...

[funkifish]

Take a piece of leaf lettuce in a cup boil it in mic. simply put the hard stemlike part partiallly under gravel keep it there for at least a day, my blue gouramis just RIP IT UP pieces fly all over and the whole like 5-6 inch piece is only strings in less than a day then that is eaten and they nose in the gravel finding leftover bits. I also feed Nutrafin tropical fish food tetra bloodworms and they love to share sinking wafers with my corys

[GoLdFiSh_GrL]

thanks for the advice! My gouramis loved it! :D

[Dapple2]

daphnia can help get things "moving" again too. They have a slight laxative effect