Greedy Fish

[Riss]

Hi.. I have a 75g community tank with 3 blue gouramis, 2 blue rams, 6 head and tail light tetras and 2 bristlenose catfish.

My situation is this: When I feed the fish, I give the gouramis and other fish flakes and give the catfish sinking algae wafers. All was well until the other fish noticed that the algae wafers were also food. Now when I drop the wafers in, the other fish all dig into it until there is nothing left.

I also put cucumber and zuchini and cooked peas in the tank, but I know this isnt adequate for the catfish. How can I make sure the catfish are eating enough, cause the other fish keep eating their algae wafers. Any suggestions with feeding? I've also tried tricking them by feeding them in a different section but that doesn't work.

Cheers  smiley*

[aznpanther98]

i dont really have to worry about my bottom feeders since my tank is planted and the plants have grown out some expecially they wisteria in the lowlevel areas and the food just drop into the plants where some of my fishes cant get to except my bottom feeders maybe if u hide it in some rocks or something another thing i did was use a tube long enought to rech the bottom and dropp the food until it drops to the bottom and see if the catfish would eat from that i got a bunch of australian rainbows in my 30 now and they're pigs drop in some flakes and it's a feeding frenzzy lol

[luvfishies]

Try feeding the bottom dwellers AFTER lights out at night. The other fish will have gone into "sleep" mode, and that will let the cats get to the pellets.

[colesea]

Get a food clip that suctions to the side of the tank. Place an algae waffer in the mid-water region of your tank so the tetras and gouramis and other mid-water feeders can gawn on that instead of going to the bottom to feed.
~~Colesea

[Vyache]

I've got a simular problem when feeding my clown loaches shrimp pellets. My bala sharks swoop in for the kill on the pellets as they fall. I deal with this in three ways. First I feed the top water floating food first and wait until the balas are stuffed. Second I feed the pellets spread out so everyone can get their own pellet in their own space. I figure if the balas want to eat off the floor thats their perogative. The more they eat the faster they will grow, so more power to them. Third, when it comes to live food like tubifex worms, I put them into a glass vase lying on its side and partially buried in the substrate. Bottom feeders seem much more comfortable in tight areas like this. At first the balas would go in too, but they eventually paniced trying to turn around and get out, now they pretty much leave the vase to the loaches.

I like colesea's idea about lights out too. If you're really concerned that they aren't getting enough to eat this sounds like the best advice. Personally I like to watch the fish eat so I've tried the other methods.

[Riss]

Thanx for all your great replys...i'll try them out when I get home as I am on holidays at the moment. Hope my boyfriend looked after them properly.

Oh well...i'll soon find out

[lizwinz]

i feed my corys algea wafers and bottom feeder wafers after i feed the other fish

i take the wafers and put them in a baggie and brake them up before i add them, it spreads the food out a bit so they can get to some of it without the other fish stealing it, before i started doing this the other fish would steal the whole wafer, this way the corys get some of it at least

--liz