Bettas eating bottom feeder food.

I'm having an issue with my 5 females in my 29 gallon planted.

Other fish:
6 neon tetras
1 rainbow shark
1 mystery snail
1 albino BN pleco
7 oto's
10 ghost shrimp

As you can see the vast majority of my stock are bottom dwellers. So I have to feed algae wafers and shrimp pellets.

I feed my bettas and tetras with betta pellets and topical flake at the surface and try to sneak the bottom feeder food in.

Well after they finish the food at the surface they swim down to the bottom and go after the pellets and wafers. They eat to the point of having a HUGE belly. Basically getting massively overfed.

I only put in 1 wafer broken into several prices and 2-3 pellets so I can feed the bottom dwellers. I can't really put less then that or the bettas will eat all the food made for them.

Pretty much a rock in a hard place. After my wafers are gone I'm going to switch brands and see if they go nose up. I've never had a Heath issue about it but I hate them getting that overfed as it can't be good for them.

Any ideas?

 

You may want to try blanched vegetables instead of wafers. The bettas won't be as interested in them.

 

When you drop your fish food into the water, is it floating? I mix up my fish food in a little tank water or Garlic Guard, then swoosh it into the tank, so it looks like a snowglobe. The food is distributed everywhere and the fish go nuts. If I drop wafers or pellets in, they don't even pay attention.

I'm curious though, who are you specifically trying to feed on the bottom?

 

When you drop your fish food into the water, is it floating? I mix up my fish food in a little tank water or Garlic Guard, then swoosh it into the tank, so it looks like a snowglobe. The food is distributed everywhere and the fish go nuts. If I drop wafers or pellets in, they don't even pay attention.

I'm curious though, who are you specifically trying to feed on the bottom?

My pleco/shrimp/and shark. I tend to try and feed a variety of foods.

I take about 10 betta pellets and a small pinch of flake and drop them on the surface. I take another small pinch and smash it to powder and let it swirl around for the shrimp to find in the gravel. But soon as the dust settles the bettas go right to the algae wafers.

 

Soak everything in water and swish into the tank. I think you'll see a difference. The shark should eat with the other fish. The pleco is a scavenger, the shrimp will get food, don't worry about them.

 

I will try that next time.

 

I have decided to stop feeding any sort of bottom food unless it is pulverized to dust. My bettas are starting to get super aggressive over the bits of wafer at the bottom.

My rainbow shark doesn't touch the wafers at all... but, if he comes near the location of one my most dominate female betta feels the need to nip at him. Causing him to repeatedly kick her all over the tank. Also some serious fights broke out last night between the 2 least dominant females. They tore into each other pretty badly. I ended up having to hold the problem starter in a net for about an hour until the aggression subsided.

Fast forward to today and all traces of aggression are gone the shark is back to ignoring them and the bettas are all friendly to each other.

Lesson has been learned