Harlequin Feeding

I recently bought a small shoal of five harlequins about two weeks ago.

Specs (sorry they're vague, I'm using test strips)
tank size: 10 gallons
tank mates: 3 pygmy cory, 2 mexican dwarf crayfish, 3 nerite snails
pH: 7-8
nitrites and nitrates: 0-10 ppm
GH: 120-180 ppm
KH: 80-120 ppm

It's been a struggle to get them to eat anything; i've gone through flake food, freeze dried bloodworms, sinking pellets and wafers, and recently frozen brine ship. However, none of the fish seem interested in the food they've been given.
No one's died yet and I'm trying to keep it that way.

 

Is the tank cycled?

 

yup, I've had this tank running for a few years. Everything else is happily eating all the food the harlequins let fall to the floor

not sure if this is related to the eating issue, but i've been watching the fish and they seem to...pass out, for lack of better words. they seem to roll over and just go limp, sometimes turning a few times before righting themselves. not sure if it's the onset of a bladder issue, or if my fish are just weird.
Can't really catch it on camera, they only roll for a few seconds at a time

 

Floundering_Around you probably would have said so but are you running any CO2?

 

Nada Mucho nope, the tank is planted and is fertilized every once in a while, when I remember

 

I don't have one but I'm going to ask anyway... do you have a quarantine tank available?

 

Nada Mucho I have a five gallon with some plants and sand as substrate. Water parameters are almost exactly the same.

 

Nada Mucho I have a five gallon with some plants and sand as substrate. Water parameters are almost exactly the same.

Floundering_Around I asked for two reasons... bearing in mind I'm no expert. First if they do happen to be "sick" then isolating them from your other stock is probably a good idea. Second if they are they only ones in a quarantine tank it seems that it would be much easier to evaluate if, when, what and how much the might be eating.

Just as a personal experience I have three honey gouramis who all eat different. One will rise for anything... flake, bloodworms, brine shrimp, etc. Another one who rises slower and eats left over floating stuff from corners and edges of the tank. Another one doesn't seem like he eats at all and just forages for algae off the hardscape and substrate. I'm just wondering if maybe the Rasboras are snaking some food in a non-standard way.

Last thought is in the small tank, isolated, maybe you can prop your phone up or put it on a tripod to get some "film" of their crazy behavior. Just some thoughts sir and like I said I'm no expert but one of the first rules of troubleshooting is to isolate the problem so that's where my head is at.

 

You could try soaking some food in Garlic Guard, could help their appetite.

 

Nada Mucho I'm reluctant to try and take them out of the ten gallon; I have a piece of driftwood in the middle of the tank that would make it difficult to catch them easily, thus stressing out the rasboras more.

 

Today's feeding day (I feed every M,W,F and then fast over the weekend) so ill give them a little bit of brine shrimp. I also saw a nematode squiggling on my glass so I'm running General Cure and Melafix to get rid of any nasties, especially if the tank has parasites