how to get black neon tetra's to eat?

[heemskn]

I have a 55 gal with a turtle and a shoal of black neon tetras. And a single danio who has decided he wants to be a tetra and has joined the shoal. Problem: the turtle is very active and gets all the food before the tetra's get any. Even if I occupy the turtle with some lettuce at one end of the tank, the tetra's just don't seem interested in eating. They don't come to the surface to peck at floating alga flakes, dry tubifex worms or insect crumbles like the danio. And they swim right over sinkng shrimp pellets, which then get picked up by the ghost shrimp or the turtle. Any suggestions on how to get these tetras to eat?
They seem otherwise health, but I don't know how long they can last like this...

 

[mgamer20o0]

i would try some live food just to make sure they are eating. are you crushing the flakes up so they can fit it in their mouths?

 

[heemskn]

No, I never thought of crushing the food, since the danios mollies and gouramies that I had previously always ripped right into it, cutting it to size themselves. I will try that today. What is a good live food for picky tetras?

 

[DragonFish71]

Our black neons love brine shrimp. I keep a 1g tank that we stock fresh from our LFS once a week. You can also try the frozen cubes, just swish it in the water a few times to start it thawing and let them have at it.

 

[mgamer20o0]

daphnia is a good one white worms there are many live food options out there. the problem with brine shrimp is there really isnt much nutrition to them. when people fed baby brine shrimp to fry its not the shrimp thats nutritious its the egg sack.

with the flake food just grind it up with your fingers to make a powered. that might help the big fish wont see it as well and makes it easy for the small fish to get some.

 

[DizzCat]

None of my tetras eat pellet foods. I think its too hard for them to eat. When I give shrimp pellets to the tank, they have to wait for one of the bigger fish to munch it down, then they catch the dusty mess the other fish makes.

They may not come to the surface to eat because the turtle freaks them out? A thought. When I feed flakes, I sprinkle it in, and then swish my fingers around to get it to start sinking. If I don't, the danios will get most of it and leave the middle and bottom fish out.

 

[heemskn]

They were freaked out for the first couple of days, and swam nervously and in a tight group. Now they are more spread out and more or less ignore the turtle. They just do a little spurt to stay out of his reach if he gets within 2 inches or so. Turtle is very active searching for food all day long, but way to clumsy to catch fish or even a ghost shrimp. The shrimp are funny, they don't move for the turtle until he has his mouth wide open. Then they kick their tail and shoot backwards just far enough to stay out of his jaws, and leave the turtle wondering what happened.

Today I crumbled algae flakes and stirred the water to make them sink. The tetras were swimming below with bits of flake coming down all around them, and did not take a bite. Maybe they are shy and only eat when I am not looking, otherwise I don't know how they are surviving...