pamd

I have a new female betta introduced a few days ago to a six-gallon tank with three Habrosus (pygmie) Cory Cats. I know Bettas can often but not always be successfully kept with Corys and so far, so good peace-wise. However, I'm wondering how others have successfully fed them when kept together.

I'm happy to see the Betta's appetite is so good and loves any kind of food I've offered so far: Bloodworms, Atison's Betta Pro, Hikari Betta Bio-Gold, thawed frozen pea. BUT she also goes for the Corys' shrimp pellets! She usually gets there before the Corys, grabs the pellet and swims around with it in her mouth looking like a Chihuahua running around with a German Shepherd's rawhide chewy. The sight would be funny were it not for the possible serious implications. I think she's getting too much food and the Corys aren't getting enough.

An improvising friend witnessing Her Piggliness suggested dropping the shrimp pellet through a straw to the bottom of the tank while distracting her with her main dinner. The straw idea worked great -- the shrimp pellet dropped through it immediately to the bottom of the tank, so she didn't see it going down and get all excited about the chase. I left the bottom of the straw in the substrate with concealed pellet, tank lights on, while she was eating her dinner. Before removing the straw to expose the pellet, I turned off the tank lights. But she got to the pellet before the Corys even had time for an appetizer!

Would it perhaps work to try this by feeding her dinner, then removing the straw with concealed pellet to feed the Corys a couple of hours after tank lights are off? I'm figuring the Betta girl might be asleep, the pellet would be somewhat dissolved and not such an enticement, and the Corys could eat since they're supposedly more nocturnal than Bettas.

janoue

I'm not sure what to tell you. She sounds like a clever little girl. I was having a similar problem with a black molly in my community tank. So what I did is I bought one of those breeder trap things (the little square box's for isolateing baby fry) and put her in there for feeding, let her eat in there and then fed all the other fish. It worked like a charm. I'm not sure how that would stress you betta girl out, but give it a try, it could work.
J

LuvaBetta

When I was 'operating' on the girls' divider I put an overly-large piece of plastic craft mesh in to hold the bettas apart. Maybe you could separate her that way for a time, at least until the corys figure out how to get there first?

harold

I'm having the same problem with my snail (Sheldon) and betta (Harold). I tried different types of vegetables but unfortunately Sheldon is not interested. I hear soaking vegetables in garlic will entice snails so I'll be giving that a try soon. Not sure if corys are interested in veggies. I've actually been holding off feeding Harold since I have no idea how much of the algae wafer he ate.

chickadee

I will tell you how I had to do it with my Cories at first. It is kind of messy to begin with but it works. You break the pellets into a bit coarser than powder so they sink but are too small for the betta to get ahold of and carry about. The cories forage for food anyway and they do not worry about whether it is in one piece or scattered. The food went to the bottom of the tank and stayed atop the gravel and the cories ate it and the betta could not get it. Sheldon will probably not eat any veggies until they have been in the tank for more than a couple of days. Snails and a lot of catfish and plecos like the veggies to be soft and that is why a lot of us partially cook the veggies before putting them in the tank. I found that most like sweet potato or zucchini or even squash but it has to be seed free and partially cooked so that it will be of the consistency that they can easily eat it. Not enough to make it mushy but enough to make it softened. Try nuking it for about 30 seconds and then try it to the touch. If it needs more go for 15 seconds at a time until you get it where you want it. Let it cool to room temperature and let them have it.

Cories are not veggie eaters as a general rule. They eat most things and will eat some veggie stuff but generally not much and not often. I would not prepare veggies specially for the cories, they will just lay there and rot.

Rose

pamd

I might have found a solution, but the key word is *might*. I soaked the Corys' shrimp pellet (all three only get one shrimp pellet a day) plus a bit of other tropical fish food for an hour or so. It fell into little bits.

I distracted the girl betta with her dinner, plus a lot of talk while putting the soaked food into the tank. There was no big football-sized pellet for Ms. Piggly (not her real name, yet to be decided) to carry around.

The Corys were so hungry, and ate and ate without her interference.

Ms. Piggly mostly ignored the food after her dinner, but she still was interested. She's a betta and is not supposed to be a bottom feeder. She acted more like a betta princess after this. Mostly she ignored the Corys and the food on the bottom of the tank, and gave me many kissies at the front of the tank.

Barbrella

I've seen that before. LOL! Bettas are PIGS whose eyes are bigger than their stomachs and will take food wherever they can find it. So funny.

For feeding corys who have piggish tankmates, here's what I do: To feed bloodworms (or brine shrimp), I suck them up in a turkey baster or large syringe, lightly inject them among the substrate, then turn out the light. The corys love foraging for them this way.

To feed sinking shrimp pellets or wafers, also put them in just after you turn the light out.

COBettaCouple

Our Betta Sora, did that with his Cory's algae wafer the night before we had to fly out for 2 weeks so the Corys had to go to a friend and we've not gotten more since. Just didn't have time to figure out something and we were just starting to spend time on Fishlore then. I'd like to get more Corys sometime, but we don't have room in the current Betta tanks for 3 and they're all VERY used to their own tanks now.

I'm glad you've found a working solution there and it really is funny how the Bettas will carry such huge (to them) pieces of food around, unwilling to let it go.