How Can I Feed Loaches Without The Betta Getting It All?

[wodesorel]

Well, I after much consideration and talking it over the the sales associates where I bought the loaches, I bought some frozen brine shimp. I fed the betta a couple of pieces before I turned out the lights, waited 15 minutes, and added more shrimp for the loaches. I watched it all sink to the bottom. I went to do some kitty chores and take a shower - came back upstairs 45 minutes later, glanced at the tank and almost fell over. The "poor" betta looked like he had swallowed a marble! He was drifting around the gravel looking for more shrimp!

I'm trying to think of ways now to feed the loaches without the betta getting it all. I'm thinking that if I use a small terra cotta pot or saucer, and put the brine shrimp in/under that, the loaches could get in but the betta couldn't. I just don't know if they'd find the shrimp and be willing to eat like that.

Does anyone else have this kind of problem and if so, how do you get the food to the loaches?

p.s. The betta is fine - he's just a pig. (I really should have known that would happen. :smacks forehead

 

[Ginge]

Just defrost the blocks befor you put them in.

 

[wodesorel]

I did defrost them, and all the pieces sunk. The betta just figured out how to eat off the gravel. I always have to get the unpicky eaters.

 

[Bullrock74]

Well, I after much consideration and talking it over the the sales associates where I bought the loaches, I bought some frozen brine shimp. I fed the betta a couple of pieces before I turned out the lights, waited 15 minutes, and added more shrimp for the loaches. I watched it all sink to the bottom. I went to do some kitty chores and take a shower - came back upstairs 45 minutes later, glanced at the tank and almost fell over. The "poor" betta looked like he had swallowed a marble! He was drifting around the gravel looking for more shrimp!

I'm trying to think of ways now to feed the loaches without the betta getting it all. I'm thinking that if I use a small terra cotta pot or saucer, and put the brine shrimp in/under that, the loaches could get in but the betta couldn't. I just don't know if they'd find the shrimp and be willing to eat like that.

Does anyone else have this kind of problem and if so, how do you get the food to the loaches?

p.s. The betta is fine - he's just a pig. (I really should have known that would happen. :smacks forehead

Just a thought, but if there was enough light such that you could see the betta with the lights off, what made you think the betta couldn't see the shrimp on the bottom? Or, am I just missing the point of turning the lights off?

 

[wodesorel]

I turned the TV on when I got back to my room. It was dark until then.

Personally, I think bettas hunt by smell rather than by site. White brine shrimp on white coral sand? And he was moving the gravel around to get it, too. They are so difficult sometimes!

 

[Bullrock74]

Well, I after much consideration and talking it over the the sales associates where I bought the loaches, I bought some frozen brine shimp. I fed the betta a couple of pieces before I turned out the lights, waited 15 minutes, and added more shrimp for the loaches. I watched it all sink to the bottom. I went to do some kitty chores and take a shower - came back upstairs 45 minutes later, glanced at the tank and almost fell over. The "poor" betta looked like he had swallowed a marble! He was drifting around the gravel looking for more shrimp!

I'm trying to think of ways now to feed the loaches without the betta getting it all. I'm thinking that if I use a small terra cotta pot or saucer, and put the brine shrimp in/under that, the loaches could get in but the betta couldn't. I just don't know if they'd find the shrimp and be willing to eat like that.

Does anyone else have this kind of problem and if so, how do you get the food to the loaches?

p.s. The betta is fine - he's just a pig. (I really should have known that would happen. :smacks forehead

I have used a plastic cylinder to target foods to my lobster in the past. The oscar and the convicts will snatch every scrap before it can get to the aquarium floor if I don't protect it with the cylinder. The plastic cylinder I used was just the end of a gravel siphon. Somtimes I put food in the aquarium when it is dark. I have assumed the lobster could get to the food that way, but based on your betta, I wonder if the oscar and convicts are eating the food I drop in the aquarium at night? Anyway, since they are cold-blooded animals, they need very little food to remain healthy, so it is okay if they don't always get the food that is intended for them.