IME, they're kinda shy coming to the surface. Mine will eat floating pellets once in awhile, but they always quickly go to the surface and dive back down again and make a big splash. I think by nature they are more middle and bottom type of fish, so I don't try to force them to eat at the surface. I just feed them Massivore and other high protein sinking pellets. It's better for them to eat sinking because they don't like to compete with top level fish for food. As long as they're getting pellets, I'm happy with that.