Cory Cat Fish Question

[KITT]

Hi Fellow keepers and fish fans,

I am totally new to this forum but I have question that I would love opinions on. I live in the UK so when talk litres I mean uk litres. Now to the question. I have recently purchased a 240 litre tank a juwel 240 to be precise. Now after the thing cycled with a couple of fish in it I excitedly placed my cory cats, glass cats, angel fish and ancistrus, and of course harlequins, shrimps and mollies in as well. It hasn't taken long however to realize that my cory cats and the ancistrus are having a real hard time eating. Most of the food is snapped up by the other fish before any finds the bottom. My solution has been to seperate the 4 cory cats and 4 shrimps and the 1 ancistrus into my old uk 60 litre tank. I think that this tank will be big enough but does anyone feel otherwise? Also has anyone else had this problem when keeping lots of bottom feeders in a large community tank. Its all very well having bottom feeders but if they have a real hard time finding food then surely they are better of in an enviroment that suits there kind. Now they all eat at the same time and the shrimps who virtually disappeared from the 240 litre are now back in the picture, sitting about waiting for grub rather than hiding in a cave avoiding being picked of by everything else that moves @)

Kit

 

[JoeTurner14]

Hey Kitt, I'm also from the UK, and new to the site!

I find that if you feed the cory's some sinking pellets, most of the other fish will ignore it.

You could try things like cucumber for the ancistrus, with a weight to keep it on the substrate.

Joe.

 

[qazabaz]

The 60l tank is not a good alternative for cory catfish. While it isn't unreasonably small, I would recommend trying different types of food, or feeding more if necessary before resulting in moving the fish to a smaller tank.

 

[KITT]

Hi Joe,

Wow quick answer. Yeah, I have tried the sinking pellets and the baby mollies I have devour the lot!! What do you think on tank size?

Cheers,
Kit

 

[JoeTurner14]

Kit,

Tank size is good, but i'd leave your stock at that for justnow. With good quality water and a healthy diet, your fish will grow into perfect specimens within about a year, with the ample growing room you've given them.

If the pellets don't work, defrost a frozen cube of bloodworm (daphnia, brine shrimp also work) in a cup, and pour this in at feeding time. The food is spread throughout the entire tank, and alot of it will reach the substrate, therefore made avaliable for the cory's. The harlequins etc, will be distracted by the large amount of suspended food in the water. This should work for you.

Cheers,

Joe

 

[KITT]

Thanks again Joe.

I reckon that I will keep the cats in the 60 litre for now, as you said its a good size for the amount of fish. They seem pretty happy in there as well and the bigger tank can eat its self all it likes. Hows your set up going?

Kit

 

[JoeTurner14]

My tanks going great thanks, i'm in the process of re-stocking my 120 gallon. I'm hoping to get pictures up, but i cant work out how to post a new thread on the forum, like you have. It's a stupid question but could you tell me how to do it please??

Cheers, Joe

 

[komodo182]

Use a larger sinking pellet...one that the mollies cannot eat as it falls.

 

[aclockworkorange]

Use a larger sinking pellet...one that the mollies cannot eat as it falls.

Hikari makes some good bottom feeder stuff. It will be too big for a mollie to eat.

 

[KITT]

Hi Joe,

Wow thats a big tank you have, I would love to see the pics. The new thread seems to work like this: click on the forum you want to post in and once there look for the tab on the page entitled NEW THREAD. Click on thts and then you will find a page for you message with a box for you to type in. Then you can type your message and click post. Hope that helps.

Kit