Still trying to get my feeding right. Currently I feed twice a day with flakes and pellets for the Cory.
Neons seems to be very eager with the flakes, normally finishing most within 5 minutes. There are minor amounts left on the substrate.
Corys are very shy and it’s hard to get the pallet feed right. I’ve now adjusted to 1 or 2 max pallets a day and although they don’t normally finish in few minutes I find the pallets are normally gone next day (pallets melt to form mound of powder)
I suppose I will try to limit my feed to ensure minimal leftovers. I am thinking of skipping feed for a day in a week.
Still trying to figure out what the white fluffy flakes are. I suspect it could be decomposing flakes. They seem to accumulate daily so not really bothering to clean them for now.
I would reduce feeding to only once per day, on the days you feed; missing one or two days each week is OK, I do this. If there is upper-level fish foods (flake, etc) sitting on the substrate, too much is being fed. An adult neon tetra only needs one small flake per day for sufficient nutrition. Fish will always appear hungry (unless sick or really stuffed) and this misguides many into assuming they are not feeding enough. Fish in an aquarium do not require/use the same amount of food energy they do in the wild because they are not faced with some of the high-energy activities like predator escape and extensive searching for food. Think of it in human terms...sitting around on a couch all day requires far less energy that playing outdoor games or activities all day. And we know what results from excess food with inactivity.
The cory pellet number is difficult to explain. My non-fish neighbour once asked me how I know how much to feed, and I could not answer. It is intuitive learning I suppose. I have 41 mature cories in my 40g, and when I feed shrimp pellets I add about 8-9. These are usually gone within an hour or so. The Bug Bites I am very generous with, beecause most of these sink into the sand and the cories will spend hours filter feeeding the sand, which is healthy, natural, and well worth seeing too.