Neons Eating All The Sinking Food!

[harlinz]

I have a 20 gal planted tank with 6 neon tetras and 4 cory cats. I am in the process of slowly adding to corys to build up their numbers. I am having difficulty feeding my community. I feed a small amount of flake food at the top for the tetras and a half of a sinking pellet broken up at the bottom for the corys. Inevitably when the neons finish they find the food at the bottom. As a group they bully away the corys from the sinking food. So I have two concerns with this. I want to ensure my corys are getting enough to eat. Also the neons eat so much that they get bloated and constipated making it dangerous to feed daily. Any thoughts of what I can try to make feeding time more successful?

 

[snazy]

Half of sinking pellet for 4 corys seems on the low side to me. Mine get more food than that and I have had them for over a year. Try getting the mini wafers that are small enough for the corys to eat at once and put your hand down in the water to soak them quickly so they fall to the bottom. This way the neons may not manage to get them on time and the corys will quicky savage them. Shouldn't neons be eating from the top only?

 

[harlinz]

I know I am convinced I have the smartest and fattest neons of all time! I am worried that if I feed a whole pellet the neons will explode, The food sinks quickly it is just the battle that commences once on the bottom that is the issue. Good idea with the mini wafers. They may be easier to distribute across the tank so the corys have a chance.

 

[snazy]

I know I am convinced I have the smartest and fattest neons of all time! I am worried that if I feed a whole pellet the neons will explode, The food sinks quickly it is just the battle that commences once on the bottom that is the issue. Good idea with the mini wafers. They may be easier to distribute across the tank so the corys have a chance.

Actually, I just thought of it. Why don't you put the wafers whole without breaking them up, the neons can't swallow them and the corys will graze on them? Or do the neons gang up around a wafer like my platies and guppies do?

 

[harlinz]

They are total thugs! The gather around and pick at the wafer and try to bully the corys away. I do feel like when my hone gourami was still alive the neons spent less time on the bottom. The whole wafer would make for a more gradual release. Maybe with time and hunger the corys will band together and have a Micheal Jackson "Bad" dance gang fight with the neons!

 

[snazy]

No, the corys get bullied away fairly quickly by any fish. They won't gang up like other fish do unless they are the only inhabitants in the tank. When I had my corys with guppies and platies, I had the same problem as yours. It was a colourful bunch fighting over a wafer with the corys the first to run away. Then I moved them to another tank but added clown loaches a few months ago so I feed mini wafers for the corys and bigger wafers for the clowns. The clowns always go for the bigger ones and the corys quicky "hoover" the small ones. I've got pygmy corys with my platies/guppies tank where the normal corys used to be and I feed them even smaller mini wafers. The platies eat some of them while they fall down to the bottom but don't seem to be able to find the tiny wafers after that and can't bunch up. If I want to distract them further from the tiny ones, I drop a big sized one and they all go there So different size wafers seems to do the trick for me.

 

[coolie]

Why don't you put the sinking pellet in at exactly the same time as the flake food, the Neons can't go both for the flakes and pellet? ou must have the hungriest Neons on the planet, mine can't be bothered taking it off the surface unless it sinks and goes near them.

 

[Electric Warrior]

My cardinals wont go anywhere near the top to feed. They will only eat in the middle column and the bottom, where they will battle it out with my apistos and brsitlenose; they aren't too bright but are pretty bold. They will even try to attack the algae wafer while bristlenose is rasping on it. The only way I can feed to to sink the flake at the same time as the pellets or frozen food (either with my hands or water filled syringe).

 

[snazy]

Yeah, I always drop the food at the same time for all the fish too, less stealing around.

 

[mossonthemoon]

I have had this sort of combination of fish and piggyness, and I have always dropped the floating food on one end of the tank then quickly dropped the sinking on the other, as the top feeders were distracted. It helped a bit. Maybe feed a bit more sinking food and spread it around so the neons won't all go to the one piece? (Or if they do the corys can go to the other.)

 

[Dazzer87]

I have black ruby barbs and glowlights in one of my tanks and I feed them flakes then drop pellets and algae waffers in after for the corys, the barbs and glowlights eat all the flakes then the small pellets whole and then attack the alage waffers till they break up as well greedy . just seems like my corys never get much of decent meal as the other fish eat literally anything and everything...

I also like above tried to be sneaky and sink a waffer in behind a load of plants etc while they are not looking but after the main food has gone they smell it or something and instantly go rummaging around in the area for it... can't win

 

[Bugdozer]

Drop the sinking flood down through a straw in the water, so it arrives on the bottom without sinking past all the tetras. If they don't know it's there, they are less likely to bully it off the bottom feeders. This is the technique I use for feeding my shrimps.

 

[harlinz]

Thanks! Glad to hear that other people have dealt with this issue. They got some shelled peas this morning and the small bits of food spread throughout the tank both sinking and floating seems to do the best. Not ideal, but at least I can see that the corys are getting some food.

 

[Livewire88]

I use a turkey baster to spray food down to the bottom of the tank, this way my corrys get plenty of food.

 

[BerryAttack]

well if you think your neons are getting fat, then feed them less and twice a day... and when feeding your bottom feeders do it when lights out.. this way the neons cant get them and the bottom feeders can. or put the pellets in when you put the flakes in.