Dwarf Gourami Questions/Observations

[Garrett]

So I have, as my sig shows, 2 dwarfs in a 10g with a couple of albino corys for company. I do frequent water changes to be on the safe side, but they seem to be fine in there and have really gotten their color over the last couple of weeks. The tank's pretty well planted, and has a couple of other decorations to hide around. I don't use a lamp on the tank, it's in my office and has good ambient light for 14-16 hours of the day. Fish and plants don't seem to mind.

Anyway, on to the questions. I had read here that feeding cucumber slices to your fish was a good treat for them, and seeing how A: I'd done the typical male thing when at the grocery store and bought too many and B: I generally try and treat my pets whenever possible, I put a couple of slices in my 20g and one fairly large one in the 10 last night before bed. We were out of the house all day today, and when I got home to check on the tanks, the two in the community tank hadn't really been nibbled on...while the one in the gourami tank was absolutely demolished. It had a bit of a ring left around the skin, but we're talking like a ring of cucumber.

Clearly the wonder twins enjoyed their treat.

But, I don't want to overdo it. Is it okay to feed them a cucumber like that often? Should I remove the seeds or skin? Are they going to regulate themselves or overeat on something my wife and I generally pull out of our salads?

Questions, questions!

Also, is there any way to sex them reliably? I've read that the females are generally less colorful, but I've also heard there's differences in their fins. Any definitive answer on that one?

[DrNic]

You can feed your fish cucumber or zucchini once in a while. I wouldn't keep it in the tank all the time however as it could cause too much dissolved organics in your water.

You should try to see which fish are eating it though. If the gouramis are eating it put it in during the day. If the bottom feeders are eating it though you might want to only put it in at night for optimal consumption.

As for sexing gouramis, the best way that I've been able to use is to look at the dorsal fin. If it's round in the back it's likely a female. If it's pointed in the back it's likely a male. There are exceptions to this however.

[Little Embers]

Should I remove the seeds or skin?
I always remove the skin and seeds when feeding cucumber or anything like that...the seeds may cause digestive problems if they eat them and the skin can be too tough.

[VoidParadigm]

Dwarf Gourami females are almost silver in color. The pointed fin idea isn't reliable with them. The pointed fin way of sexing works better with species like the 3-spot (Blue, Gold, etc.) To my knowledge, at least.

[rich311k]

Without seeing them I would imagine the fish are both males, females are just about impossible to find in a store. I feed veggies twice a week to my tanks with herbivores. I generally remove the seeds, nuke for 15 seconds and then feed.

[Garrett]

Yeah, they're both males, both by color and by fin. It's all good, I was mostly curious on that score.

I'll de-seed the cucumber next time, doesn't strike me as overly difficult. It's definitely the gouramis, I left a small piece in there last night as a test and, aside from a few nibbles, it wasn't touched.