How do I change a community tank's diet?

[ImBettaThanCool]

I've been feeding my new community tank(all cycled) flake food for 3 days now. In the tank is 4 zebra danios, 3 neon tetras, and 3 platies. Ive recently noticed how messy flake food is, and I wanted to switch to pellet. The thing is, it seems they just don't want to eat the pellets, even after soaking the pellets in water for about a minute. How do I get them to change their eating habits? Is it just by repetition?

 

[myo]

Give them a little of each for a week and then slowly drop down to just pellets

 

[ImBettaThanCool]

Do you mean slowly adding in more and more pellets in each feeding of flakes and then slowly giving more pellets each time, or give them flakes a couple days, then pellets the next. And then pellets for more days than flakes until pellets everyday.

 

[myo]

Do you mean slowly adding in more and more pellets in each feeding of flakes and then slowly giving more pellets each time, or give them flakes a couple days, then pellets the next. And then pellets for more days than flakes until pellets everyday.

I’d slowly trade it out. So each day give them a little more pellets than flake. In my experience though, they’ll get hungry and eat what ever.

 

[ImBettaThanCool]

Awesome! I'll try it out. Thanks for the feedback!

 

[BBradbury]

Hello Im...

You don't need to change the diet. Gradually reduce the amount you feed, until there's very little left over. Most foods will dissolve pretty quickly in the water. So, just gradually increase your water changes to half weekly and you'll remove excess nutrients.

B