How to feed cories around "ravenous" platies

mandimoron

mandimoron

raving platy fangirl
Oct 2, 2005
340
0
0
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Toronto, Ontario
perturbedmango.net
Hi, hi, newbie fish owner here. I have a concern about feeding-- apologies in advance if it's a stupid question.

My tank has been home to a group of five platies for a while now, but just yesterday I decided to bring home some panda corydoras catfish. I've always loved catfish, and was delighted to find some that were small enough for my tank and good companions for my platies. Everyone in the tank seems to be getting on splendidly, but I do have one small concern. How do I make sure that my catfish are getting all the food they need when they live with a bunch of fish that seem to always think they're starving? I tried to plan ahead by purchasing some sinking pellet food made especially for catfish, but my platies have taken a liking to it. After finishing off their flake, the platies have learned to scan the bottom of the tank for yummy pellet desserts, leaving my catfish to sift through gravel and scavenge for leftovers.

Will my pandas eventually learn to pounce on their food and nibble away as quickly as my platies do? Or do I need to be a little more proactive in solving the problem?
 
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you might want to try freeze dried or frozen live foods such as blood worms or brine shrimp to feed your fish with. IF you defrost either in a small cup of your aquarium water and then poor them in once defrosted theres a good chance that your corys will be able to eat. You could also buy a small turkey baster or medicine dropper and squeeze a little bit of food soaked in water to the corys. GOOD LUCK!
 
I feed my corys after the lights go off at night. No fish get their pellets.
 
I drop in a sinking pellet at night also. The cats are pretty skittish, so, mostly stay inside their little house during daylight.
Corys are scavengers, so they are going to sift through the substrate anyhow.
 
You could get a piece of PVC pipe cut long enough to reach the bottom of you aquarium, place it in and drop the food to the bottom through it. The platies may not know it's there if they can't see it falling...You could also feed through it first, then feed the platies so while they're busy eating higher up, the cories could have a chance to eat on the bottom.
 
The PVC is a good idea, the problem is they could still smell/sense it though. I used to have that prob too. I would either 1) feed at night when Platies would calm down a bit 2) use a turkey baster or some other suction based device and shoot it down where the platies were (they were scared at first but then figured it out) or 3) feed the platies and then pour the food in and let it sink to the bottom while the platies were eating their flakes or whatever. Anyway, hope this helps and good luck!
 
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