Urgent, What To Do With Cuckoo?

[katatoniq]

Hi guys. I have three baby cuckoos (about 1.5cm long) in a mbuna tank with 6 pundamilia nyererei which are also around the same age but have grown much bigger now (about 4cm). The cuckoos keep getting picked on and i witnessed a pretty severe mauling by the biggest nyererei. Is there anything I should be doing to get these guys to grow nice and big so they can be less of an easy target? I have been feeding a mixture of brine shrimp, flakes, spirulina flakes and pellets, but I have never witnessed the catfish eat anything. They stick to the caves with the lights on and really just avoid everything in the tank until night when they go exploring a little. I am scared they aren't eating at all and won't grow...

So really my questions are: 1, is there any way to get them to eat better, or b, should I take them out of the community and feed them up or put them in some sort of exclusive zone in the tank?

I am completely new to fishkeeping so any advice is GREAT. Cheers.

 

[katatoniq]

bump!

 

[MartinS]

Have you tried feeding after lights out? As you have already noted, they come out at night so whilst they are small, add some sinking food about an hour after lights out (to give the cichlids time to settle down) and see if they feed. If so, keep this up until they start putting on some weight. If the beating continue though, you may want to consider separating them until sizes are a bit more equal, nit that will guarantee things will change.
HTH
Martin