Dwarf gouramis are omnivores and need a balanced plant and animal matter diet. You can feed dwarf gouramis high-quality flakes, pellets, and boiled veggies such as spinach, lettuce, etc. Live, frozen, or freeze-dried food such as brine shrimp, bloodworms, etc., are also suitable for dwarf gouramis.
It’s essential to ensure that dwarf gouramis get a diverse and balanced meal to meet their dietary requirements. So let’s talk about this in more detail.
Ideal Diet Of Dwarf Gouramis In Aquariums
Dwarf gouramis aren’t picky eaters. So they’re easy to feed in captivity as they eat most food items.
However, it’s best to feed them a diet that closely resembles what they eat in their natural habitat.
A well-balanced diet can help increase their vibrancy and fertility by stimulating spawning behavior.
Given below are the different types of foods ideal for dwarf gouramis.
Packaged Food
The ideal staple diet for dwarf gouramis is high-quality commercial flakes and pellets.
There are numerous types of flakes available in the market.
You can select the one that provides maximum nutrition to your fish.
High-quality algae flakes can be used as a dietary staple for dwarf gouramis.
The only disadvantage with flakes is that they sink quickly to the tank’s bottom.
So if the uneaten flakes aren’t removed immediately, they can contaminate the water.
Other than flakes, pellets are suitable for dwarf gouramis as they look more natural than other food.
Vegetable pellets and flakes are best to induce spawning among dwarf gouramis.
So you can increase the vegetable content in their diet without changing the balance of a healthy diet for successful breeding.
Live Food
Live food is an excellent choice for dwarf gouramis due to its high nutritional value.
Live food also helps enhance coloration, bring out the natural predatory behavior, and condition breeding pairs.
However, you should be careful in feeding live food as it can contain harmful parasites and bacteria that can easily get transmitted to your healthy fish.
You should avoid catching live food from the wild and feeding it to dwarf gouramis.
Instead, purchase live food from a reputed store. Feed the live food within 3 to 4 days of its purchase.
Some of the live food that dwarf gouramis can eat are:
- Brine shrimp,
- Mosquito larvae,
- Bloodworms,
- Daphnia,
- Mysis shrimp, etc.
Frozen And Freeze-Dried Food
Frozen and freeze-dried food is another good alternative for feeding dwarf gouramis if you don’t wish to take the risk of feeding live food.
Both these foods contain the essential nutrients required by dwarf gouramis.
These foods are also not expensive, and neither do they require special storage.
The biggest advantage of feeding frozen food is that it contains the same nutritional value as live food.
Frozen food like brine shrimp, mysis shrimp, bloodworms, tubifex worms, and artemia are meat-based foods that are healthy for dwarf gouramis.
The only thing to remember is that you need to thaw the frozen food before feeding it to dwarf gouramis.
If the food is frozen, it takes a longer time to digest.
Similarly, freeze-dried food needs to be soaked in warm water before feeding it to your fish.
You also need to store the freeze-dried food in a dry and cool environment to maintain its quality.
You can feed frozen and freeze-dried food twice or thrice a week to dwarf gouramis along with their staple diet for healthy development.
Veggies
Dwarf gouramis are omnivores and need plant matter along with meat in their daily diet.
Veggies contain the essential vitamins and minerals required for the optimum growth of dwarf gouramis.
You can feed veggies such as spinach, lettuce, peas, and zucchini to dwarf gouramis.
You need to boil the veggies to soften them and then cut them into small pieces before feeding them to your fish.
How Often Should You Feed Dwarf Gouramis?
You should feed dwarf gouramis twice a day. It’s best to set a time and feed your fish at the same time every day.
This will ensure that your fish gets enough nutrition and energy to grow.
It’s vital to feed dwarf gouramis a varied diet so that they remain happy and active throughout their life.
Feed them as much as they can consume in 2 to 3 minutes.
Remember to remove the leftover food immediately so that the tank water doesn’t get contaminated.
It’s also equally important not to overfeed the dwarf gouramis.
Overfeeding can lead to improper digestion, leading to a polluted tank as fish produce more waste than usual.
Dwarf gouramis can also suffer from obesity and other adverse effects of overfeeding.
What Do Dwarf Gouramis Eat In The Wild?
Dwarf gouramis are omnivores. They eat plant as well as animal matter in their natural environment.
Their diet mainly depends on what they find around them that can easily fit in their tiny mouth.
In the wild, dwarf gouramis primarily feed on a variety of small insects, larvae, and other tiny planktonic organisms from the water’s surface.
They also graze on algae and other plant matter.
How Long Can Dwarf Gouramis Survive Without Food?
Dwarf gouramis can survive between 3 days to around a week without food.
Occasionally skipping a few meals won’t make much of a difference to adult dwarf gouramis.
However, it’s not advisable to keep dwarf gouramis without any food for a longer duration.
The absence of food can cause stress and weaken their immune system leading to sickness.
Dwarf gouramis can then lose their appetite and refuse to eat altogether. If left unattended, it can be fatal.
Related Questions
Do dwarf gouramis eat shrimp?
Dwarf gouramis can eat shrimp if they fit in their mouth. Small shrimp, like cherry shrimp, are easy prey for dwarf gouramis.
On the contrary, larger shrimp like Amano shrimp can survive in a dwarf gourami tank if you provide plenty of hiding spots.
Do dwarf gouramis eat snails?
Dwarf gouramis can eat tiny snails occasionally if they’re hungry.
However, they don’t swim down to the bottom of the tank to hunt snails because snails aren’t their primary food source.
Do dwarf gouramis eat neon tetras?
Dwarf gouramis don’t eat neon tetras as they’re unlikely to fit in their mouth.
Neon tetras are also fast swimmers and usually don’t fall prey to dwarf gouramis.
