Feeding Cories w/ Greedy Danios in the Tank

TPIRman

TPIRman

Fishkeeping Yellow Belt
Mar 5, 2004
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New York, NY
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Hi there,

This is an old problem, but I'm wondering if there are any new/novel solutions out there. I have five panda cories in a tank that also includes four pearl danios (soon to be six -- that's the plan, at least). Feeding time is a challenge. Because the danios are so fast, they head to the bottom soon after eating their fill from the top, and snatch away what they can from the cories.

The two most common solutions I've heard are A) to distract/fill up the top-dwellers with flake food while dropping a pellet down to the bottom and B) feed the bottom-dwellers after lights out.

The trouble I've encountered is that the danios eat their food so quickly that it's less than a minute before they head down to the bottom for those other goodies they smell. They also seem undeterred by the lights-out tactic -- a midnight snack suits them just fine.

The cories are usually able to grab a few scraps, so I'm not terribly worried about them. The greater concern is that in order to make sure that the cories get anything, I have to put a good amount of food on the bottom. What ends up happening is that the cories get a bit, but the danios get way too much -- they look more like hatchetfish by the time they're done. I'm more concerned about overfeeding the danios than underfeeding the cories.

Any ideas?

Thanks in advance,
John
 
I have very fast adult harlequins...so for my corys/pleco i throw some live black worms or brine shrimp on one side let the fish go at it... and dump a bunch on the ground on th eopposite side.
blackworms can hang out in th egravel and the brine shrimp are good because they'll swim around and hid and give the fish somethign to discover later on...'
i always see my corys eatingthe worms like spaghetti...
an dof course the fish dont fuss with the wafers....
its just that sly ghost shrimp always trying to drag one back to his cave...of course pleco puts a stop to that
 
Originally posted by downloader
just get some sinking pellets, the're too hard for the danios to eat.
Click to expand...
I wish someone would tell the danios! :p They nip away at the Hikari pellets I put in, and shove the cories aside in the process.

Thanks for the strategic feeding tips, powrslave. I'll outsmart those danios yet...
 
Cyphrinids can be rather aggressive about food. My goldfish and koi always try to steal the algae biscuit I feed to my pleco, however the pleco won't let that get by. He charges into the feeding frenzy and snatches the biscuit out of the middle of it!

Here's a thought, get some Tetra Mini Cichlid pellets. THey're large enough that your Danios will take a while longer to swallow them than flakes, plus they float for about 30 seconds before sinking. They may make a better distraction for your danios than flakes.
 
Also cories are still active at night, as most catfish are. So why not try dropping the sinking pellets in after lights out.
 
As I said in the original post, I've tried feeding at night. The danios find the pellet regardless of how dark it is.

QCppg, great idea. I'm going to try it ASAP -- I've noticed that they're willing to work on something big even when there's something else available. Like when I feed them pieces of a thawed pea, often one of them gets a medium-sized chunk and swims around with it rather than eating all the more manageable pieces floating around. I love your pleco story, BTW -- I'd love to see him tell those koi who's boss!
 
You could also try feeding something like tetramin granules. I think they are great for bottom smaller bottom feeders like cories. You can hold some under water so they sink, and then spread them around so everyone gets a bit.
 
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