My Fish Don't Know How To Share...

[Sara]

Hi All -

Sorry for all of these new threads I keep starting...

We've had our fish (2 black phantom tetras, 6 neon tetras and 4 panda cories) for about a week. They've settled in to their new home, the Bio-Spira seems to be working, and everyone seems happy...except for feeding problems...

Everytime I feed the fish, I use tropical flake for the tetras and sinking algae pellets for the cories. The problems?

(1) I don't know if they're still getting used to exploring, but none of the fish go up into the top third of the tank. This means that when I put flakes in, nobody comes to the top to get them. After a while the filter current sends food down to the bottom.

(2) Once the food finally gets into 'fish territory', the problems continue. Except for one brave neon, *ALL* of the flake food keeps getting eaten by one pushy black phantom.

(3) Because of these two problems, I have no idea how much I should be feeding the fish - because most of the instructions use time as an indicator, and our fish obviously operate on their own schedule.

So I'm hoping to find out:
(1) Why is no one hanging out in the top third of the tank?
(2) How can the other fish get their fair share of food?
(3) How can I figure out how much to feed them?

Thanks in advance!
Sara

 

[QTOFFER]

Eventually, the fish will sense you are in the room and crowd near the top waiting to be fed!
Do you have lots of hiding places? Fish will explore the open water more readily during daytime if they know that they have a nice plant to dive into if necessary.

As for feeding, I have had similar problems. If I sprinkle all the food on the surface, my danios hog it. I now sprinkle some on the surface to distract the danios and I hold a pinch of food underwater and slowly release it so the serpaes and black phantoms have a chance.

You may want to try this technique simultaneously on opposite ends of the tank so the neons can get their fair share. My black phantoms are pigs too, but I betcha they can't be on opposite sides of the tank at the same time!.

As for the cories, I drop their sinking wafers after lights out - the tetras can't eat what they can't see!

As far as amount, I don't go by time. I probably put in only 1/4 tsp of flake food per day. It's pretty hard to starve most fish!

 

[Devilishturtles]

I second what OTOFFER said. Stay around the tank and let the fish see you when you are feeding them. Pretty soon, they will come to associate you with food and they'll come looking for it. As for the corys, I feed mine at night and they make runs for the algae wafers I give them. Good Luck!

 

[Allivymar]

Also depends on the fish. Most of my fish never go to the top 1/3 of the tanks. In fact, the only ones that do are the angelfish, betta and gouramis; the loaches, plec, rams, otos, neons and flagfish all hang out below. Go figure.

I like QTOFFER's idea of offering the food differently. I'd start with that to see if it makes a diff.

 

[ostrichkiller]

i use to have that problem and i have always had my food in a drawer under the fish tank. the drawer squeeks when it is being opened so the fish have learned that when they hear that they are going to be fed. everytime i open it to even show friends what kind of food i use all the fish crowd the top and swim real close to the glass. but if i just walk up and look at them they have gotten to the point where they just don't care and swim around like i'm not there at all.

 

[Andydg]

At my place we have this timer thing that we have, we use it to turn off the power heads and filter for 20 mins. so that the flake food stays at the top and less gets wasted. After 20 mins. everything kicks back on and the left overs get stirred up and sent to the bottom of the tank. We also feed algae waffers for the corries, plecos, and bristle nose.

 

[William]

The Tetra/Molly/CAE tank in my sig has the same problem.


No one but the molly and her fry eats at the surface. Everyone else waits for the filter to knock the food down, then the black skirt tetras attack it in a fashion suitable to a horror movie. and the CAE just idly chews on his little algae wafer.


But the tetra's are getting used to eating at the surface, It has taken them months, but their getting used to it.



So it may take awhile, as long as their all getting their share [ Perhaps try sinking the flake food beneath the water with your fingers and spread it out across the tank so its not all in one place for the pushy one to horde so they get their share ] everything will turn out for the best.

 

[PlatyLady]

I have to deal with similar issues in my tank. Everyone loves the algae wafers, so I have to distract the platies and guppies with flakes or bloodworms while I strategically toss the algae wafers onto the really leafy plants.

Also, they're not really into my new BioBlend pellets just yet (they seem to sink really fast, and are a little too big to fit in most of their mouths), so I have to mix them in with other food to sort of trick the little pigs.

Some of my youngest fish don't eat at the surface yet, so I put a little food into the filter current, and it brings it down to them.

 

[Sara]

Thanks to everyone for their suggestions!

Tonight at feeding time I:
(1) threw the sinking algae wafer in one corner of the tank
(2) crunched up the flakes *in* the water all across the tank so it 'snowed' flakes, and
(3) kept some flake floating at the top

Happily, every last fish had a meal, but still no one ate the food at the top until it was picked up by the filter current and send downwards. Regardless, as long as everyone is eating, I'm happy.

Thanks again for all of your help!
Sara

 

[QTOFFER]

i use to have that problem and i have always had my food in a drawer under the fish tank. the drawer squeeks when it is being opened so the fish have learned that when they hear that they are going to be fed. everytime i open it to even show friends what kind of food i use all the fish crowd the top and swim real close to the glass. but if i just walk up and look at them they have gotten to the point where they just don't care and swim around like i'm not there at all.

Pavlov's fish???

This is a bit off-topic, but when I first went into my lfs, my eye was caught by a single attractive-looking fish in a seemingly otherwise empty tank. I asked the owner what kind of fish it was as I pointed to it. When my finger got within one inch of the glass, about a dozen fish jumped out of nowhere, clearly expecting to get fed! Scared the crap out of me for a sec!

 

[Christmasfish]

lunchtime

My fish all know suppertime. And they look for their favorite container. If the white conatiner of freeze dry bloodworms is out, only one gets excited, the yellow betta flake container still excites a few, and when they see the the(which they only started on this week) they all start pacing and freaking. We feed them twice a day unless there is some unsual begging, then they get a between meal lunch. The longer citizens get restless when we are running late from the usual time now.
They all are feed personally to keep the tank waste down during the cycle finish (nearly all are done now). We use those bamboo kabob skewers. One color coded for each tank in case there is an outbreak of something. Once in a while a betta will leave the water and grab the stick end before it can be dipped! Thank goodness they have small mouths, or we'd lose fingers!

 

[Sati]

I actually call to my fish when it's dinner time and I come to the tank, lol