Help with suggested tankmates

I currently have a 55gallon with 2 ropefish, a pictus cat and some mollies. Im about to get rid of all the mollies cause its a pain in the a** to feed my ropefish when the mollies come and nibble the food into shreads of debree in the water. I want a fish big enough not to be eatten by the ropefish. And something that wont attack the food as much since my ropefish are very slow when trying to eat.

Also my water has a pH around 8-8.5 so i also need something that can handle it.

Any suggestions?

SoCalSunset said:

My first thought was a severum. Maybe gouramis (Moonlights, Pearls, Opalines, Gold) What are you feeding your fish? If you feed shrimp pellets, the ropefish should have enough time to eat, as your mollies won't be able to eat all the pellets right away.


HTH,
Serg

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I feed the mollies just flake food. And try to feed the ropefish frozen brine shrimp, but like i said the mollies come up and turn the piece into little microscopic pieces to pollute my tank. I have sinking shrimp pellets, but the thing is my pictus cat will eat them they second the hit the sand. Like i said its becoming a pain to feed my ropefish and the mollies gotta go. i would just have the 2 ropefish and the pictus but i want alittle more activity during the day since my ropefish are nocturnal and it seems like such a big tank for just those 3 fish. I used to have gouramis in my old tank but i really dont like them, ended up selling them to my friend.

Well i just found my mollies another home. Now its so easy to feed my ropefish since nothing attacks the food sitting on the top. They take their sweet time and find the food untouched to eat.

What about clown loaches? will these fish stay on the bottom without touching the food and get along with the pictus catfish on the bottom? Or are there any other fish thay possibiliy will only accept flake food and leave anything else untouched.