The commonly sold Kissing Gouramis are a beautiful and graceful variety of fish because of their shape and glossy pinkish white hue. They are semi aggressive fish. Their mouth is just like the name describes - designed to kiss off algae and other micro stuff from surfaces. Well, while you may think that this fish will clean up your tank, you are wrong. Its no where close to a sucker fish. The food content found on most aquarium walls, may surprisingly, not be of much interest to your Kissing Gourami. I speak this from experience.
I have always failed with these fish, as they always ended up getting weak, sickly, thin and then eventually dying. I used to keep these fish in community tanks containing goldfish, convict cichlids, angels, live bearers etc. The sad thing is, that these fish would never last. Their health would deteriorate over time and then they would die.
I would wonder as to why am I always failing with these fish. So I decided to observe this fish more closely. I purchased one from the local fish shop and put it in my pond. I fed it the regular pellets. Upon looking closer, I noticed the difficulty it faced in swallowing the pellets. I decided to overlook it, as I assumed that it will learn to swallow them in time. But even after a considerable amount of time, I found that this fish would simply spit out the pellets. It just couldn't swallow big stuff.
So I decided to try out something different. I took a portion of the pellets and gowned it to fine powder. I started feeding it powdered pellets. The powered form of pellets mostly floats at the surface forming a thin film. I saw that the kissing gourami drank it up like a smoothie. It was able to swallow the powdered form of food. In few days, it gained health, size and attitude. It even picked up fights with my Convict Cichlids, which tells you how well this fish benefited from powdered fish food.
So from all this, I have learnt that Kissing Gouramis cannot survive on big chunks of fish food. They however, thrive on powder based fish foods. If you got a kissing gourami, then do try this out and see for yourself.
Check out my eBook on The Convict Cichlid
It provides lots of valuable information on Convicts and other fish in general.
So from all this, I have learnt that Kissing Gouramis cannot survive on big chunks of fish food. They however, thrive on powder based fish foods. If you got a kissing gourami, then do try this out and see for yourself.
Check out my eBook on The Convict Cichlid
It provides lots of valuable information on Convicts and other fish in general.
