Are my corys going to starve?

I have recently bought some sinking wafers predoninatley for my 3 cory cats, they are recommended for corys and other bottom feeders and the corys seem to love them - when they get the chnace ot eat them.

The thing is the other fish all home in on the wafers and they are all gone by the time my little corys get there, and they only seem to get a little tiny go at them before the guppies and platys bully them away.

I don't want to overfeed the fish, but at the same time I don't want my corys to starve to death

Should I wait until late evening to feed the wafers as by them the greedy fish should be snoozing? Or will the poor corys be asleep too!

Any advise would be great, I have even tried putting in a little flake first for the greedy buggers and dropping the wafers whilst everyone is at the top eating the flake - but as soon as the little devils see the wafers they ignore the flake and down they all go after the wafers - buggers.

 

Do this, since catfish are usually most active at night feed your fish right before lights out, then once lights are out what say 10 minutes then drop in the wafers for your catfish and see if they eat them. That's what I do for my catfish or else the other fish eat them.

 

I'm having the same problem with my Otos and my naughtly livebearers.   So I'm just gonna move them to another tank.
That's good advice from atmmachine, plus you could try breaking up the wafers into a few pieces and putting them in various places so hopefully the Cories get at least one piece.
What kind of wafer are they, algae or general catfish wafers with meat as well as algae?

 

My cories usually leave the wafers as other fish are bigger and they chase them away but they survive on whatever is eaten. bits of food around the tank. Ive had one cory longer than any other fish in my tanks

 

You could also try breaking the wafers in half and dropping the pieces in different places. Doing this after the lights go out could help a bit.
Carol

 

When I feed the corys, I do so late in the evening about 20 minutes before lights out. In fact, that's when I feed all my fish. The flake food goes first and while the others are occupied eating that, that's when I sneak in food for the corys.....

It seems to work and judging by the plump bellies on the corys, they're certainly not starving.

 

Thanks peeps, the wafers are a vegetable mix with algae - all the fish love them - that was the problem! Lol, I am going to try feeding them later as suggested and I will let you know how it goes

Thanks again peeps - I knew I could rely on you guys and girlies

 

how do fish sleep?

 

Why not try grounding up the wafers so that the majority of em sinks to the bottom. The cory's are famous for cleaning up food that drifts down on top of plants and decorations. They don't seem to like large peices of food, and my other fish seem to ignore the smaller portions that sink to the bottom.

Just a thought

 

Cories need meat, unlike other cats that just eat algae and veggies. They would love some shrimp pellets or a catfish mix that contains meat as well as veggies.

how do fish sleep?

When fish sleep, they move very slowly on the bottom or maybe rest on a plant. While they don't close their eyes (no eyelids), they are sleeping. You can see when the lights go on that they take a moment to start swimming around as much as usual.

 

Cories need meat, unlike other cats that just eat algae and veggies.  They would love some shrimp pellets or a catfish mix that contains meat as well as veggies.

how do fish sleep?

When fish sleep, they move very slowly on the bottom or maybe rest on a plant.  While they don't close their eyes (no eyelids), they are sleeping.  You can see when the lights go on that they take a moment to start swimming around as much as usual.

I have shrimp pellets and bloodworm pellets as well as frozen bloodworms It is simply a case of the poor corys getting to it first before the other greedy so-and-so's in my tank, lol. I have just turned out the lights and I will chuck in some food for the little darlings to see if everyone else ignores it


Some fish even sleep vertically in the water with their heads pointing downwards - I read that somewhere. Most of mine however either go under the plants on on the bottom and sleep there - although there is usally someone swimming about just to be awkward

 

Ok good. I didn't know you could get bloodworm pellets.
Hope the Cories get some food this time.

 

Ok good.  I didn't know you could get bloodworm pellets.
Hope the Cories get some food this time.

It worked! The corys are going mad for the food - I guess they hadn't been getting much after all But all is well now. I got the bloodworm pellets off ebay - same as the shrimp ones, they do preffer the forzen bloodworm but the pellets are a good standby should I run out, as usual on a sunday evening when all the lfs are closed

 

I'm glad to hear! To bad that trick didn't work with MY fish! :

 

I think my fish have below average intelligence lol

 

no, your fish are normal, my fish are just WAY too smart.

 

Last weekend I got 4 corycat fish for my community tank and some HikarI sinking pellet food for them. I give them one pellet per day and when I do my other fish(8 zebra danios and a betta) start swarming it and they barely get to eat any of it since they are so timid I know they are scavengers, but are they getting enough food to get by?

BTW I feed my other fish first and they still go for the pellet. Bad fish >

 

try feeding at night with lights off

 

If its a big enough tank maybe try feeding all of them at once from opposite ends.

Although most fish seem to be inefficient eaters so there will always be scraps for the corys. Probably some for you to vacuum up as well.

 

What substrate do you have Chantal? If it is sand or so crumble the pellets. Corys are the only fish that will scavage te tiniest bits.

 

You should watch them during feeding time to make sure they are eating. And if you don't see them eating, you need to find a way to make them eat. I don't know how big the hikarI pellet is, but if it's big enough maybe you can crush them and spread it all over the tank during feeding time so it will sink and allow the cories to eat a couple of bites instead of one pellet being swarmed by all the fish.

 

I drop multiple pellets in every other day when I feed mine. The ones that my tetras and hatchet fish don't steal are often found by my cories. Most fish can survive about a week without eating. If you feed them once every other day they will be fine.

 

I feed 5-6 pellets a day and skip 1 day a week for my tank! You should probably have at least 1 pellet for 2 corys plus if you have other fish that means the other fish will eat some of the pellets.

Also you should have at least 6 corys

 

What substrate do you have Chantal? If it is sand or so crumble the pellets. Corys are the only fish that will scavage te tiniest bits.

You should watch them during feeding time to make sure they are eating. And if you don't see them eating, you need to find a way to make them eat. I don't know how big the hikarI pellet is, but if it's big enough maybe you can crush them and spread it all over the tank during feeding time so it will sink and allow the cories to eat a couple of bites instead of one pellet being swarmed by all the fish.

Thanks for the replies! I will try crushing the pellets. I have a gravel substrate but it might be ok.

I drop multiple pellets in every other day when I feed mine. The ones that my tetras and hatchet fish don't steal are often found by my cories. Most fish can survive about a week without eating. If you feed them once every other day they will be fine.

I'll try this if they aren't finding the crushed pellets.

 

I feed 5-6 pellets a day and skip 1 day a week for my tank! You should probably have at least 1 pellet for 2 corys plus if you have other fish that means the other fish will eat some of the pellets.

Also you should have at least 6 corys

Oh, ok thank you! I am planning on getting some albino corys but they never have them in stock at my aquarium store for some reason :/

 

Thanks for the replies! I will try crushing the pellets. I have a gravel substrate but it might be ok.



I'll try this if they aren't finding the crushed pellets.

They'll find the tiniest bits and show natural behaviout scavagong the whole place. Try to variate in food. They'll love it !

 

I will put flakes at the end of my filter outflow, this gets the flakes to swirl around under the water and makes my Molly have to chase them like live food. Then while they are distracted I will drop a few pellets to each Cory in the sand areas. This way they get their fill, the mystery snails also get some food, but they usually get algae wafers. No matter what I drop in the Molly will attempt to gobble it lol.

 

HI everyone,

I have a 29 gallon tank with 4 julI corydoras (though they are really false julI corys, I call them julis anyway). The other inhabitance of that tank are: 4 honey gourmis, 5 neon tetras, and 1 male guppy. I feed my corys little sinking wafers and they eat it all up... well, most of it. You see, the other fish come down to the bottom and push my corys out of the way and eat the sinking wafer! I used to be able to scare the fish away by putting my finger near them and they'd dart away and leave the corys to eat. But not anymore. They ignore my finger and gorge themselves! I try to feed them the flakes while the corys eat their wafers, but the others are more pigs than fish and gobble all their food in a minute and then go right for the Cory wafer! I'm worried that my corys aren't eating enough! I've read that they are supposed to have a healthy, plump belly (not stuffed belly, but you know what I mean). Mine do not. What should I do?

 

Try feeding your cories at night. Usually they're still active in the dark while the other fish are not.

 

You can also crush the food well before adding it into the tank. This will allow the cories to get some, and it'll encourage their natural behavior of sifting through the sand for small bits of food.

 

Try feeding your cories at night. Usually they're still active in the dark while the other fish are not.

I will try that tonight. I have thought about that, but all the things I've read about corys say they are day time fish, not nocturnal, so I didn't try. Thanks for your help!

You can also crush the food well before adding it into the tank. This will allow the cories to get some, and it'll encourage their natural behavior of sifting through the sand for small bits of food.

I have noticed that my corys don't really sift in the sand like I've read they're supposed to. I've only seen them do it really right after I've cleaned the tank. I hardly ever need to vacuum the substrate (sand obviously) because between my plants and corys there's nothing to clean up. But recently I thought I'd remove the rock caves I have and clean what's underneath and O-M-Goodness! There was a lot of uneaten food that somehow got into the caves. After that I vacuumed, but there must have been left overs that I missed because my Corys were berrying up to their eyeballs in the sand! It was so cute! I rearranged the caves after that just to give the corys more sand space!

Here is a before, and after of my tank. Picture #1 is what my tank used to be. Picture #2 is the new arraignment. I love, and I think my fish love #2 best! What do you guys think?

My 29 gallon tank!

• adh/smile
• Nov 17, 2017
• 2

4 honey gouramis
4 juli corydoras
10 neon tetras
1 male guppy
Jungle Val and Ludwigia reopens...

Rearranged my 29 gal. Tank!

• adh/smile
• Dec 2, 2017

I love the new aranement of the rocks. You can look how ugly it used to look like. Trust me...

 

Looks nice!

 

You can also get bigger pellets for the cories so the fish can't swallow them. Also as texas said feed them at night when the other fish are sleeping. I feed mine during the day only because I have 40 cories and they all push back at the fish. I use algae wafers, fish flakes, blood worms, earth worms, etc

 

Algae wafers should not be a significant part of cories' diets.

 

No ma'am they aren't. That's just a treat every other day

 

I would feed them even less.

 

You can also get bigger pellets for the cories so the fish can't swallow them. Also as texas said feed them at night when the other fish are sleeping. I feed mine during the day only because I have 40 cories and they all push back at the fish. I use algae wafers, fish flakes, blood worms, earth worms, etc

The little wafers I have now are too big for the other fish to swallow whole. They slowly "dissolve" as they sit in the water. They don't actually dissolve. That's the wrong word. More, soften up and make it easy for the fish to pick them apart. All of it is eaten so it doesn't create too much extra ammonia. I really need to get some smaller pellets though. I think that's a great idea.

 

AAAARRRRGGGGG!!!!! I'm so frustrated at my other non-cory fish!!! They keep on eating the Cory food. I tried all the methods you guys suggested and nothing seems to work. I'm now thinking of getting 4 more corys because I've read they can be more bold in larger numbers and they might stand together for their food instead of running to hide from the other fish.

 

I have 40 cories

 

Haha yes