Making sure middle and bottom dwelling fish eat

[mdingrimsby]

Hi guys,
In an earlier post I asked questions about some Swordtails and potentially adding some Neon Tetras. I have a 20 gallon tank. At the advice of some people from the forum I took my Swordtails back to the LFS and purchased 6 Neon's. I currently have 2 guppies and the Neon's.

My question is this: When I feed the fish the guppies are always at the top and snatch up as much food as possible. The Neon's stay around the middle/lower half and I am worried may not be getting enough of the fish food. Is there any particular type of food or method of feeding which will allow me to make sure they get enough?

 

[Colin_T]

Don't worry too much. When the neons are hungry and have settled in, they should swim up to the surface and eat when you offer food. Make sure the food is small enough for them to eat. Neons might pick at a flake of food but they won't eat it. Crumbling the flake up a bit will make it easier for them to eat.

Unlike people and animals that use most of the food we eat to keep warm, fish take their body temperature form the surrounding environment and the food they eat gets used for swimming and growing. This means fish can go for weeks or months without food and not starve. More fish die from poor water quality caused by uneaten food, than starving.

 

[Sarah73]

Have you heard of guppy bites? And micro pellets? They are small enough for neons.

 

[Fishmanic]

I often feed flake food. If I want some flake to get to the bottom for the corys, I will take a pinch and instead of just dropping it on the top, I hold my fingers a few inches from the top and release. It rapidly sinks to the bottom. I also feed the corys sinking pellets.

 

[NickAu]

Hi

You still have soft water fish and hard water fish in the same tank

 

[Sarah73]

I feed mine shrimp pellets, algae wafers(for the bristle nose), brine shrimp, blood worms (once a week), earthworms, etc

 

[mdingrimsby]

Hi

You still have soft water fish and hard water fish in the same tank

My understanding from the last thread was that guppies would manage better than Swordtails and this would be okay. Thank you for noting this though.

Have you heard of guppy bites? And micro pellets? They are small enough for neons.

Had not heard of guppy bites. I will try these with the micro pellets.