What to do when group of fish do not come to surface to eat?

D

djdk

AC Members
Sep 30, 2003
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Hi everyone,

I have 6 neons that were added to my tank on Monday and they seem to be doing well, except for the fact that they don't come to the surface to eat with the rest of my fish. If I reach in and let some flakes sink to them, they will eat it, but even then, the other fish eat it if they can. They share a 29 gallon tank with 3 zebra danios, 1 leopard danio, 6 harlequin rasboras, and 1 clown pleco.

Water is fine:
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate <5

What should I do?
 
Well not all fish are surface eaters. Most tetras in fact are water column eaters. That is why your neons eat when the flakes start to sink. Some fish will eat anywhere of course like your danios.

You can buy food that quickly starts to sink by itself. Try feeding your fish a mixture of both kinds. This will give the neons a chance to get some food before the danios come around.

Plus neons do not need a huge amount of food. They are pretty tiny fish.
 
Sometimes new fish take a little while to get used to the feeding schedule of a new tank, or they are less secure to feed aggressively until they get used to their new surroundings. I would continue to make sure some of your food gets to them, but give it some time to see if they start to be better feeders. Most likely it will only take them a week or so.
 
Agree with all the replies. IME you can 'teach' some of the fish to get their food from different areas of the tank in time. The zebras will be quick to eat so you might want to get them up to the surface first by letting some of the flakes float on the surface at i.e. the right side of the tank, then place some flakes in the water at the left side of the tank so the tetras learn to eat over at that side. This has worked well for me at least...
 
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