Getting shy pearls to eat?

SinCrisis

I recently acquired 2 Pearl Gourami's and they were very shy. They would only hide in the top left corner of my tank and do not eat. One has vanished, i didnt find a body, but theres only one left... I honestly dont know what happened to the other. I am afraid the same will happen to this one, does anyone have tips for getting the pearls to eat and acclimate better? i was told they should be kept in pairs, so i want to get another gourami for him/her not sure what gender yet, but not until i figure out how to care for them properly.

Other fish in the tank are 6 pristella, 3 balck skirts (one of which is bigger than the gourami), 1 red-eye tetra, 2 bolivian rams, and 1 oto. the tank is 46 gallons with low surface movement, just light circulation.

Byron

Have you read the profile of this fish? I think the info in it may answer your questions. Click on the shaded name, or use the second tab from the left in the blue bar at the top.

A "pair" means a male/female. Unloess you can differentiate, do not get more than 1 except for a group in a much larger aquarium.

SinCrisis

the other pearl came back, i dont know what happened but today when i went to feed it came back. The two pearls swim together and they are eating leftover bits that float there way. Yes I read the profile, twice. Your profiles are super helpful. However, not early enough, I had gotten the pearls thinking they would be ok since they were around the same size as the largest black skirt, all other fishes in the tank are smaller. The two pearls are only smaller by a tiny bit but the black skirt has long flowing fins so that may make him/her seem bigger.

Water movement at the surface is minimal the output of the filter is not overly strong, i haven't seen any fish get blown away or pushed around by the current. The tank doesnt have any floating plants yet, but the bottom is densly planted and the tank has one very large Amazon Sword that almost1.5ft tall now, probably 2 if i pulled the leaves straight up and measured.

The two pearls look almost identical, both might be females, i see no red coloration on either. I need them to eat more, as there are not much scraps left for them during feeding if they keep picking only at the small bits. Is there a way to make sure they more comfortable w/o floating plants?

Byron

It's more the other fish in the tank at this stage; gourami are shy fish especially at first. Sometimes "treat" foods like frozen daphnia or frozen bloodworms can get fish eating sooner.

SinCrisis

OK, so the pearls seemed to have gotten more comfortable, i fed them brine shrimp a couple of days ago and they came up for that and now their eating activity has slowly increased from there. One of them is displaying a red underside so i think I have 1 male and 1 female. They still hide most of the time but are more willing to eat.

Byron

They should settle in and be OK. Good to hear they are eating; "treats" often solve this problem, as long as they don't become attached solely to the treats. Some floating plants (even some stem plants allowed to float) will work to make them feel less threatened.

jeaninel

Males also will have a longer dorsal fin and the females dorsal is shorter and more rounded. If they are very young and small it may be hard to differentiate. Do you have any pics of them?

mdc928

I am no specialist by any means but I have a male and a female pearl. Both were almost solid silver when I got them from the lfs and both were very shy. Every couple of days or so I feed them frozen brine shrimp with spirulina. It took about two weeks and the male developed a red underside. Sometimes he even seems to change from reds to a dark orange color. They both have a very distinct pattern on them now as well. I think I have had them maybe a month and a half now and they are usually the first in line at feeding time.