My betta keeps eating bottom feeder tablets

My betta fish, Dracula, previously lived alone in his 10 gallon tank and we had no issues when introducing his new tankmates- 3 loaches. now, everytime i drop a bottom feeder pellet in for them, he camps by it and eats to the point of a round belly! how do i get him to stop, or how can i feed my loaches without him eating their food?

 

What kind of loaches are they?

You can try.
Go to home depot find some pvc piping. Try to create an L shape that has a wide opening, distract th betta with his meal, drop the loach food down the tube. Its not percect , imagining issues with it with my loaches, but its worth a try.

Onother idea= theres a pvc with 3 openings. leave one opening facing up. use somthing, even you hands, to direct the loach food into the top hole ,

 

Placing food in a pipe or hide is a good idea. I would try feeding the loaches at night when light is out too.

 

Feed at opposite ends of the aquarium. Give sinking wafers to the loaches, then distract your betta on the opposite side of the aquarium by feeding him at the surface. Feed the betta one pellet/flake/food of choice at a time to keep him distracted for longer and give the loaches more time to eat. If you manage to form a feeding routine with this, he may even ignore the wafers entirely later down the line.

Bettas are typically surface feeders, so given the choice between feeding at the bottom or feeding at the surface, he is more likely to opt for the surface. However, I realize this is not a universal and every betta is different. I believe it's worth giving a shot thoughif you've got the time to do so, I do it myself in my community tanks (although for different reasons, my community fish steal my bettas food).

As others have mentioned, feeding at night may be a good option as well!

 

What kind of loaches are they?

You can try.
Go to home depot find some pvc piping. Try to create an L shape that has a wide opening, distract th betta with his meal, drop the loach food down the tube. Its not percect , imagining issues with it with my loaches, but its worth a try.

Onother idea= theres a pvc with 3 openings. leave one opening facing up. use somthing, even you hands, to direct the loach food into the top hole ,

they’re black kuhli loaches! i’ll have to try this, thank u!!

 

Kuhli loaches (or Java loaches in this case) will happily feed at night. The only drawback is that you will see them less often. I usually only see mine when they sense that food is present.

 

I have same issue w/ my betta, except I have a snail instead of loaches. The first time the betta didn't know the wafer was in the tank so the snail ate it, then the second time the snail & betta were both eating/pecking at it, now the snail doesn't even get a chance & the wafer is gone in a few minutes! The wafer is almost bigger than the betta! He gets a big belly after! So I fast him for a couple days.

Maybe I should drop the wafer in front of the snail when he's skimming along the bottom so he at least as a chance at it before the betta eats it all?

 

I have same issue w/ my betta, except I have a snail instead of loaches. The first time the betta didn't know the wafer was in the tank so the snail ate it, then the second time the snail & betta were both eating/pecking at it, now the snail doesn't even get a chance & the wafer is gone in a few minutes! The wafer is almost bigger than the betta! He gets a big belly after! So I fast him for a couple days.

Maybe I should drop the wafer in front of the snail when he's skimming along the bottom so he at least as a chance at it before the betta eats it all?

what i started doing was feeding the betta first, and after he eats i drop in the pellets and turn the lights off. my loaches are nocturnal so this gives them a significantly better chance to find the pellet before my betta does