Chlo Posted June 16, 2021 Share Posted June 16, 2021 I have 5 panda cories with 5 platies in a 20 gallon. It's really hard to feed the cories, because the platies always steal the food. I've tried putting floating foods in one corner and a sinking pellet in another, but the cories don't really seem to notice the food that much (they just swim past it) and the platies always find it (plus my tank is pretty open). If the cories do notice the food and take a couple bites (which is rare), the platies will find it and will nip the cories if they try to get another bite. The platies always end up overfed and so I've had to fast the tank a few times a week. I've tried feeding a lot of different foods and soaking the sinking pellets or shrimp pellets so that the cories can just eat it off the bottom, but it has to land right in front of them for them to notice it. Any suggestions? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colu Posted June 16, 2021 Share Posted June 16, 2021 Try feeding when the lights are off in the morning or last thing at night 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dwayne Brown Posted June 16, 2021 Share Posted June 16, 2021 I agree with @Colu I had the same problem with endlers Livebearers. So I just fed my pleco corys and kuhli loach at night when the light was off. So far its working great. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chlo Posted June 16, 2021 Author Share Posted June 16, 2021 On 6/16/2021 at 9:03 AM, Colu said: Try feeding when the lights are off in the morning or last thing at night On 6/16/2021 at 9:04 AM, Dwayne Brown said: I agree with @Colu I had the same problem with endlers Livebearers. So I just fed my pleco corys and kuhli loach at night when the light was off. So far its working great. Oh ok, should the room be dark too? Because when I feed them in the morning the tank light isn't on but the room light is Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colu Posted June 16, 2021 Share Posted June 16, 2021 I would try and leave the room in darkness 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dwayne Brown Posted June 16, 2021 Share Posted June 16, 2021 Yeah , when I leave the light on the endlers find all the food before the corys do. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chlo Posted June 16, 2021 Author Share Posted June 16, 2021 Ok, I'll try that tonight. Do you guys know any foods that the cories would really like? I've tried hikari sinking wafers, shrimp pellets, brine shrimp, and flakes (which they will eat if I push them down to the bottom). Would frozen bloodworms be good? I've tried feeding it once and they didn't really notice it, but they were also new to the tank and probably stressed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dwayne Brown Posted June 16, 2021 Share Posted June 16, 2021 I feed mine hikari sinking waffers and the eat the left over hikari micro pellets that sink to the bottom at night. They may not eat for a few days after getting them, so if that is the case just be patient and everything will work out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chlo Posted June 16, 2021 Author Share Posted June 16, 2021 On 6/16/2021 at 9:24 AM, Dwayne Brown said: I feed mine hikari sinking waffers and the eat the left over hikari micro pellets that sink to the bottom at night. They may not eat for a few days after getting them, so if that is the case just be patient and everything will work out. Oh ok I've had them for a few weeks now (I think) and they have been getting fatter/bigger, but one of them is pretty skinny for some reason (and I've seen him get food). His spine is also kinda bent or something for some reason, but he swims normally and everything. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Griznatch Posted June 16, 2021 Share Posted June 16, 2021 Could try some repashy at night after lights out, most fish love it. Live bearers are voracious eaters. I had Mollies as a kid, and I remember them eating so much they could hardly move. I'm guessing platies are the same. I know my female guppies will take food from my angelfish, had to move them out of the tank. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chlo Posted June 16, 2021 Author Share Posted June 16, 2021 On 6/16/2021 at 9:48 AM, Griznatch said: Could try some repashy at night after lights out, most fish love it. Live bearers are voracious eaters. I had Mollies as a kid, and I remember them eating so much they could hardly move. I'm guessing platies are the same. I know my female guppies will take food from my angelfish, had to move them out of the tank. Yeah, they also will eat anything. I've seen all of them try to eat their own poop lol Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SWilson Posted June 17, 2021 Share Posted June 17, 2021 I too have this same problem with keeping endlers livebearers and cories together. Plus I have a lot of mystery snails who compete with the cories as well. I've tried the lights off feeding option, but I couldn't quite tell if/how much that was working. I imagine it does work though. The two things that work for me are (1) overfeeding and (2) using really fine powdered foods like fry food and repashy powder. This helps the food get past the livebearers and settle into the substrate, which is where the cories sift and dig for it. I notice a lot more feeding activity from my cories down below when I feed fine powdered foods. My cories are little though (habrosus) - I dunno if that makes a difference. My cories like repashy (super green and bottom feeder), AC's EZ fry food, and frozen foods (brine shrimp, myssis shrimp, bloodworms), and Xtreme krill flake. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KaitieG Posted June 17, 2021 Share Posted June 17, 2021 I think the suggestion of feeding at night is a good one--I generally plop some sinking food in right before bed. Mine really like Repashy Community Plus and Soilent Green. They bit off big chunks of it. Mine are in with guppies (who also like the Repashy food) but they seem to get plenty to eat this way. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Goatee Posted June 17, 2021 Share Posted June 17, 2021 I’ve got a couple of tanks with corys and fish that go after the wafers. I’ve had success with Hikari mini wafers and algae wafers. The algae wafer is usually big enough to get platies full and have plenty left for corys. In another tank, I break up the algae wafer or drop a few mini wafers in different places. I aim for cracks and tighter spaces where the corys can get to it but not other fish. I also have a couple of mystery snails, so I don’t worry about overfeeding the wafers. They are all gone in less than a few hours. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chlo Posted June 18, 2021 Author Share Posted June 18, 2021 (edited) I tried feeding at night, it was mostly successful, because two of the platies found out about the food. I think I'll also try using powdered food. Do you guys think it's normal that one of the cories is smaller than the others? When I got them they were all the same size, three of them have grown pretty big but that one is still small and fairly skinny Edited June 18, 2021 by Chlo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phantom240 Posted June 19, 2021 Share Posted June 19, 2021 Perhaps my experience isn't the norm, but my cory gang knows what's up at feeding time. When they see the tetras and juvenile guppies in a feeding frenzy, they go absolutely wild and start patrolling the substrate with insane speed. They end up hoovering up the pellets that sink while everyone else is feeding, and have fat little bellies within a few minutes. Perhaps OP's cories just need to get accustomed to the tank and the feeding routine. As for cories of different sizes, my females are MUCH larger than my males. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KendraCrippen Posted June 25, 2021 Share Posted June 25, 2021 Well at least now I know I'm not the only one. What I do when I feed is distract endlers and while they a munching I'll shoot some food down to the bottom with a pipette (when feeding thawed brine or daphnia) <spelling? And the Cory's will jump on it. But for me the lights don't seem to matter because the female Betta and endlers see me and go ballistic no matter how dark. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gardenman Posted June 25, 2021 Share Posted June 25, 2021 I find the TetraColor Tropical Granules sink very quickly and enough get past my swordtails for the corys to have their fill. All my fish seem to like them also. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chlo Posted June 25, 2021 Author Share Posted June 25, 2021 On 6/25/2021 at 12:52 AM, KendraCrippen said: Well at least now I know I'm not the only one. What I do when I feed is distract endlers and while they a munching I'll shoot some food down to the bottom with a pipette (when feeding thawed brine or daphnia) <spelling? And the Cory's will jump on it. But for me the lights don't seem to matter because the female Betta and endlers see me and go ballistic no matter how dark. Yeah at first feeding in the dark worked but my platies seem to have found out, and they started hogging all the food. I found another way that gets food down to the cories quickly, which is putting the flakes or whatever I'm feeding right under the flow from my hob filter, so that it pushes the food down quickly to the bottom. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KendraCrippen Posted June 25, 2021 Share Posted June 25, 2021 I have a sponge filter but I've noticed that the top dwellers seem to like to eat in one spot so I feed them first with anything and usually that distracts them long enough to get food to the others. Flake food not so much but other things that sink a bit faster seem to get to them more readily. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DannyBWell Posted June 25, 2021 Share Posted June 25, 2021 On 6/16/2021 at 11:11 AM, Chlo said: Ok, I'll try that tonight. Do you guys know any foods that the cories would really like? I've tried hikari sinking wafers, shrimp pellets, brine shrimp, and flakes (which they will eat if I push them down to the bottom). Would frozen bloodworms be good? I've tried feeding it once and they didn't really notice it, but they were also new to the tank and probably stressed. Mine love frozen bloodworms also if you have vibra bites mine eat them like there's no tomorrow 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Penny Posted June 25, 2021 Share Posted June 25, 2021 My corys go crazy for Sera sinking wafers. Like others I feed everyone slow sinking food (i have sera pellets and the baby sera version and a variety of frozen foods) and while they're distracted i use the long angled tweezers to hide the wafers in all their caves. I have bold and fat corys that hoover up as much as they can outside before going in the caves for their main course! I just adore corys!😄 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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