Getting enough food to bottomfeeders

[CAPSLOCK]

I'm kinda overstocked with my bottomfeeders on my 37 gallon (5 cories, 6 kuhlis, and 1 ~5 inch hoplo catfish). I have sinking shrimp pellets for them, as well as extra food from what falls. I try to feed some stuff in front of the filter return so more gets pushed down for my mass of bottomfeeders.

The hoplo eats both at the surface and at the bottom when there is no more left at the surface. He probably gets over 50% of the pellets I drop in there, although sometimes he just chews them into a cloud of little pellet particles that the cories can get afterwards. He might be getting a little pudgy... I'm not positive with him.

Anyone know about how many pellets you would need to feed 5 cories (assuming they got them all)? I know the kuhlis are getting enough food... they are definitely pudgy. The cories aren't chubby-how can I tell if they're getting enough to eat? They constantly scavange, but I'm not sure how much they really get.

 

[Cutlass]

They're probably getting more food than you think, but maybe try switching to a larger food pellet. Try getting tablets the size of a dime or so. I don't know how big the Hoplo's mouth is, but he may just take one or two tablets and concentrate on eating those, leaving the other fish to share their own tablets.

 

[revfred]

I use TetraMin's bottom feeder tablets. About 4 would do your population every other day.

 

[svetlana]

I see my upside down cory very rarely. On some occasions he does swim out from his java moss if he feels worms passing by him. Most of the time I have no idea what he eats but I'm sure he gets bigger - judging by his sometimes protruding tail and his rare appearances (he is nocturnal and very timid). I worried for sometimes and then gave up. 6 months and he's alive and grows. Well...
Do not worry about cories (rythm!).
My daytime cory thrives on live worms which are food for my dwarf puffers. He is getting very exited and tries to eat them all but in awkward kind of way. He misses most of them whereas the puffers neatly slurp them in like they are not worms but some kind of pasta. All other fishies are enjoying the worms too

 

[NoDeltaH2O]

A typical fish's stomach is the size of his eye. An eyeful of food per day per fish is plenty to keep them healthy. How many cory eyes can you fit into a sinking pellet? If your one big bottom feeder is significantly larger than the others, it might be a good idea to separate him so that you don;t have to overfeed the tank to make sure the smaller guys get food. This happened when my synodontis euruptus outgrew the cory tankmates.

 

[CAPSLOCK]

They're all probably getting enough then. I'll stop worrying about them. Thanks for the suggestions.

Oh, he's definitely significantly bigger than the others, maybe 4-5 times the size of the larger cories, he could swallow the smaller cories. But they all get along and I've got no where to seperate him to, even if I wanted to.

I'll have to see if I can find TetraMin tablets... I think they could use the variety. The tank gets frozen food and freeze dried bloodworms occasionally, but the angels tend to get most of it... especially the bloodworms (which float).

I honestly don't believe that a fish stomach is the size of the eye. I'm sure I (and several other people) would have exploded fish if that were the case. Their mouths are bigger than their eyes... why have a bigger mouth than stomach? Plus, they have a lot of room in their bodies... if their stomach is the size of their eye, then they sure don't need much for a digestive tract. I've seen fish guts, they're sure thicker than the eye... again not necessary if the stomach is that small. *I just re-read that, it kind of sounds like an attack... it isn't, it's just several reasons.*