How To Stop Piggy (betta) From Pinching Corys Food

I have a 36 ltr tank with a half moon Betta a few cherry shrimp and a small albino cory. Amethyst my Betta keeps eating the pellets I drop for my cory :/ I've tried hiding them and also distracting Amethyst with his food while dropping the corys food. I've tried putting the lights out as well but I've put them on to peek at him and found him in the area I put corys food in -_-
Any ideas out there I haven't thought of?
They get along swimingly otherwise and I never see the Betta being aggressive towards the cory, why would he? Having a tank buddy means he gets extra food -_-

 

I put mine in a breeder box.

You also have some stocking issues, if you'd like to discuss them

 

I have a 36 ltr tank with a half moon Betta a few cherry shrimp and a small albino cory. Amethyst my Betta keeps eating the pellets I drop for my cory :/ I've tried hiding them and also distracting Amethyst with his food while dropping the corys food. I've tried putting the lights out as well but I've put them on to peek at him and found him in the area I put corys food in -_-
Any ideas out there I haven't thought of?
They get along swimingly otherwise and I never see the Betta being aggressive towards the cory, why would he? Having a tank buddy means he gets extra food -_-

My Betta does the same thing with my Mystery snail. He follows it around until it finds something and then tries to steal it. He uses the snail like a Bloodhound. The snail has taken to folding what he finds into his lap to keep it from the fish and eating as much as he wants before moving on. I don't think you can distract a healthy active Betta when food is present.

 

I am having the same problem, the fortunate thing is with cories you can use sinking food and usually the betta leaves it alone!

 

I am having the same problem, the fortunate thing is with cories you can use sinking food and usually the betta leaves it alone!

Not my Betta -_- I think his decided iys his favorite.

 

Crumble it. The betta won't be interested in getting all the tiny bits. Corys are.designed to vacuum the substrate for them.

 

I put mine in a breeder box.

You also have some stocking issues, if you'd like to discuss them

The Cory wasn't meant for that tank, it was just Amethyst by himself but I got a handmedown 20 gallon tank and when I was told by the silly aquarium shop it was cycled I bought 3 albino corys to start with, within 3 days one had died and another wasn't looking great, I whisked the 2 survivors out and put them with my Betta, one died by the end of that day and the last one is healthy looking, that was about 6 wks ago. Amethyst likes him to much so I'm not going to put him anywhere else. Its just to hard to cycle a tank, something always goes wrong and fish start dying for me. This tank they are in no ones died so far and Amethyst has been in it 6 months

 

Cories also like to be in shoals of 6 or more. I would suggest once you get the 20 up and running you move him over there and get him some friends. He WILL be happier and Cories are absolutely adorable in their little herds.

 

You cant. I had a betta in our guppy biotope to eat the fry, but she got so fat eating them all that I removed her. No joke, she looks like she ate a marble. She's in her own tank now for a month or so, which she isn't happy about, and I'm feeding her a few pellets a day, which she REALLY isn't happy about. But bettas are predators. You put them in a community tank and theyll eat as much as they can. Theyre pigs.

 

I am having the same problem, the fortunate thing is with cories you can use sinking food and usually the betta leaves it alone!

Mine doesn't. The other day he sucked down a piece of Pleco wafer that I didn't think he could even get in his mouth. He's a pig. He'll sometimes keep pecking at a sunken shrimp pellet and seeming to chomp small pieces out of it. He steals from my snail. He would do the same thing with Cories.

 

All fish are opportunistic feeders. In the wild they never know when their next meal will come along so when they do find food they will eat all they can and then eat some more.

Our aquarium fish are no different. As long as food is there they will eat it. That is why we have to limit how often and how much food we make available to them.

Maybe you can find a way to put the cory food somewhere only the cory can go. I can't think of any way to do that because fish will find a way even if it kills them but since you know the layout of your tank maybe you can find a way.