skill

I've had my bala, and an albino rainbow shark for about 8 months now, they also are with a tiger barb that's been in for about 3 months, and an unknown catfish that i took in 2 months ago. First off my bala is perfectly healthy, he has great coloration, and has survived outbreaks of ich in my tank. But he never eats off the top of the tank.... he will eat off of the bottom only. A good friend of mine who knows a lot about fish gave me some black worms, I think they were, and told me that my bala would eat them up, sadly the rainbow shark ate all of them... I would like to introduce a variety to my bala's diet, but he will only eat sunken flakes, any suggestions?

Dino

Bala's are grazing feeders.
They rarely if ever eat on the surface, as in the wild, their food sources are not at the waters surface.
Try feeding the worms in two locations.

Dino

Debi

Skill, Dino raises a really good point. I find although my Bala boys are really vain and look at themselves in the glass all the time they are also shy and won't fight the crowd for food. I feed at both ends of the tank when feeding bloodworms and brine shrimp (they love shrimp). They are not really big eaters. Just wondering if you feed morning, night or both? :

mccreations

I wish I had that problem...my balas will eat EVERYTHING in site!! They eat at every level of the tank too!! The one will eat bloodworms right out of my fingertips!! My particular balas enjoy bloodworms (frozen but served thawed ), brine shrimp frozen but served thawed ), every so often I throw in some sinking shrimp pellets (for the 2 catfish) and the balas don't even let the pellets hit the ground...even when I "think" they are not even paying attention to the fact that I dropped a pellet or two in the tank. They swim over out of nowhere practically and gobble them up. They are crazy eating machines. LOL

Melissa