how to feed algae wafers?

[dudeofrude]

I've just bought some algae wafers for the first time to feed my pitbull plecs and as soon as I dropped one in all my other fish went for it, now they are all fighting for it on the bottom and my poor plecs can't get near it. Any suggestions??

 

[Tim Wheatley]

I break them into multiple parts for that reason. Gives them more targets to fight over.

Don't worry if a fish doesn't seem to get any this time, maybe they'll be the only one to get any next time. I would definitely break them up to assist though.

 

[dudeofrude]

Ok I'll give that a try thanks

 

[nategi]

Atleast for my corys i put them in right before I turn out the lights, the other fish can't find the algae wafers very well at night but the corys can easily.

 

[dudeofrude]

Yeah that's what I thought of doing. What about if I put them in the same time as the flakes and bloodworm? That way the others will be distracted?

 

[Tim Wheatley]

Probably too much food all at once.

By the way, I was born in Grimsby.

 

[McLumpy]

Yeah that's what I thought of doing. What about if I put them in the same time as the flakes and bloodworm? That way the others will be distracted?

That's what I do. I sprinkle the flakes in for the other fish and once that gets their attention, I drop the algae wafer as close as possible to my Pleco. Before I figured out this trick, my Bala Shark (RIP) and my Red Tail Shark would take turns nibbling on the wafer and my poor Pleco missed out.

 

[Kubuspuchat3k]

what you can do is install a 3/4 piece of plastic tube in the corner of your tank, anytime you would like to feed the wafers just place them in the tube and they go to the bottom without the other fish noticing. The plecos will wait at the foot of the tube to get their wafer. My friend does this when he feeds bloodworms to his stingrays, works wonders

 

[dudeofrude]

That's quite a clever idea! I'll give that a go if all else fails, thanks

 

[dudeofrude]

The same time feeding thing didn't work! The mollies just ignored the flake and went straight for the algae wafers....

 

[Tim Wheatley]

Mollies and Platies are supposed to eat Algae though I think. You could make flakes an occasional treat for them.