Thanks Mh. I was losing a lot of Java siphoning until I started doing this. It also makes cleaning a breeze. I just remove all the decor including plants. The dats chase the barbs here and there, but nothing major. The dats figured out the pellets were food and struck them when the barbs dropped pieces. All but 1 of the 5 seem to have the idea now that pellets are food. I don't plan on having barbs in there forever though. In a few months I'll put them out in the pond. Come fall they will be fished out and fed to my larger fish, Sadly.
Slowly my group is coming around. I've been pulling the dats out that are eating pellets well and moving them around to other tanks in hopes that they show their true stripes. This guy's the best eater and been a favorite since I got them. Even though he's not perfect stripe wise I'll keep him. The shadow stripe thing is a issue though and I hope I get a perfect 3.
Thanks much. Unfortunately that one's the same fish, shot of both sides. He just stabilizes when he eats then back to camo . Fortunately he's a hog and puts down 4 carni pellets a feeding and eats spectrum already. I hope he grows fast.