Ok, some of you have probably heard me post in some other threads about the troubles I am having getting food to my endli, so I decided to go ahead and post up a thread to get some ideas.
I currently have three fire eels (20, 27, and 28 inches), two vulture catfish (14 and 15 inches), two peacock bass (7 and 9 inches), and my endli (12 inches) in the tank. I vary the foods between a frozen tilapia/shrimp/scallop mix (that I make), frozen krill, frozen squid, live night crawlers, and Massivore pellets. Everything that can get the frozen food and night crawlers eat them, but the eels usually dominate the competition for these foods. Then, the catfish, bass, and bichir go for the pellets. The eels have recently been grabbing a few pellets here and there as well. Now, the issue I’m having is that all of my other fish eat so aggressively that the food is often gone before my bichir gets much, if any at all. He just doesn’t seem to have any sense of urgency when it comes to feeding time. Since I only feed every three days in the first place, he doesn’t get many opportunities to eat. He often gets only one or two Massivore pellets and sometimes gets nothing at all to the point that he probably only averages about three to four Massivore pellets a week. This didn’t use to be a problem because the catfish used to remain still when the lights came on and the bass were much smaller. This gave the endli plenty of time to go through and grab some pellets each feeding, but for several months now the catfish have been cleaning the food up within seconds of me feeding the tank. On top of that, I’ve tried to drop pellets right into the corner where the endli spends most of its time and the catfish figured that out very quickly so they hang out right there and grab the pellets before they even hit the bottom. I generally end up over feeding the Massivore pellets to try to get some to the endli but most of them just end up with the catfish.
Long story short, if you skipped to this point, my other fish eat all of the food leaving little to none for my “lazy” endli.
So, does anyone have any ideas to help with this? Setting up another tank is not possible for me. I fear that the best option might be to find a good home to send him to where he won’t be outcompeted for food.
I currently have three fire eels (20, 27, and 28 inches), two vulture catfish (14 and 15 inches), two peacock bass (7 and 9 inches), and my endli (12 inches) in the tank. I vary the foods between a frozen tilapia/shrimp/scallop mix (that I make), frozen krill, frozen squid, live night crawlers, and Massivore pellets. Everything that can get the frozen food and night crawlers eat them, but the eels usually dominate the competition for these foods. Then, the catfish, bass, and bichir go for the pellets. The eels have recently been grabbing a few pellets here and there as well. Now, the issue I’m having is that all of my other fish eat so aggressively that the food is often gone before my bichir gets much, if any at all. He just doesn’t seem to have any sense of urgency when it comes to feeding time. Since I only feed every three days in the first place, he doesn’t get many opportunities to eat. He often gets only one or two Massivore pellets and sometimes gets nothing at all to the point that he probably only averages about three to four Massivore pellets a week. This didn’t use to be a problem because the catfish used to remain still when the lights came on and the bass were much smaller. This gave the endli plenty of time to go through and grab some pellets each feeding, but for several months now the catfish have been cleaning the food up within seconds of me feeding the tank. On top of that, I’ve tried to drop pellets right into the corner where the endli spends most of its time and the catfish figured that out very quickly so they hang out right there and grab the pellets before they even hit the bottom. I generally end up over feeding the Massivore pellets to try to get some to the endli but most of them just end up with the catfish.
Long story short, if you skipped to this point, my other fish eat all of the food leaving little to none for my “lazy” endli.
So, does anyone have any ideas to help with this? Setting up another tank is not possible for me. I fear that the best option might be to find a good home to send him to where he won’t be outcompeted for food.