Feeding fish

[seaweeds]

My tank has a male beta, 2 german blue ram, 2 pearl gourami, 4 congo tetra, 2 licorice gourami, 4 celestial pearl danio, 1 boesmani rainbow, 1 hillstream, and 2 reticulated corydoras. When I feed the fish, my congo tetra are extremely fast, they eat all the pellets before it reach the bottom, german blue ram and pearl gourami are contantly going around the tank checking the bottom and eating any algea wafer or big bug pellets that drop to the bottom. If I feed brine shrimp, hillstream and corydoras cannot eat them because the tank is very big. I dropped a lot if food hoping it reach bottom but it just overfed the other fish. I think when I quarantine the fish, I introduced them to all the food and they recognized what the food look like so when I try to hide the food, they alway find them. I cannot feed the bottom dweller. Any tips for feeding bottom dweller? I dont want to overfeed the fish and spike my ammonia.

Edit: Sorry celestial pearl danio and pearl gourami not celestial pearl gourami.

 

[Colin_T]

Can you post a picture of the celestial pearl gourami and the licorice gourami?
I have never heard of a celestial pearl gourami and am interested in what they look like.

Licorice gouramis should be kept in groups in single species tanks or in tanks with small peaceful fish so they can get enough food. Congo tetras, rainbowfish and pearl gouramis will all get the food before bottom dwelling fishes or smaller less aggressive lower water fishes (like the licorice gourami). If you have to keep that combination of fish together, you need to feed the fish as much as they can eat so they let some food sink and the bottom dwelling fishes can get some food. This might cause a slight ammonia spike the first few times but the beneficial filter bacteria develop quickly, and more should grow to pick up the extra ammonia produced by more food.

Remove uneaten food after 10-15 minutes.

Do big frequent water changes and gravel cleaning when feeding more.

 

[seaweeds]

I have no problem feeding the gourami. It's the hillstream loach and corydoras that I have problem feeding because if i drop big pellets, the big fish will find them. The big fish also go after flakes. The german blue ram and pearl gourami constantly go around the tank searching for food. The german blue ram especially goes where food usually drop and sifting the sand by gulp up sand and spitting it out to get the smaller particle. I got the corydoras and hillstream to eat uneaten food but I have more problem feeding them.

 

[Lcc86]

You have some stocking issues here. Bettas and gourami really shouldn't be kept together, and some of your other fish should be kept in much bigger groups. This may be a controversial suggestion to some on here but I would suggest moving the betta and cories to a different tank altogether, I know bettas generally prefer to live alone but you'd end up with about 10 tanks if you split up all your incompatible fish, and if your betta is already used to living in a community tank then just living with peaceful cories shouldn't be an issue. It would also solve the feeding problem as you'd be able to get food to the cories more easily.

 

[Colin_T]

You can try feeding the bottom dwelling fishes at night an hour or so after the lights go out. Hopefully the upper level fishes will be asleep and the bottom dwellers can get some food.

You can try feeding frozen foods to the bottom dwellers. Frozen bloodworm (preferably irradiated), brineshrimp, daphnia, mysis shrimp and prawn can all be used to feed the fish and are available from most pet shops (in the freezer) or you can buy prawn from a supermarket seafood section or fishing store (bait section).

 

[jaylach]

If your tank is long enough you could also feed at one end for the ones getting everything and, when these fish are busy eating, feed the bottom fish on the other end of the tank.

 

[seaweeds]

Thanks for tips. I dropped pellets in when it's dark, hopefully the bottom feeders forage for it at night. These fishes are too smart. I used a pipette to deliver some pellets next to the hillstream and cory. They watched it, pretend not to noticed it, and when I walked away, they went and ate the pellets. The rams and flag fish specifically. Congo tetra never touch stuff dropped to bottom, and pearl gourami doesnt follow pellets but will eat it when it forage the sand.

My beta is king of the tank. He only eats enough when he's hungry. He knows I feed the hillstream and chase the other fishes away when pellets reach bottom. Only problem is he doesnt stay and watch the pelllets. He has some white spot near mouth so I take him out of the tank to quarantine so the flag fish and ram are jerk now. They always look for food to eat doesnt matter how much I fed them.

 

[Magnum Man]

I have a medium Kisser Gourami, in my Hillstream tank, as well as 5 Denison barbs, all in the same 55 gallon tank.. I have a large collection of Hillstream’s in this tank…
I have algae wafers I feed occasionally, that are the size of a US nickel, or about 1.5 cm… too big for the other fish to eat, until it gets soft ( over night ) but I have several foods I “dust” up, in a mortar and pestle… ( like Bug Bites ) this fine dust disperses in the water, and coats the surfaces… since the Hillstream’s are bio film eaters, this food is meant for them, they get all excited when I feed them, and rapidly start grazing on all the surfaces