I've had a beautiful dwarf gourami for about a week who appears healthy (and not blind,) but he has a severe depth perception problem when he feeds. He lunges everywhere but at the food -- an inch in front of it, to the left, to the right. He eventually manages to accidently make contact with a flake or two. Short of hand-feeding him, or overfeeding the tank to be sure he eats, do you have any suggestions for me on how or what I can feed him to be sure he doesn't starve?
Dwarf Gourami: Depth Perception Problem
- Thread starter dow
- Start date
Is he in a tank by himself? Is he always contending with other fish for food? In a cae like this, I would keep him by himself in a smaller tank so that he doesn't have to compete with other fish for food.
I would try using a feeding ring, a small one would be good. It keeps the food contained in a relatively small area, so your gourami will always know where to go to get his food. He doesn't have to go chasing after the food if the filter is moving it around the surface of the water. The ring will keep the food from moving around too much. This will help your gourami from lunging needlessly trying to eat a moving target.
Hopefully, your gourami will be able to use his feelers to recognize the ring so he knows he is very close to his food. Even though his sight is unreliable, his feelers aren't. Let us know how it all goes. Hope that helps.
I would try using a feeding ring, a small one would be good. It keeps the food contained in a relatively small area, so your gourami will always know where to go to get his food. He doesn't have to go chasing after the food if the filter is moving it around the surface of the water. The ring will keep the food from moving around too much. This will help your gourami from lunging needlessly trying to eat a moving target.
Hopefully, your gourami will be able to use his feelers to recognize the ring so he knows he is very close to his food. Even though his sight is unreliable, his feelers aren't. Let us know how it all goes. Hope that helps.
Thats an interesting problem. Many aquaratists will put them in there own tank and feed them a liquid food (i.e. fry food, green water...) you must be carfull that you don't polulute the water as it's easy to do with liquid foods. hope that helps.