Feeding Question for Bottom Feeders

[FaintingGoats]

Hi All,

I have 5 panda corydoras and 2 Dwarf Chain Loaches in my 29 gallon planted tank.  I got them about a week and a half ago and have a question about feeding them.

I have been altering between feeding them half of a frozen blood worm cube a day and a Xtreme sinking algae wafer.  When I feed them the blood worms they seem to LOVE them.  But when I drop in a wafer, no one seems to care and I usually end up taking it out of the tank after a couple of hours so it doesn't dissolve. 

The corys will kinda play with the flake and move it around but the loaches don't seem to care for it. When I take it out after hours, I don't see any nibbles or bites taken out of it.

So my questions are:
1. Should I leave the wafer in until they eat it?  Is a couple hours not enough?  I take it out to avoid it dissolving after a couple hours and don't want ammonia from it.
2.  I know I should alternate their food so they don't just get bloodworms.  Is the bottom wafer the best thing to feed them?  Is there something better for the loaches? the corys?  Should I feed them only the wafer for a week so they get a taste for it?  Are they spoiled with the blood worms?

Thank you so much in advance!!

[Biotope Biologist]

Your main problem is that both species are insectivorous and will eat plant matter as a supplement. You may have to experiment with the greens you give them, I think people have success with peas and leafy greens, but my corydoras never ate algae wafers or any greens meant for the other fish. 
 

I would vary your insect diet as question 2 asks. You can get various frozen ones and if your lfs stocks clean parasite free live foods, they will go nuts for them. 

[Flumpweesel]

I feed my corys hakari sinking wafers and tetra wafer mix without issue. Maybe hold back on the blood worms and see if they take more of an interest when they are hungry.

Mine also get pretty excited about goldfish flakes. 

[FaintingGoats]

Thank you both!  I think I will skip the blood worms for  a couple of days and see if they start eating the wafer.

I also have some frozen brine shrimp cubes I can try out to give them more variety!

[Flynn Naysmith]

I agree with everyone a high protein diet for corys is great 

[Jimmy]

Is it Xtreme sinking wafers? My fish aren’t crazy for them a lot of the time. It’s pretty common for me to have fish disinterested in prepared food after I feed say frozen bloodworms, brine or live baby brine. For me fasting my fish by skipping a feeding always increases their willingness to accept prepared food.