Help with new ropes

So a week ago I visited a lfs around me and saw they had 4 ropes. They had them in with kissing gourami and I saw the kissing gourami were eating the slime coat from the ropes. The ropes weren't damaged too bad because they had just been put in their new tank for an hour or so (they got new shipment that day). Originally I was going to get 3, but I decided to buy all 4 because i didn't think they would make it in that tank. Well one week later I only have 1 left, lost the other 3 within the first few days of purchase. Today I found 2 more from another store so i decided to buy them. I also bought 2 small senegal with them.

Everyone is currently in a 55g qt tank. I plan on moving them to a 125g that currently houses 3 delhezi, african butterfly fish, and african brown knife after 3 weeks as long as they are eating pellets. The one rope that survived from the first batch is not accepting pellets, but has eaten small worms. The main reason why I bought the senegals is because I've seen from other posts that sometimes fish can learn to accept pellets from other fish (that and you can never have enough bichirs).

Have any previous rope fish owners had a problem with them accepting pellets? If so how did you pellet train them? And what do you currently feed your rope fish? Any other suggestions are welcomed. Thanks in advance!

Just wanted to update my post and hopefully help someone in the future who might be in a similar scenario as me. In total I have lost 6 ropes (most of the ones I lost had red around there anus) and am left with 3 which I've had for these past few weeks. They are currently eating live black worms and seem to be doing very well. Once I run out of the last portion of black worms I plan to only offer them massivore and take it from there. Wish me luck!