"If you snooze, you lose! How to feed shy fish questi

[Citicricket]

I have a 45 gal with a few platys and veiled tetras, two gouramis and a bala shark. They all get along nicely but I'm worried about the gouramis and the shark because they just aren't really aggressive about eating and the others really chow down most of the food before the shy fish even get close. Should I just feed more at a feeding so more of it floats down? Won't that "dirty up" my tank?

[angelstiger]

Should I just feed more at a feeding so more of it floats down? Won't that "dirty up" my tank?

Yes it sure will. Fish don't need to eat as much as we think they do. In the wild fish sometimes go days without eating. Not only will overfeeding dirty your tank, but it will rot and add to the ammonia load. The rule is all food should be gone within 2 minutes. Food does however need to make it to all feeding levels of the tank. So if none is making it to the bottom, you are underfeeding. What do you have for bottom feeders? Cories? Loaches?

[ferret]

As an addition to angelstiger's post, I have known bala sharks and gouramis to pick food from the bottom, so maybe they're getting it from there.

I've never known either fish to be a particularily 'aggressive' feeder

[William]

Seems I got the freak of the lot then.

Because my largest Bala shark is extremly aggressive when it comes to food, Going so far as to attack EVERY other fish in the tank to keep them away f rom the food so he can eat.


This is hte same Bala Shark that eats entire cubes of Tubifex in a single gulp. 8O

[Crow]

You could try getting some sinker pellets. My gourami picks at those sometimes. He also eats some of the algae and picks at the plants. He's definately outcompeted by my other fish come feeding time, and it used to worry me but he seems to get enough.

Another thing I do is distract my faster fish with food on one side of the tank, and then put a little directly over my gourami. That seems to work fairly well with my 20 Gal, and should work even better in your 45 gal.

[Citicricket]

I've been using your tips (distracting the others) and I am feeding a few larger pieces that sink better than the stuff I crumble up. The bala is getting more brave now that he has been around for almost 2 weeks but the gouramis still hang around near the bottom. Apparently they are doing OK though, they look healthy.